The measurement of job control

✍ Scribed by CARLLA S. SMITH; JOHN TISAK; SUSAN E. HAHN; ROBERT A. SCHMIEDER

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 170 KB
• Volume: 18
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0894-3796
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199705)18:3<225::aid-job797>3.0.co;2-e

✦ Synopsis

Subjective or perceived control over job-related activities or events is a frequently measured construct in organizational stress research. Karasek (1985) assessed perceived control as both decision authority and skill discretion at work (job decision latitude). Ganster (1989b;Dwyer and Ganster, 1991) developed a multidimensional or general measure of worker control, as well as a speci®c measure of work predictability. Because little published psychometric data exist for these scales, we investigated the item-level measurement properties of Karasek's and Ganster's measures. We hypothesized two separate, two-factor solutions, decision authority and skill discretion, for the job decision latitude scale, and general control and predictability, for the work control scale. The dimensionality of both measures was assessed in multiple, independent samples using con®rmatory factor analyses (LISREL) with maximum likelihood estimation. Simultaneous solutions across samples were used to determine the ®t of the factor models to the data. The hypothesized two-factor solutions were con®rmed for both Karasek's and Ganster's scales, although item re®nement is indicated. We also investigated the relative independence between Karasek's and Ganster's scales and found a lack of independence between the general control and decision authority items in one sample.