Taking Measure of Work
A Guide to Validated Scales for
Organizational Research and
Diagnosis
Author: Dail L. Fields
SYNOPSIS
Synopsis of the Following Chapters
Chapter 1 – Job Satisfaction
Chapter 2 – Organizational Commitment
Chapter 3 – Job Characteristics
Chapter 4 – Job Stress
Chapter 5 – Job Roles
Chapter 7 – Work-Family Conflict
Chapter 8 – Person-Organization Fit
Chapter 10 – Workplace Values
Job Satisfaction
Defined as an employee’s affective
reactions to a job based on comparing
actual outcomes with desired outcomes.
Employees expect their job to provide a
mix of features (e.g., pay, promotion,
autonomy for which the employee has
certain preferential values.
Job Satisfaction (cont’d)
Measures of job satisfaction may assess
global satisfaction with a job or satisfaction
with key aspects of the job (e.g. pay,
supervision, promotion).
Job satisfaction can be measured by using
a series of surveys.
Extensive amounts of surveys are
provided from pages 5 through 42.
Job Satisfaction (cont’d)
Recommended Surveys:
– Overall Job Satisfaction (p. 5)
– Job in General Scale (p. 9)
– Overall Job Satisfaction (p. 11)
– Job Satisfaction Survey (p. 14)
– Job Perception Scale (p. 17)
– Job Diagnostic Survey (p. 20)**
– Index of Organizational Reactions (p. 35)
(**highly recommended)
Organizational Commitment
Defined as an attitude or an orientation
that links the identity of the person to the
organization.
As such the goals of the organization and
those of the individual become congruent.
An Employees liking for an organization is
termed affective commitment—includes
identification with and involvement in the
organization.
Organizational Commitment
(cont’d)
Three major issues:
– the basis for the commitment (how does it
form?)
– The manifestation of the commitment (what is
evidence of commitment—attitude or
behavior?)
– The focus of the commitment (what or who is
the employee committed to?)
Organizational Commitment
(cont’d)
Recommended Surveys:
– Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (p.
46)
– Affective, Normative, and Continuance
Commitment (p. 51)
– Organizational Commitment Scale (p. 59)
– Career Commitment (p. 63)
– Supervisor-Related Commitment
Job Characteristics
Job characteristics is driven by continuing efforts
in organizations to determine the features of
jobs that induce employees to work harder and
perform better.
Job Characteristics Model (JCM) developed by
Hackman and Oldham (1980) predicts that if a
job is well designed, it can lead to higher levels
of 3 critical psychological states.
Three states are: experienced meaningfulness;
experienced responsibility; and knowledge of the
results.
Job Characteristics (cont’d)
Five key characteristics of that JCM predicts are
well designed:
– Skill Variety – the extent to which a job
requires the use of different skills and talents
– Task identity – describes the extent to which a
job involves completing a whole identifiable
outcome
– Task significance – the degree to which a job
has impact on the lives of people in an
organization or society in general
Job Characteristics (cont’d)
– Autonomy – describes the extent to which a job
provides the employee with discretion to choose how
the work is done and to set the schedule for
completing the work activities.
– Job Feedback – indicates the extent to which carrying
out the work activities provides the employee with
clear information about his or her performance
JCM provides the framework from which to view
the effects that job characteristics have on
employee outcomes such as satisfaction,
organizational commitment, and intention to
remain with an organization (Hochwarter,
Zellars, et al., 1999)
Job Characteristics (cont’d)
Recommended Surveys:
– Job Diagnosis Survey, With Revisions (p. 71)
*very extensive, developed by Hackman & Oldham (1974).
– Job Characteristics Invetory (p. 76)
– Multimethod Job Design Questionnaire (p. 78)
*very extensive
– Job Cognitions (p. 88)
– Job Overload (p. 90)
– Job Control, Cognitive Demand, and Production
Responsibility (p. 96)
– Perceived Organizational Support (p. 117)
**List of surveys is extensive (pps 70-120)
Job Stress
Job stressors are defined as those aspects of a
job that produce excessive and undesirable
constraints or demands on the individual
(Scheck, Kinicki, & Davy, 1995).
Two models have been used to describe the
process by which aspects of a job and its
environment lead to stress and strain.
One model focuses on fit between stressors.
The second model is the Job Demands-Control
Perspective (Karasek, 1979).
Job Stress (cont’d)
A major hypothesis of the Job DemandsControl Model is that high job demands
produce a state of physical arousal in a
worker.
When both demands and control are high,
an individual will experience increased
motivation to perform.
This model predicts that some job
conditions may buffer the negative effectis
of other job dimensions.
Job Stress (cont’d)
Both models indicate some variables such
as social support from employees
supervisor and co-workers may reduce
effects of stressors.
Stress measurement has been criticized
for having too much focus on identification
and classification of job and work
characteristics.
Job Stress (cont’d)
Recommended surveys:
– Job-Related Tension Index (p. 124)
– Burnout Measure (p. 126)
– Work-Related Depression, Anxiety, and
Irritation (p. 127)
– Stress Diagnostic Survey (p. 129) *extensive
survey
– Job Stress Scale (p. 132)
– Perceived Job Stressors (p. 137)
Job Roles
Most of the Research about job roles has
focused on the role of conflict and ambiguity.
Every role in an organization should have a
clear set of responsibilities so that
management can provide appropriate
guidance.
Clear job roles tend to increase employee
feelings of competency…(Jackson & Schuler,
1985).
Job Roles (cont’d)
Role conflict is defined as incompatibility
between the expectations of parties or between
aspects of a single role.
It is possible that role conflict, ambiguity, and
overload have direct effects on key employee
outcomes.
In a meta-analysis conducted by Jackson and
Schuler (1985), conflict, ambiguity, and overload
affected organizational commitment.
Job Roles (cont’d)
Recommended surveys:
– Role Conflict and Ambiguity (p. 147 & 149)
– Role Overload (p. 153)
– Cross-cultural Role Conflict, Ambiguity, and
Overload (p. 154)
– Job Role Ambiguity (p. 158)
– Goal and Process Clarity (p. 160)
Work-Family Conflict
Balancing the demands of work and
Family.
Defined as a form of interrole conflict in
which the role pressures from the work
and family domains are mutually
incompatible.
Work-family conflict has been shown to
affect employees’ well being and workrelated attitudes (Aryee et al., 1998)
Work-Family Conflict (cont’d)
Studies have found varying degrees of strength
in the relationship between work-family conflict
and job and life satisfaction (Kossek & Ozeki,
1998)
Evidence also suggests that work and family
conflicts should be measured separately for men
and women.
Recent studies have found evidence that workfamily conflict (work interfering with family) and
family-work conflict (family interfering with work)
are related but distinct constructs (Frone et al.,
1992)
Work-Family Conflict (cont’d)
Recommended surveys:
– Work Interference With Family and Family
Interference With Work (p. 199)
– Work-Family Conflict (p. 201)
– Job-Family Role Strain Scale (p. 204)
– Career-Family Attitudes (p. 206) *extensive survey
– Control Over Areas of Work and Family (p.
215)
Person-Organization Fit
(Culture Fit)
Person-organization fit refers to the degree of
congruence or compatibility between the
attributes of an organization member and those
of the organization.
Person-organizational fit can be viewed as the
match between the personality characteristics of
an individual employee and organizational
climate.
Attributes for individuals (employees) may
include personality, traits, beliefs, values and
interests.
Person-Organization Fit (cont’d)
Congruence occurs when a person
supplements or matches with other
individuals in an environment.
Value congruence is an important form of
fit because organizational values are
fundamental components of organizational
culture that affect employees’ attitudes
and behaviors (Chatman, 1989).
Person-Organization Fit (cont’d)
Measurement of person-organization fit depends
on the ability to assess relevant aspects of the
person and the organization (to determine the
degree of match)
Techniques for measuring person-organization
fit:
– cross-level measurement
– Individual employee perceptions (of their preferences
and perceptions of org values)
– Polynomial regression (Edwards and Van Harrison,
1993)
Person-Organization Fit (cont’d)
Recommended Surveys:
– Organizational Culture Profile (p. 220)
*extensive survey
– Goal Congruence (p. 224)
– Person-Organization Fit Scale (p. 225)
– Perceived Person-Organization Fit (p. 227)
*extensive survey
– Perceived Ability-Job Fit (p. 233)
Workplace Values
Values (as applied within the workplace)
can mean different things.
Values have been described as beliefs,
needs, goals, criteria for choosing goals,
criteria for choosing behaviors, and
preferences (Dose, 1997; Froelich &
Kottke, 1991).
Values may be comprised of cognitive,
affective, and behavioral components.
Workplace Values (cont’d)
Relative to work values, studies have
tended to focus on the following:
– Vocational work values
– Importance of various aspects of a job or
organization
– Preferences for the characteristics of a job
– The extent to which individuals adhere to
aspects of the Protestant work ethic (The key
elements of the Protestant ethic were
diligence, punctuality, deferment of
gratification, and primacy of the work domain
(Rose, 1985)).
Workplace Values (cont’d)
In general, business ideology and country
culture are primary forces that may shape
employee’s work-related values.
Different business ideologies are:
– Convergence theory indicates that as nations
embrace capitalism, their value systems will
evolve toward the value systems established
Western capitalistic economies.
Workplace Values (cont’d)
– Divergence theory suggests that country culture
drives values (even if a country adopts capitalism, the
value system of the workforce will remain unchanged.
– “Cross-vergence” – suggests that work ideology and
country culture interact to create a new and unique
value system that is based on the melding of both
cultural and ideological influences (Talston, Holt,
Terpstra, & Kai-cheng, 1995)
Major issue of measuring work-related values:
– Extent to which responses about values may reflect
the desire to appear as much like a socially desirable
model
Workplace Values (cont’d)
Recommended surveys:
– Value Attainment (p. 266)
– Work Values Inventory (p. 268)
– Protestant Work Ethic (p. 270)
– Work Value Survey (p. 275)
– Measure of Ethical Viewpoints (p. 278)
– * extensive survey
– Perceived Importance of Workplace Values
(p. 284)