The Measurement of Job Characteristics: A Content and Contextual Analytic Look at Scale Validity

Abstract

This investigation provides an examination of the validity of the Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) and the Job Characteristics Inventory (JCI). The verbal content of the two measures is examined, as are the contrasts between the verbal content of these scales and the verbal content of three popular measures of job satisfaction. The Minnesota Contextual Content Analysis program is used to examine the ideas emphasized by these research scales. Both measures of job characteristics were found to discriminate from certain measures of job satisfaction, to emphasize an instrumental and not an affective context, and to possess some internal dimensionality problems.