Change Scale

Abstract

The Change Scale (Trumbo, 1961) is a brief, 9-item measure designed to assess individual and group attitudes toward work-related change within organizational settings. Developed by Don A. Trumbo, this instrument utilizes Likert-type scales to quantify the degree of favorability or resistance employees exhibit toward organizational transitions. Higher scores on the scale correspond to more favorable attitudes toward change. Initial psychometric evaluation, conducted on a sample of supervisory and non-supervisory personnel, established its internal consistency with a corrected odd-even reliability coefficient of .79. Furthermore, the instrument demonstrated robust predictive validity by correlating scores directly with employees’ perceptions and subsequent reactions to specific organizational changes, confirming its utility in human resource and organizational development contexts.

Keywords

Change Scale, Employee Attitudes, Work-Related Change, Internal Consistency, Predictive Validity, Organizational Change, Test Development, Rating Scale.

Authors

Trumbo, Don A.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Change Scale is to systematically measure and quantify the extent of employee attitudes—ranging from favorable acceptance to strong resistance—toward changes implemented within their work environment. This measurement is crucial for organizations planning or executing organizational transitions, allowing management to anticipate potential resistance or support.

By effectively gauging these attitudes, the scale serves as a diagnostic tool. It helps researchers and practitioners identify groups or individuals who may require targeted interventions, training, or communication strategies to facilitate smoother adaptation during periods of organizational flux. The scale focuses specifically on attitudes related to changes in work methods, job roles, and overall organizational processes.

Construct

The psychological construct measured by the Change Scale is Employee Attitudes toward Work-Related Change. This construct reflects an individual’s dispositional readiness or aversion to alterations in their routine job functions, tasks, or the overall structure of their employment setting.

It operates under the assumption that attitudes toward change are measurable traits that significantly influence how employees perceive and respond to specific organizational initiatives. A high score suggests a proactive and positive orientation toward novelty and variation in work tasks, whereas a low score indicates a preference for stability, routine, and resistance to disruptive organizational shifts.

Validity

The validity of the Change Scale was primarily established through the demonstration of Predictive Validity. This form of validity ensures that the scores derived from the instrument are effective in forecasting future relevant outcomes—in this case, actual employee responses to change events.

Specifically, Change Scale scores were found to be significantly associated with participants’ subsequent perceptions of, and favorable or unfavorable behavioral reactions to, specific changes introduced in their workplace. This correlation confirms the scale’s utility as a reliable prognosticator of how employees will manage organizational transitions, thereby validating its intended purpose in applied industrial and organizational psychology.

Reliability

The internal consistency reliability of the Change Scale was assessed using the split-half method, specifically yielding a Corrected Odd-Even Reliability Coefficient of .79. This coefficient was calculated based on the responses gathered from the initial standardization sample, which included both supervisory and non-supervisory personnel.

A reliability coefficient of .79 is considered acceptable for instruments used in organizational research, indicating that the nine items within the scale measure a consistent, unified underlying construct. This suggests that the items are internally consistent and reliable in assessing the psychological trait of attitudes toward work-related change.

Factor Analysis

Information regarding formal Factor Analysis of the Change Scale was not explicitly provided in the initial documentation by Trumbo (1961). Given the scale’s brevity (9 items) and its focus on a single, unified construct (attitudes toward change), it is implied that the scale was developed as a unidimensional measure. Subsequent research may have explored its factorial structure, but such details are not indicated in the original test development documentation.

Instrument

Test Type: Original Rating Scale

Format: The instrument consists of 9 items rated primarily on a 5-point Likert scale. Item 1 uses a unique response format ranging from “is always the same” to “change a great deal.” The remaining eight items utilize the standard Likert response anchors ranging from “I strongly agree” to “I strongly disagree.” The administration method is listed as Paper.

Language Available: English (Original development language)

Population Group: Human (Male and Female)

Age Group: Adulthood (18 years and older)

Population Details: The initial validation sample included Supervisory and Non-Supervisory Personnel, suggesting applicability across various hierarchical levels within an organization.

Test Methodology: The development and validation relied on established psychometric methods including Test Validity, Predictive Validity, Test Reliability, and assessment of Internal Consistency (specifically, corrected odd-even reliability).

Keywords

Employee Attitudes, Organizational Change, Work Attitudes, Job Satisfaction, Personnel Assessment, Rating Scale, Psychometrics, Internal Consistency.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not specified in the source materials.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not specified in the source materials.

Correspondence Address: Don A. Trumbo was affiliated with Kansas State University at the time of publication.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 1961.

Permissions and Fee: The Change Scale is an established measure in organizational psychology. Researchers should consult the original publication or the American Psychological Association (APA) for current usage permissions and potential fees related to the instrument, particularly if using it for commercial purposes. The DOI associated with the test profile is https://doi.org/10.1037/t19609-000.

Reference’s

• Trumbo, D. A. (1961). Individual and group correlates of attitudes toward work-related changes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 45(5), 338–344. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0040464

• Test Profile DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/t19609-000

Items of the Change Scale

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

• 1. The job that you would consider ideal for you would be one where the way you do your work: (five choices from “is always the same” to “change a great deal”). Each of the remaining eight items had five alternatives from “I strongly agree,” to “I strongly disagree.”
• 2. If I could do as I pleased, I would change the kind of work I do every few months.
• 3. One can never feel at ease on a job where the ways of doing things are always being changed.
• 4. The trouble with most jobs is that you just get used to doing things in one way and then they want you to do them differently.
• 5. I would prefer to stay with a job that I know I can handle than to change to one where most things would be new to me.
• 6. The trouble with many people is that when they find a job they can do well, they don’t stick with it.
• 7. I like a job where I know that I will be doing my work about the same way from one week to the next.
• 8. When I get used to doing things in one way it is disturbing to have to change to a new method.
• 9. It would take a sizeable raise in pay to get me to voluntarily transfer to another job.