- Walden Sports is an outdoor equipment and clothing retailer that was founded 12 years ago and has since expanded its product line and acquired a travel agency. It employs 70 people across various departments.
- The company has experienced rapid growth in recent years through expanding online sales and acquiring a travel agency, but this growth has led to decreased employee productivity and morale issues that the CEO wants to address.
- The CEO has brought in a consultant to help identify the source of these issues and recommend solutions through conducting a job diagnostic survey of employees.
1. Running Head: METHODS 1
METHODS 2
Walden Sports: Methods Section Comment by dpeck: It is a
bit confusing but use the final paper temaple title page going
forward for the assignments.
Michael A. Leonard
Walden University
IPSY 8579
Job Attitudes, Measurement, & Change
Professor Deborah Peck
March 27, 2017
Walden Sports: Methods Section
Introduction
The success or failure of an organization is evaluated by
measurement of job satisfaction, organizational commitment
2. and the job involvement of the employees in the various
activities and processes that the organization undertakes. If the
relationship between the employees and the organization is
healthy to the extent that their attitude towards job involvement
and organization commitment is positive, then it is possible to
conclude that the organization will be successful. A company
can be successful with regards to its expansion, the creation of
new ventures, the establishment of new branches and realization
of profits, but if its employees lose the focus. Then, the
productivity will go down, and the tempo of workflow is
deemed to go down, and thus they begin to look for new
ventures or even if they stay, they will be less motivated to
work. Thus, an organization has to ensure that it carries out a
job diagnostic survey to establish whether the employees are
happy and motivated. Comment by dpeck: I am not sure I
agree with this statement but that is okay for now. Comment by
dpeck: I don't think you meant to end the sentence here? If not,
you will end up with a run-on sentence so you need to break it
up anyway. Comment by dpeck: I am struggling with a
definitive discussion liek this when there are no citations or
literature to lean on - so how are you making these statements
as fact? Comment by dpeck: Maybe soften it and 'advise'
rather than 'has to ensure'
Walden Sports is a company that has been in existence for a
while and has undergone tremendous transformations and
changes in its operations something that is associated with its
success. The company's success, on the other hand, brought up
an unexpected change that became a concern to the Chief
Executive Officer. The success brought about a sharp decrease
in the productivity and a rise in absenteeism of the employees
from their workstations and performance of roles. The CEO
even stated that the employees looked more orf less energized
as opposed to the previous situations when they used to have the
vigor for their duties. They didn’t look motivated to work as
they used to be initially and the ones who would stay back to
aid the others who had a workload in completing their tasks
3. stopped. The employees even stopped attending the activities
that were aimed at boosting their morale at the company. Thus,
the task of this discussion is to identify the source of this
change and how it can be combated by evaluating the factors in
a procedural manner in which a job diagnostic survey
instrument is to be used to gather information to determine the
effective behavior. Comment by dpeck: How do you know?
Where are your citations? Comment by dpeck: This is good.
Job Attitudes
In a brief recap, an attitude is an evaluative comment or notion
that people hold with regards to others, objects or events and
this definition suffices for this situation with a marked
difference being recorded in the context of its application. Job
attitudes refer to the notions of the employees towards their
work or the company they work for at large. Comment by
dpeck: Okay - I am really going nuts without literature. Where
is your evidence?
These attitudes fall into three broad categories namely, the
cognitive, behavioral and the affective components. The
cognitive component encompasses the opinionated segment of
an attitude while the behavioral component encompasses the
intentions that individuals possess that compels them to behave
in a particular way towards somethings or others.
The Affective component of attitude encompasses the feeling or
emotion segments of an attitude. Job Attitude, therefore,
includes employee engagements, perceived organizational
support, satisfaction and involvement, and the organizational
commitment. The job attitudes that were employed in this
evaluation study were employee engagements, perceived
organizational support and both job satisfaction and
involvements. Comment by dpeck: We didn't realy get into
engagement so you can leave this out.
These job attitudes play a great role in determining the success
or failure of an organization, and if they are negative, for
instance, poor employee engagements only reflect on the fact
that an organization lags behind on proper communication
4. between its employees and lack of diversity, teamwork.
Instruments Used
The Job Satisfaction survey or JSS is an instrument designed
with the idea indicating if employees are happy in their current
role. This could pinpoint departments or specific job roles with
disgruntled employees. The instrument was also developed with
the notion of providing a methodological format that could
assess the variables that were theory specified and in numbers.
The JSS is often used globally and is a multidimensional, job
specific tool (Van Saane, Sluiter, Verbeek, & Frings-Dresen,
2003). The JSS assesses job satisfaction from a low as in
dissatisfied workers, all the way to high or satisfied workers
(Spector, 1994). Comment by dpeck: What could pinpoint
it? The instrument? More likely the demographics would
capture these.
Jobn Descriptive Index survey (JDI) on the other hand
encompasses the inclusion of the motivational strategies that are
used by companies in encouraging the employees as well as
keeping them involved in the organizational activities that
transpire in the company on a day to day basis (Gillespie et al.,
2009). Comment by dpeck: What does this instrument
measure?
Jobs in General scale survey (JIB)is the third instrument that
can be used to evaluate the satisfaction that the employees
derive from their involvement with the duties that have been
entrusted to them by the company. The focus of the JIG is to
measure participants job satisfaction in a broad sense (Gillespie
et al., 2009) Comment by dpeck: You are measuring
satisfaction twice?
Why the three instruments
Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) is an instrument hatthat has been
tried and used during which it underwent many transitions and
reformations that have aided in improving the efficiency of its
usage and making it reliable for situations like this one of
Walden sports. This instrument can measure employee morale
and satisfaction that affect the operations of the organizations,
5. which in turn affect the relationships between the companies
and their employees. The classes of variables that can be tested
by this instrument include the personal reactions of the
employees to their jobs and work on large scale, usually an
effective reaction. Comment by dpeck: cite? Comment by
dpeck: Did you mean 'affective' - or emotional reaction?
The preparedness of an individual to respond to a job
positively to an enriched job and the degree to which the jobs
are delegated to the employees with the aim of enhancing their
motivation. This instrument, therefore, relies on the theory of
how work affects an employees' motivation. The other two tools
are more of specific to their objective hence they deem effective
for their usage in the determination of the variable that they test
and can, therefore, complement Job diagnostic survey.
Comment by dpeck: this sentence seems incomplete.
Comment by dpeck: this seems confusing. We aren't
measuring motivation - that is #1. The last sentence is a very
general explanation and non-specific if you are justifying their
use for Walden sports.
Psychometric Properties of the Instruments
Job Satisfaction Survey is a tool that if used effectivelyficiently
can provide information that is useful to gather feedback from
employees but that does not mean that it does not have
limitations and suggestions for improvements. Many reviews
have highlighted its limitations and came up with suggestions
for its improvement aiding in its advancement to diversify the
portfolio of measures to accomplish many but distinct purposes.
Comment by dpeck: I don't see any discussion about the
psychometrics related to this instrument?
The Job Descriptive Index tool comprises of up to 72 items,
which look into the five facets of job satisfaction. It works by
combining the facets with satisfaction ratings, and its updated
form entails the inclusion of the contents of the job, work
atmosphere, and work technology. Job in General Scale survey
tool, on the other hand, entails the tools that describe the
satisfaction derived from a job on a global scale. Comment by
6. dpeck: Again, why are you using two instruments to measure
job satisfaction? Are you comparing them here to decide? Again
- there are no psychometrics explained.
Items and Scoring Method
Items that were to be used in the data collection, recording,
analysis, and compilation included a questionnaire, observation
strategies, means and variances scale for determining job
descriptions, and analysis of Variance. Comment by dpeck:
Items refer to the questions and/or categories of questions that
are asked. Not all of this information.
The purpose of the instruments is to aid in evaluating and
identifying the source of the fallout in some of the cultures that
reigned in the organization. A sample of the employees was
obtained with the aim of getting data from them that was to help
in solving the problem at hand.
The process of picking a sample population for the surveys took
many factors into consideration to ensure that the information
given out had no biases. Once the sample was obtained a
questionnaire that included all the aspects and classes of factors
that were being tested was issued to some of them, while others
were subjected to oral questioning with the promise that their
identities were to be concealed. The questionnaire was divided
into three sections with each section taking care of the
requirements of the instruments used in this analysis to bring
out a comprehensive result. Comment by dpeck: What
sampling method did you use? How did you determine the
sample. Comment by dpeck: Why did you split up the methods
like this?
The questionnaires were issued to the sampled population and
the various points classified since the questionnaires covered a
lot of data and it was in depth and could not easily be
understood. The data collection agents were to aid in the filling
of the questionnaires, and the employees were told to fill in the
answers to the questions to the best of their ability and with
7. sincerity, since their life depended on the descriptions they
gave. Comment by dpeck: If the questionnaire cannot be
understood, it is not a valid or reliable instrument to use.
Comment by dpeck: This is a bit strong - don't you think?
The questions comprised of yes/no options to light descriptive
prompts as they progressed to demanding questions where the
respondent was required to write briefly about the organization
before the expansion and after the expansion. What the
expansion meant to them, what the expansion and creation of
new branches meant to them at personal levels without paying
attention to other factors that didn’t concern them. Comment by
dpeck: Are you using one of the identified instruments here or
are you asking open ended questions? It isn't clear what you are
doing.
The information on the job rating form was to be filled in by the
researchers as they had to watch what transpires in the
organization during work hours and other free hours for some
days and the score for each event noted down. The members of
the management of the organization were also asked to note
down the work performance of a selected number of the
employees. This sampled number of employees also was picked
on an unbiased procedure that was geared to giving out the
information that was going be used in establishing a summary
measure of the effectiveness of work conducted or done by the
organization on three scales across all the supervisory managers
that were asked to rate the employees. Comment by dpeck: I
am not sure where you are getting this methodology. There is no
supportive evidence that backs it up.
Scoring cards were made where the answers for each section of
the questions on the questionnaire were scored from all the
questionnaires from the employees. For instance, the answers
for section one were all responses to the data needs of job
description survey. The group then went ahead to issue custom
made questionnaires to the managers and other officials since
the activity was to aid in evaluating the company to come up
with the reasons. And the reasons were to explain why there was
8. a decrease in the productivity and loss of interest in some of the
activities that were functional as cultures in the organization
like the motivational strategies.
Data on absence from work or absenteeism from duty at the
organization were fed to the information collection sheet from
the records of the organization based on the attendance sheet on
the reception desk. These records had a clear indication of both
the periods when the employees were motivated to work and
could miss and when they began to lose interest in the
motivational activities that were installed by the company.
In the scorecards, these are the sections that were to be filled
and documented. Under job dimensions, the information that
was collected were summarized in the columns of autonomy,
dealing with others, feedback from the agents, feedback from
the job and task significance. Under the effective responses to
the job, the data collected were summarized under general
satisfaction, the motivations that originated from within the
work and the security of the job.
References Comment by dpeck: You will need to review the
format of these references and edit them for the next part you
submit.
I don't see where you used most of these references in your
9. paper.
Gillespie, M.A., Balzer, W.K., Brodke, M.H., Garza, M.,
Gerbec, E. N., Gillespie, J.Z. Gopalkrishnan, P., Lengyel, J.S.,
Silter, K.A., Silter, M.T., Withrow, S.A., & Yugo, J.E. (2009).
Normative Measurement of Job Satisfaction in the U.S. Journal
of Managerial Psychology. Vol. 20, No. 1.
Kanungo, R. N. (1982). Measurement of job and work
involvement. Journal of Applied Psychology, 67(3), 341–349.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Knoop, R. (1995). Relationships among job involvement, job
satisfaction, and organizational commitment for nurses. Journal
of Psychology, 129(6), 643. Retrieved from the Walden Library
databases
Morrow, P. C. (1983). Concept redundancy in organizational
research: The case of work commitment. Academy of
Management Review, 8(3), 486–500. Retrieved from the Walden
Library databases
Rabinowitz, S., & Hall, D. T. (1977). Organizational research
on job involvement. Psychological Bulletin, 84(2), 265–288.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Saal, F. E. (1978). Job involvement: A multivariate approach.
Journal of Applied Psychology, 63(1), 53–61. Retrieved from
the Walden Library databases.
Spector, P. E. (1994). Job satisfaction survey, JSS page.
Retrieved on March 25, 2017 from
http://shell.cas.usf.edu/~pspector/scales/jsspag.html
Van Saane, N., Sluiter, J. K., Verbeek, J. H. A. M., & Frings-
Dresen, M. H. W. (2003). Reliability and validity of instruments
measuring job satisfaction: A systematic review. Occupational
Medicine, 53(3), 191–200.
Sunshine Sports Introduction
Program Transcript
10. BENJAMIN JONES: Hi, I'm Benjamin Jones co-founder of
Walden Sports. Come on in. Thank you for coming in today. As
you know, I want to make some changes that will benefit our
employees, and I'm really looking forward to hearing from you
how you might be able to help. There's a lot to go over. I think
I'll just start by giving you the lay of the land.
Walden Sports was founded just over 12 years ago. And we've
expanded our product line to include everything that
adventurous travelers demand from sleeping bags, to tents, to
guide books, maps, even insurance. Our clothing and equipment
sales are $1,420,000 per year with a gross profit of $202,400.
We employ 70 people part-time and full-time distributed over a
variety of departments, including finance, marketing, and
operations.
And really exciting, we've recently started a mail order division
through our website which has required our establishing a mail
order fulfillment department and an IT department. Business has
been so good the last few years we're able to donate 5% of our
gross profit to charity. Last year, Walden acquired an agency
called Earth Travelers, one of the most respected tour operators
in the market, and we began selling their services in our stores.
In the six months that we've been selling these travel agency
services we've sold 200 vacation packages at an average cost of
$3,340. Walden Sports is 10% commission on the sales has been
$66,800.
In addition, 35 insurance policies have been sold at an average
price of $167 yielding $1,754 from a 30% commission. This
growth which at first seemed like a blessing, has caused some
major challenges for us though. In the past six months, we've
seen a sharp decrease in productivity and an increase in
turnover and absenteeism. Moreover, people don't seem as
energized and motivated as they once were. There was once a
time when our employees would not only work late but reach
out and offer assistance to other employees who are falling
behind in their workload. We don't see that anymore.
We used to have social activities and happy hour at least once a
14. you explored job satisfaction and job commitment. Employees’
self-esteem and sense of identity can fluctuate to some degree
depending on their relationship with their job; that is, their job
involvement. As the CEO of Walden Sports described, the
employees have experienced changes in their company that have
had an overall negative impact on their job involvement, job
satisfaction, and organizational commitment. In your role as a
consultant, you are charged with recognizing factors that impact
job involvement, including role conflict, as well as measuring
job involvement in order to make recommendations for
improvement.
This week, you look at how job involvement differs from job
satisfaction and organizational commitment, and you consider
role conflict and its effect on job involvement. In addition, you
complete Part 1 of the Methods section of your Final Project, in
which you explore instruments to measure job
involvement.Objectives
Students will:
· Differentiate job involvement from job satisfaction and
organizational commitment
· Analyze effect of role conflict on job involvement
· Evaluate instruments to measure job attitudes
· Apply appropriate APA style in the development of Methods
sections Introduction
Work is one of the fundamental aspects of life. In Weeks 1–3,
you explored job satisfaction and job commitment. Employees’
self-esteem and sense of identity can fluctuate to some degree
depending on their relationship with their job; that is, their job
involvement. As the CEO of Walden Sports described, the
employees have experienced changes in their company that have
had an overall negative impact on their job involvement, job
satisfaction, and organizational commitment. In your role as a
consultant, you are charged with recognizing factors that impact
job involvement, including role conflict, as well as measuring
job involvement in order to make recommendations for
improvement.
15. This week, you look at how job involvement differs from job
satisfaction and organizational commitment, and you consider
role conflict and its effect on job involvement. In addition, you
complete Part 1 of the Methods section of your Final Project, in
which you explore instruments to measure job
involvement.Objectives
Students will:
· Differentiate job involvement from job satisfaction and
organizational commitment
· Analyze effect of role conflict on job involvement
· Evaluate instruments to measure job attitudes
· Apply appropriate APA style in the development of Methods
sections
FOLLOW THIS TEMPLATE
Methods Section
Participants
Describe all of your participants from whom you collected data.
Include information such as number of participants, age, race,
tenure with organization, organizational level, job title, et
cetera. If you used focus groups, what was the size of the
groups?
Measures
Here, describe and list, in detail, all of the quantitative
measuring instruments and data collection tools (e.g., survey
instruments) and/or qualitative forms and data collection tools
(e.g., interview and focus group questions). Please include all
forms used in an Appendix. Please be sure to also provide an
explanation and justification of these instruments. Finally, be
sure to properly cite any sources for your instruments and
questions.
16. · Summarize the three instruments you used to measure job
satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job involvement in
the organization as well as the diagnostic instruments you
selected.
· Please describe the items and scoring method from each
instrument you used as part of your diagnostic survey.
· Provide an example item from each scale you selected and
describe the scale anchors used to score the instrument.
· Describe the psychometric properties (reliability and validity)
of the instrument.
· Justify your use of these instruments.
· Summarize the psychometric properties of the instruments.
Procedures
Here, describe exactly how the data were collected.
Data Analysis
Here, describe how you analyzed your data. If you collected
quantitative data, how were scores on items computed? Did you
aggregate scores on specific items to create a variable score
(e.g., a score for job satisfaction)? Did you compute means and
standard deviations? Did you compute frequencies of responses?
For qualitative data, how did you generate themes and did you
use specific software to do so?
· Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2008). Towards a model of
work engagement. Career Development International,
13(3),209–223. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
· Christian, M. S., Garza, A. S., & Slaughter, J. E. (2011). Work
engagement: A quantitative review and test of its relations with
17. task and contextual performance. Personnel Psychology, 64(1),
89–136.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
· Dalal, R. S., Brummel, B. J., Wee, S., & Thomas, L. L.
(2008). Defining employee engagement for productive research
and practice. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 1(1),
52–55.
Defining Employee Engagement for Productive Research and
Practice by Dalal, R. S., Brummel, B. J., Wee, S., & Thomas, L.
L. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 1(2008), 60-62.
Copyright 2008 by Cambridge University Press. Used with
permission of Cambridge University Press via the Copyright
Clearance Center.
· Demerouti, E., Mostert, K., & Bakker, A. B. (2010). Burnout
and work engagement: A thorough investigation of the
independency of both constructs. Journal of Occupational
Health Psychology, 15(3), 209–222.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
· Frese, M. (2008). The word is out: We need an active
performance concept for modern workplaces.Industrial and
Organizational Psychology, 1(1), 67–69.
The word is out: We need an active performance concept for
modern workplaces by Frese, M. in Industrial and
Organizational Psychology, 1(2008), 67-69. Copyright 2008 by
Cambridge University Press. Used with permission of
Cambridge University Press via the Copyright Clearance Center.
· Griffin, M. A., Parker, S. K., & Neal, A. (2008). Is behavioral
engagement a distinct and useful construct?Industrial and
Organizational Psychology, 1(1), 48–51.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Is behavioral engagement a distinct and useful construct by
Griffin, M.A., & Parker, S.K. in Industrial and Organizational
Psychology, 1(2008), 48-51. Copyright 2008 by Cambridge
18. University Press. Used with permission of Cambridge
University Press via the Copyright Clearance Center.
· Hallberg, U. E., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2006). “Same same” but
different? Can work engagement be discriminated from job
involvement and organizational commitment? European
Psychologist, 11(2),119–127.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
· Harter, J. K., & Schmidt, F. L. (2008). Conceptual versus
empirical distinctions among constructs: Implications for
discriminant validity. Industrial and Organizational Psychology,
1(1), 36–39.
Conceptual versus empirical distinctions among constructs:
Implications for discriminant validity by Harter, J.K. in
Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 1(2008), 36-39.
Copyright 2008 by Cambridge University Press. Used with
permission of Cambridge University Press via the Copyright
Clearance Center.
· Hirschfeld, R. R., & Thomas, C. H. (2008). Representations of
trait engagement: Integration, additions, and
mechanisms.Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 1(1),
63–66.
Representations of trait engagement: Integration, additions, and
mechanisms by Hirschfeld, R.R., & Thomas, C.H. in Industrial
and Organizational Psychology, 1(2008), 63-66. Copyright 2008
by Cambridge University Press. Used with permission of
Cambridge University Press via the Copyright Clearance Center.
· Macey, W. H., & Schneider, B. (2008a). Engaged in
engagement: We are delighted we did it. Industrial and
Organizational Psychology, 1(1), 76–83.
Engaged in engagement: We are delighted we did it Macey,
W.H., & Schneider, B. in Industrial and Organizational
Psychology, 1(2008), 76-83. Copyright 2008 by Cambridge
University Press. Used with permission of Cambridge
19. University Press via the Copyright Clearance Center.
· Macey, W. H., & Schneider, B. (2008b). The meaning of
employee engagement.Industrial and Organizational
Psychology, 1(1), 3–30.
The meaning of employee engagement by Macey, W.H., &
Schneider, B. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology,
1(2008), 76-83. Copyright 2008 by Cambridge University Press.
Used with permission of Cambridge University Press via the
Copyright Clearance Center.
· Masson, R. C., Royal, M. A., Agnew, T. G., & Fine, S. (2008).
Leveraging employee engagement: The practical
implications.Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 1(1),56–
59.
Leveraging employee engagement: The practical implications by
Masson, R.C., Royal, M.A., Agnew, T.G., & Fine, S. in
Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 1(2008), 56-59.
Copyright 2008 by Cambridge University Press. Used with
permission of Cambridge University Press via the Copyright
Clearance Center.
· Meyer, J. P., & Gagné, M. (2008). Employee engagement from
a self-determination theory perspective.Industrial and
Organizational Psychology, 1(1), 60–62.
Employee Engagement from a Self-Determination Theory
Perspective by Meyer, J.P., & Gagne, M. in Industrial and
Organizational Psychology, 1(2008), 60-62. Copyright 2008 by
Cambridge University Press. Used with permission of
Cambridge University Press via the Copyright Clearance Center.
· Newman, D. A., & Harrison, D. A. (2008). Been there, bottled
that: Are state and behavioral work engagement new and useful
construct “wines”? Industrial and Organizational Psychology,
1(1), 31–35.
· Pugh, S. D., & Dietz, J. (2008). Employee engagement at the
organizational level of analysis. Industrial and Organizational
20. Psychology, 1(1), 44–47.
· Saks, A. M. (2008). The meaning and bleeding of employee
engagement: How muddy is the water? Industrial and
Organizational Psychology, 1(1), 40–43.