Improving the Measurement of Job Attitudes: The development of the Job Satisfaction Index

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Improving the Measurement of Job Attitudes The
development of the Job Satisfaction Index

• Oleksandr S. Chernyshenko
• University of Canterbury
• Stephen Stark
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• Marcus Credé, Patrick Wadlington, Wayne C. Lee
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Overview

• Importance of job satisfaction in I/O
• Need for expanding the construct space of
  existing measures
• Development of a new 5-faceted measure of job
  satisfaction (JSI Job Satisfaction Index)
• Validation of the JSI

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Job Satisfaction

• Job satisfaction is one of the most widely
  researched topics in I/O psychology
• Nearly 10,000 studies (Judge, Parker, Colbert,
  Heller, Ilies, 2001)
• Job satisfaction was found to predict outcomes,
  such as
• Job performance (Judge, Bono, Thoresen, Patton,
  2001)
• Contextual performance (Organ Ryan, 1995)
• Work and job withdrawal (Hulin, 1991)
• Life satisfaction (Tait, Padgett, Baldwin,
  1989).

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Existing Job Satisfaction Measures

• Very early studies based on homegrown and
  unvalidated measures (Hulin Judge, 2001)
• More recent studies used psychometrically
  well-constructed and validated instruments
• Job Descriptive Index (JDI Roznowski, 1989),
• Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS Hackman Oldham,
  1976)
• Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MNSQ
  Weiss, Dawis, England, Lofquist, 1967)
• Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS Spector, 1985)

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Should the construct of job satisfaction be
broadened?

• Existing measures focus on cognitive evaluations
  of ones job, coworkers, pay, etc.
• My supervisor sets unrealistic goals
• But, affect and mood on the job are important
  components of job attitudes and potentially
  important predictors of outcomes (Weiss Brief,
  in press Weiss Cropanzano, 1996 George, 1989)
• Should measures also include items tapping
  general affective reactions?
• I am fed up with my supervisor

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Should the construct of job satisfaction be
broadened?

• Changes in organizational structure have
  redifined many work roles.
• So, are the dimensions of job sat represented in
  traditional measures as important today as 20
  years ago?
• Promotions vs. Work Safety

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Development of the JSI

• Our new measure was designed with these questions
  in mind. For example,
• Scales were created using approximately equal
  numbers of items measuring cognitive evaluations
  and general affective reactions.
• Five relevant facets of satisfaction were
  identified
• Pay, Supervision, Work itself, Coworkers, Work
  Environment/Safety

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Item Pool Development

• 767 items were developed by
• Examining content of job interviews
• Creating statements for each facet
• Rating statements as affective or cognitive using
  six subject matter experts (SMEs)
• Checking content validity by shuffling statements
  and having SMEs identify facets they represented
• Eliminating statements that were retranslated
  incorrectly

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JSI Item Format and Scoring

• Short sentences
• 4-point Likert scale (SD, D, A, SA)
• No neutral or ? option
• Negatively worded items were reverse scored for
  classical item analyses

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JSI Facet Scales Development

• Data 150 undergrads who had jobs at the time
• Analyses Item-totals and factor analysis
• Results
• Created 15-item scales having similar numbers of
  cognitive and affective items (20-item scale for
  Work Environment/Safety facet)
• Average item-total correlations for facets ranged
  from .55 to .68
• Despite conceptual distinction between cognitive
  and affective items, each facet scale showed a
  dominant first factor

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JSI Validation Study

• Participants 1,174 university workers from 12
  nonacademic departments
• Survey scales
• JSI and Job Descriptive Index
• Trait affect (PANAS Watson, Clark, Tellegen,
  1988)
• Contextual Performance
• Counterproductive behaviors and job withdrawal

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Descriptive Statistics for JSI Facet Scales
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Convergent and Discriminant Validity of the JSI
Facet Scales
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Relationship of the JSI with Positive/Negative
Affect Measures
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Criterion-Related Validity of the JSI
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Conclusions

• JSI is a 5-faceted measure of job satisfaction
  assessing both cognitive and affective
  components.
• Scales showed high internal consistency
  reliability and convergent validity
• Criterion-related validity coefficients were
  slightly higher than for JDI
• If desired, JSI and JDI scores can be easily
  equated
• Shortened version of JSI (10-items per facet) is
  available