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Dr. Bryan Robinson, PhD, 31 Clayton St, Asheville, NC 28801 828-252-7202 www.bryanrobinsononline.com (as of 5/3/15)
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Abstract
The Internal Family System's Model proposes that individuals led by reactive firefighter behavior are in direct contrast to those who are Self-led individuals. However, this hypothesis was yet to be empirically tested until the present study examined Self-leadership as it related to a specific type of firefighter behavior: that of workaholism. A sample of 109 respondents completed The Self-Leadership Scale, Work Addiction Risk Test, and the Job Burnout Scale. As expected, a positive relationship was found between workaholism and burnout and an inverse relationship was found between Self-leadership and the firefighter behavior of workaholism. Moreover, there was a statistically significant difference between workaholics and non- workaholics on both Self-leadership and burnout, workaholics having lower mean Self-leadership scores and higher mean job burnout scores than non- workaholics. Implications of these findings for the Internal Family Systems Model were discussed.
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This article presents an empirical study to determine if fighterfighter-led individuals are in direct contrast to Self-led individuals, specifically when relating to workaholism. The authors present a study of 109 participants to determine if there was a statistically significant difference between those exhibiting workaholism versus those who do not. The article begins with a brief discussion of Firefighters, including how they become activated, how they can be either collaborative or polarized with Managers, and their role in helping an individual to function, while also causing problem behaviors. A description of Self-leadership is also presented. Next, the authors discuss the concept of workaholism as an addiction and the impact on the person and their family. The study involved 109 participants who were either graduate students or professionals. The population was varied with respect to gender, marital status, educational background, and ethnicity. The participants were given a demographic form, the Work Addiction Risk Test (WART), a 25-item inventory that measures work patterns that signify addiction, the Self-Leadership scale, which measures Self qualities, and the Job Burnout Scale, which measures physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion. Based on the responses to the WART inventory, the population was split into two groups, workaholics and non-workaholics. Data were screened for outliers, normality of distribution, and homoegeneity between groups Basic statistics, a two-group MANOVA, univariate t-tests, regression analysis, and variance inflation factors were calculated. The results of the study showed that workaholics not only have a higher chance of burnout, but are less Self-led than non-workaholics. The higher the Self-led results, the more likely that Firefighter behaviors were reduced. The results as a whole were as predicted, with the exception of a positive correlation between compulsive tendencies and Self-leadership. The authors explain this by pointing out that compulsivity includes within it positive traits such as tenacity, strength, competence and confidence, all Self-energy characteristics. While this study was small in size and based on self-reported data, it may provide an avenue for future research. For researchers, this paper provides a solid methodology, as well as potential research avenues, as this study only focused on one particular Firefighter behavior, of which there are many others to examine. Additionally, since those individuals who were Self-led showed lower rates of burnout, this paper may be beneficial for business leaders and academic administrators. The results suggest that introducing Self-accessing techniques may benefit not only the employees, but also the business or institution as a whole. Clinicians, especially those working with clients who exhibit workaholism, may wish to read this to utilize Self-accessing techniques to reduce the Firefighter behavior in those individuals.