The Job Descriptive Index family of job attitude measures includes the Job in General (JIG) scale, a measure of global satisfaction with one’s job. The scale was originally developed and validated by Ironson, Smith, Brannick, Gibson, and Paul. Following structured scale reduction procedures developed by Stanton, Sinar, Balzer, and Smith, the current authors developed an abridged version of the JIG for use by practitioners and researchers of organizational behavior. They report the results of three validation studies documenting the process of scale reduction and the psychometric suitability of the reduced-length scale.
Allen, N. J., & Meyer, J. P. (1990). The measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to organizations. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 63, 1-18.
2.
Anastasi, A. (1988). Psychological testing (6th ed). New York: Macmillan.
3.
Balzer, W. K, Kihm, J. A., Smith, P. C., Irwin, J. L., Bachiochi, P. D., Robie, C., et al. (1997). Users’manual for the Job Descriptive Index (JDI, 1997 revision) and the Job in General scales. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University.
4.
Blau, G. (1993). Further exploring the relationship between job search and voluntary individual turnover. Personnel Psychology, 46, 313-331.
5.
Bollen, K. A. (1989). Structural equations with latent variables. Oxford, UK: Wiley.
6.
Brief, A. P., & Weiss, H. M. (2002). Organizational behavior: Affect in the workplace. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 279-307.
7.
Clark, L. A., & Watson, D. (1995). Constructing validity: Basic issues in objective scale development. Psychological Assessment, 7, 309-319.
8.
Diefendorff, J. M., Hall, R. J., Lord, R. G., & Strean, M. L. (2000). Action-state orientation: Construct validity of a revised measure and its relationship to work-related variables. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 250-263.
9.
Fan, X., & Thompson, B. (2001). Confidence intervals about score reliability coefficients, please: An EPM guidelines editorial. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 61, 517-531.
10.
Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: An introduction to theory and research. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
11.
Flebus, G. B. (1990). A program to select the best items that maximize Cronbach’s alpha. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 50, 831-833.
12.
Griffeth, R. W., Hom, P. W., & Gaertner, S. (2000). A meta-analysis of antecedents and correlates of employee turnover: Update, moderator tests, and research implications for the next millennium. Journal of Management, 26, 463-488.
13.
Ironson, G. H., Smith, P. C., Brannick, M. T., Gibson, W. M., & Paul, K. B. (1989). Construction of a Job in General scale: A comparison of global, composite, and specific measures. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74, 193-200.
14.
Judge, T. A., Thoresen, C. J., Bono, J. E., & Patton, G. K. (2001). The job satisfaction-job performance relationship: A qualitative and quantitative review. Psychological Bulletin, 127, 376-407.
15.
Kanfer, R., & Hulin, C. L. (1985). Individual differences in successful job searches following lay-off. Personnel Psychology, 38, 835-847.
16.
Kass, S. J., Vodanovick, S. J., & Callender, A. (2001). State-trait boredom: Relationship to absenteeism, tenure, and job satisfaction. Journal of Business & Psychology, 16, 317-327.
17.
Kinicki, A. J., McKee-Ryan, F. M., Schriesheim, C. A., & Carson, K. P.Assessing the construct validity of the Job Descriptive Index: A review and meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 14-32.
18.
Knowles, E. S. (1988). Item context effects on personality scales: Measuring changes the measure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 312-320.
19.
Kunin, T. (1955). The construction of a new type of attitude measure. Personnel Psychology, 8, 65-77.
20.
Lee, T. W., & Mitchell, T. R. (1994). An alternative approach: The unfolding model of voluntary employee turnover. Academy of Management Review, 19, 51-89.
21.
Mael, F. A. (1989). Leadership team cohesion: Impact on soldier motivation and attitudes. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Military Testing Association, San Antonio, TX.
22.
Mael, F., & Ashforth, B. E. (1992). Alumni and their alma mater: A partial test of the reformulated model of organizational identification. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 13, 103-123.
23.
Mastrangelo, P. M., & Popovich, P. M. (2000). Employees’attitudes toward drug testing, perceptions of organizational climate, and withdrawal from the employer. Journal of Business & Psychology, 15, 3-18.
24.
Mathieu, J. E., & Zajac, D. M. (1990). A review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of organizational commitment. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 171-194.
25.
McFarland, L. A., Ryan, A. M., & Ellis, A. (2002). Item placement on a personality measure: Effects on faking behavior and test measurement properties. Journal of Personality Assessment, 78, 348-369.
26.
Meyer, J. P., Stanley, D. J., Herscovitch, L., & Topolnytsky, L. (2002). Affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization: A meta-analysis of antecedents, correlates and consequences. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 61, 20-52.
27.
Mobley, W. H. (1977). Intermediate linkages in the relationship between job satisfaction and employee turnover. Journal of Applied Psychology, 62, 237-240.
28.
Murphy, K. R., & Davidshofer, C. O. (1998). Psychological testing: Principles and applications (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
29.
Nagy, M. S. (2002). Using a single-item approach to measure facet job satisfaction. Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology, 75, 77-86.
30.
Parra, L. F. (1995). Development of an intention to quit scale. Unpublished manuscript, Bowling Green State University.
31.
Reynolds, C. R., & Richmond, B. O. (1978). What I think and feel: A revised measure of children’s manifest anxiety. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 6, 271-280.
32.
Rogelberg, S. G., Conway, J. M., Sederberg, M. E., Spitzmueller, C., Aziz, S., & Knight, W. E. (2003). Profiling active and passive nonrespondents to an organizational survey. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 1104-1114.
33.
Rogelberg, S. G., & Luong, A. (1998). Nonresponse to mailed surveys: A review and guide. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 7, 60-65.
34.
Schmit, M. J., Ryan, A. M., Stierwalt, S. L., & Powell, A. B. (1995). Frame-of-reference effects on personality scale scores and criterion-related validity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 80, 607-620.
35.
Schwarz, N., Groves, R. M.,& Schuman, H. (1998). Survey methods. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (Vol. 2, 4th ed., pp. 143-179). New York: McGraw-Hill.
36.
Smith, P. C., Kendall, L. M., & Hulin, C. L. (1969). The measurement of satisfaction in work and retirement. Chicago: Rand McNally.
37.
Stanton, J. M. (2000). Empirical distributions of correlations as a tool for scale reduction. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 32, 403-406.
38.
Stanton, J. M., Balzer, W. K., Smith, P. C., Parra, L. F., & Ironson, G. (2001). A general measure of work stress: The Stress in General scale. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 61, 866-888.
39.
Stanton, J. M., Sinar, E. F., Balzer, W. K., Julian, A. L., Thoresen, P., Aziz, S., et al. (2001). Development of a compact measure of job satisfaction: The abridged Job Descriptive Index. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 61, 1104-1122.
40.
Stanton, J. M., Sinar, E. F., Balzer, W. K., & Smith, P. C. (2002). Issues and strategies for reducing the length of self-report scales. Personnel Psychology, 55, 167-194.
41.
Steinberg, L. (1994). Context and serial-order effects in personality measurement: Limits on the generality of measuring changes the measure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 341-349.
42.
Thompson, B. (1990). ALPHAMAX: A program that maximizes coefficient alpha by selective item deletion. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 50, 585-589.
43.
Tourangeau, R., & Rasinski, K. A. (1988). Cognitive processes underlying context effects in attitude measurement. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 299-314.
44.
Vinokur, A., & Caplan, R. D. (1987). Attitudes and social support: Determinants of job-seeking behavior and well-being among the unemployed. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 17, 1007-1024.
45.
Wanous, J. P., Reichers, A. E., & Hudy, M. J. (1997). Overall job satisfaction: How good are single-item measures?Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 247-252.
46.
Weiss, D. J., Dawis, R. V., England, G. W., & Lofquist, L. H. (1967). Manual for the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire. Minneapolis: Industrial Relations Center, University of Minnesota.
