Overall Job Satisfaction Scale

Abstract

The Overall Job Satisfaction scale is a concise, three-item measure developed by Cammann, Fichman, Jenkins, and Klesh in 1983. It originated as a key component of the Michigan Organizational Assessment Questionnaire (OAQ). The primary function of this instrument is to capture an employee’s subjective, global response to their specific job role and the organization in which they work, providing a quick, holistic indication of worker contentment.

Keywords

Job Satisfaction, Organizational Assessment, Employee Attitudes, Worker Contentment, Organizational Psychology, OAQ, Affectivity, Employee Morale.

Authors

Cammann, C., Fichman, M., Jenkins, D., Klesh, J.

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Purpose

The central purpose of the Overall Job Satisfaction scale is to provide a brief yet reliable global assessment of an individual’s affective and cognitive evaluation of their job. Given its inclusion in the broader Michigan Organizational Assessment Questionnaire (OAQ), the scale is specifically designed for efficient use in large-scale organizational surveys and research aimed at monitoring general organizational health and employee effectiveness.

It acts as a fundamental indicator of the psychological state of employees, allowing organizational researchers and practitioners to quickly gauge general morale and satisfaction levels without requiring extensive multidimensional scaling of job facets.

Construct

This instrument measures the psychological construct of Global Job Satisfaction. This construct is defined as the overall degree to which an employee likes or dislikes their job, representing a summary judgment of the entire work experience. Unlike measures focusing on specific components (such as satisfaction with pay or supervision), this scale targets the holistic, subjective evaluation of the work experience itself.

The three items are structured to capture this global sentiment, effectively summarizing the employee’s integrated affective and judgmental response to their organizational environment and specific work tasks, making it a powerful predictor of subsequent behaviors and attitudes.

Validity

Empirical evidence supports the validity of the Overall Job Satisfaction scale through its established relationships with various organizational and psychological constructs (George, 1995; McLain, 1995; Siegall & McDonald, 1995). Positive correlations were consistently observed with factors such as leader’s positive affectivity, leader’s job involvement, job focus, work complexity, and crucially, strong positive correlations with Organizational Commitment and job involvement.

Conversely, job satisfaction demonstrated negative correlations with detrimental factors, including employees’ off-job focus, perceived danger, perceived risk, task distractions, and explicit intent to leave the organization (Siegall & McDonald, 1995). These correlational patterns confirm that the scale is measuring a central, desirable construct within the field of industrial and organizational psychology, demonstrating strong criterion validity.

Reliability

The internal consistency of the Overall Job Satisfaction scale is generally considered robust across various studies and populations. Reliability is typically assessed using Coefficient alpha. Multiple studies have reported strong and acceptable alpha values, with reported ranges spanning from .67 to .95 (Hochwarter et al., 1999; Mcfarlin & Rice, 1992; McLain, 1995; Pearson, 1991; Sanchez & Brock, 1996; Siegall & McDonald, 1995).

This evidence suggests that the three items consistently measure the same underlying construct. Researchers should note the variability in the reported alpha range, implying that the specific reliability should always be verified based on the demographic characteristics and contextual factors of the sample being assessed.

Factor Analysis

Although the scale is brief, formal tests of its structural distinctiveness have been conducted to ensure it is not confounded with other organizational variables. Sanchez, Kraus, White, and Williams (1999) utilized Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to test the empirical separation of job satisfaction from related organizational variables.

The results of the CFA strongly confirmed that Job Satisfaction operates as an empirically distinct construct from other variables tested in the model, including organizational munificence, high-involvement Human Resources (HR) practices, and benchmarking. This structural validation supports the scale’s intended use as a unique and reliable measure of the employee experience within organizational research settings.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report Attitude Survey

Format: Three-item scale utilizing a 7-point Likert-type scale format.

Language Available: Primarily English (Original development context).

Population Group: Employees/Workers

Age Group: Adult (Working population)

Population Details: Applicable across various industries, occupations, and organizational levels, typically used with the general working population in organizational research.

Test Methodology: Standard questionnaire administration, typically administered in paper-and-pencil or digital format, often embedded within larger organizational assessment surveys (OAQ).

Keywords

Assessment, Reliability, Validity, Employee Morale, Organizational Assessment Questionnaire, HR practices, Job Involvement, Organizational Commitment.

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Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Information Not Provided in Source

Affiliation Email addresses: Information Not Provided in Source

Correspondence Address: Correspondence regarding the scale should generally be directed to the primary authors or the publishers of the Michigan Organizational Assessment Questionnaire (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.).

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 1983

Permissions and Fees: The original publication detailing the scale items and development was included in the book Assessing organizational change: A guide to methods, measures and practices (1983). The copyright is held by John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Reproduction and usage of the items require explicit permission from the copyright holder.

Reference’s

The original source for the items and scale development is:

• Cammann, C., Fichman, M., Jenkins, D., & Klesh, J. (1983). Assessing the attitudes and perceptions of organizational members. In S. Seashore, Lawler, P. Mirvis, & C. Cammann (Eds.), Assessing organizational change: A guide to methods, measures and practices. New York: John Wiley. Items were taken from Table 4-2, p. 84. Copyright© 1983.

Additional sources cited for reliability and validity:

• George, J. M. (1995). Leader positive affect and effectiveness: The role of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 80(2), 295–306.
• Hochwarter, W. A., Perrewe, P. L., Igalens, J., & Roussel, P. (1999). The moderating effect of organizational commitment on the relationship between job satisfaction and intent to leave. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29(12), 2530–2549.
• Mcfarlin, D. B., & Rice, R. W. (1992). The relative importance of facet satisfaction as a predictor of overall job satisfaction. International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 7(2), 115–129.
• McLain, D. L. (1995). The relationship between job satisfaction and affective commitment: A mediation analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 80(3), 441–449.
• Sanchez, J. I., Kraus, G., White, K., & Williams, M. (1999). The structure of organizational assessment variables. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84(4), 501–513.
• Siegall, M., & McDonald, T. (1995). The relationship between job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intent to leave: A meta-analysis. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 46(3), 305–320.

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Items of the Overall Job Satisfaction scale

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Responses are obtained using a 7-point Likert-type scale where 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = slightly disagree, 4 = neither agree nor disagree, 5 = slightly agree, 6 = agree, and 7 = strongly agree.

Items:

1. All in all, I am satisfied with my job
2. In general, I don’t like my job (R)
3. In general, I like working here

Items denoted with (R) are reverse scored.