A “quiet quitting” scale: development and validation

Abstract

Purpose Many principles and paradigms that influenced the labour system before the COVID-19 pandemic have changed, and the academic and corporate communities are struggling to make sense of the paradigm shifts the authors have entered. One of the organisational phenomena highlighted after the COVID-19 pandemic is “Quiet quitting”, that is, the tendency for workers to do the bare minimum tasks necessary for their occupations to avoid getting dismissed. This phenomenon may substantially impact both organisations and workers. As a result, academic interest in “Quiet quitting” has recently proliferated. Upon using leader-member exchange, organisational support and social exchange theories, this paper aims to propose and validate a scale measuring the new construct, “Quiet Quitting”. Design/methodology/approach A sample of 1,430 valid questionnaires from individuals working in different industries, organisations and regions in the USA were examined using normality and Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin tests, as well as factor, reliability and nomological validity analyses. Findings Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and reliability and nomological validity evaluations validate the proposed “Quiet Quitting” scale. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the proposed and validated “Quiet Quitting” scale is original. Since this scale may help to examine crucial management-worker dynamics in organisations, it may be subsequently developed and used by researchers in future studies.