AN EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION OF SEVERAL JOB ATTRACTION MEASURES.

Abstract

Recently, an increasing amount of job satisfaction research has been devoted to examining the relative usefulness of different ways of combining job facet satisfaction scores. However, Wanous and Lawler [16] have suggested that it may be more fruitful to examine various operational definitions of job attraction. This study presents an initial attempt in that direction by formulating nine operational definitions of job attraction and by providing a first set of empirical evidence for a conceptual framework of job attraction. The purposes of the study summarized here were to: (a) formulate nine operational definitions of job attraction; (b) examine the relationship of seven of these measures with a measure of overall job attraction and two traditional measures of overall job satisfaction; (c) consider whether a corresponding set of seven definitions of job satisfaction yield empirically more comparable measures; and (d) perform a multi-trait-multimethod matrix analysis to determine if it is possible to validly measure individual's attraction to their jobs. A recent review [16] of various operational definitions of job satisfaction revealed that: (a) while it is possible to validly measure people's satisfaction with different facets of their jobs, (b) the operational definitions considered do not yield empirically comparable measures of satisfaction, and (c) job attraction may be a better predictor of turnover and absenteeism than is job satisfaction. As over 3,000 articles concerning job satisfaction have appeared in the literature over the past 30 years [10] and job satisfaction measures have not always been strongly related to absenteeism and turnover [2; 14; 15], it is important at this point to explore not only the relationship between job attraction and satisfaction, but also to consider several operational definitions of job attraction. Since apparently no studies have measured job attraction in more than one way and compared the results, it is not at all clear whether several conceptual definitions of attraction that can be formulated do, in fact, measure the same thing. The purposes of the study summarized here were to: (a) formulate nine operational definitions of job attraction; (b) examine the relationship of seven of these measures with a measure of overall job attraction and two traditional measures of overall job satisfaction; (c) consider whether a corresponding set of seven definitions of job satisfaction yield empirically more comparable measures; and (d) perform a multi- trait-multimethod matrix analysis to determine if it is possible to validly measure individuals' attraction to their jobs.