Questionnaire on Experience and Assessment of Work

Abstract

The Vragenlijst Beleving en Beoordeling van de Arbeid (VBBA), translated as the Questionnaire on Perception and Judgement of Work, is a robust psychological instrument designed to quantify the levels of psychosocial workload and work stress experienced by employees within an organizational setting. The VBBA is distinguished by its focus on both the subjective perception of the worker and the more observable, objective characteristics of the work environment that require assessment.

Structured around two primary themes, the questionnaire systematically addresses the dynamics of occupational stress. Theme 1 investigates the potential causes and antecedents of psychosocial workload and strain, while Theme 2 focuses on the resulting consequences and outcomes related to the employee’s well-being and performance. This dual focus provides a comprehensive profile of the work situation.

Keywords

Work stress, Psychosocial workload, Occupational health, Employee perception, Job demand, Job resources, Questionnaire, Organizational psychology, VBBA, Work environment.

Authors

VBBA (1994): van Veldhoven M, Meijman TF. VBBA 2.0 (2006): van Veldhoven M, Prins J, van der Laken P, Dijkstra L.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the VBBA is to serve as a diagnostic and monitoring tool for organizational health and safety professionals. It aims to systematically map out the factors contributing to employee strain, thereby facilitating targeted interventions to improve the working conditions and prevent long-term health issues associated with high work stress.

Specifically, the instrument helps organizations comply with occupational health regulations by identifying sources of psychosocial risk. By separating potential causes (Theme 1) from observed effects (Theme 2), the VBBA offers actionable data that can be used for job redesign, resource allocation, and organizational development programs related to education, professional development, and economic viability.

Construct

The VBBA measures the psychological construct of the interaction between the employee and their work environment, conceptualized through two key dimensions: subjective experience and objective work characteristics. It operates within the framework of occupational psychology, focusing on how job demands interact with available job resources to produce either strain or motivation.

The scale integrates measures of job demands (e.g., workload, emotional demands) and job resources (e.g., autonomy, social support, feedback). By capturing both the worker’s internal, subjective appraisal of these factors and their external, objective assessment, the VBBA provides a nuanced understanding of the factors driving individual performance and organizational well-being.

Validity

As a widely utilized standardized Questionnaire in occupational research, the VBBA has demonstrated strong evidence of validity across various organizational settings. Initial development of both the 1994 and 2006 versions included rigorous testing to ensure construct validity, confirming that the scale accurately measures the intended concepts of psychosocial demands and resources.

Criterion validity has been established through correlations with external measures of health outcomes, such as burnout, psychological distress, and sickness absence. The clear distinction between the two themes (causes and consequences) further supports the theoretical structure and predictive validity of the instrument in relating specific working conditions to employee outcomes.

Reliability

The reliability of the VBBA is robust, typically evidenced by high internal consistency across its various subscales, often measured using Cronbach’s alpha coefficients. The development of the VBBA 2.0 specifically sought to enhance the psychometric properties of the original instrument, ensuring that the scale items consistently measure the underlying constructs.

Test-retest reliability studies confirm the stability of the instrument over time, suggesting that the VBBA provides consistent results when working conditions remain unchanged. This high degree of reliability makes the VBBA a dependable tool for longitudinal studies and routine organizational monitoring of employee well-being and psychometric properties.

Factor Analysis

The structure of the VBBA is supported by extensive factor analysis, which confirms the instrument’s division into distinct, yet related, subscales corresponding to the two main themes. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses have been employed during the scale development and subsequent revisions to refine the item groupings and ensure the latent factors align with the theoretical model of job demands and resources.

The factor structure typically reveals separate factors for different types of demands (e.g., cognitive, emotional, physical) and resources (e.g., social support, control, organizational climate), validating the comprehensive coverage of the psychosocial work environment provided by the VBBA.

Instrument

Test Type: Questionnaire / Self-report Inventory

Format: Paper-and-Pencil or Digital Administration

Language Available: Primarily Dutch (Vragenlijst Beleving en Beoordeling van de Arbeid)

Population Group: Employees in organizational settings

Age Group: Adults (Volwassenen)

Population Details: Applicable to employees across various sectors involved in education, professional work, and economic activities.

Test Methodology: Standardized self-report scale measuring subjective perception and objective appraisal of work characteristics, divided into two thematic sections (Causes and Consequences).

Keywords

Occupational psychology, Employee health, Work strain, Job demands, Job control, Organizational climate, Psychosocial risk assessment, Netherlands, Self-report.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Information not specified in source material.

Affiliation Email addresses: Information not specified in source material.

Correspondence Address: Information not specified in source material.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The VBBA is a copyrighted instrument. Users typically require specific licensing or permission from the copyright holders or authorized distributors for commercial or large-scale research use. Fee structures vary depending on the intended use and scale of administration.

Test Year (Original VBBA): 1994

Test Year (VBBA 2.0): 2006

Reference’s

The primary references for the development and revision of the scale are:

• van Veldhoven M, Meijman TF. (1994). Vragenlijst Beleving en Beoordeling van de Arbeid (VBBA).

• van Veldhoven M, Prins J, van der Laken P, Dijkstra L. (2006). Vragenlijst Beleving en Beoordeling van de Arbeid 2.0 (VBBA 2.0).

• The original explanatory documentation (Toelichtingsformulier) for the instrument can be downloaded here: VBBA-form.pdf

Items of the Vragenlijst Beleving en Beoordeling van de Arbeid / Questionnaire on Perception and Judgement of Work

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

The specific items comprising the Vragenlijst Beleving en Beoordeling van de Arbeid (VBBA) were not provided in the source description. The scale is structured around two main themes, which are further divided into subcategories measuring causes (demands and resources) and consequences (strain and well-being).