Abstract
The Management Standards Indicator Tool (MSIT) is a 35-item self-report measure of the psychosocial work environment designed to assist organizations with psychosocial risk assessment. It is also used in work environment research. Edwards and Webster presented a 25-item version of the MSIT based on the deletion of items having a factor loading of < .65. Stress theory and research suggest that psychosocial hazard exposures may result in harm to the health of workers. Thus, using data collected from three UK organizations (N = 20,406) we compared the concurrent validity of the brief and full versions of the MSIT by exploring the strength of association between each version of the instrument and a measure of psychological wellbeing (GHQ-12 and Maslach Burnout Inventory). Analyses revealed that the brief instrument offered similar but not always equal validity to that of the full version. The results indicate that use of the brief instrument, which would be less disruptive for employees, would not elevate the risk of false negative or false positive findings in risk assessment.
Highlights
The UK Health and Safety Executive’s Management Standards Indicator Tool (MSIT) is a freely available 35-item measure of exposure to seven dimensions of the psychosocial work environment that, if not properly managed, can lead to harm to employees
Should the current study find that the brief version of the MSIT has equivalent validity to the full version, evidence will have been found to support its use in research and practice
The results of our analysis indicate that the brief MSIT scales offer similar but not always equal concurrent validity to that provided by the full MSIT scales
Summary
The UK Health and Safety Executive’s Management Standards Indicator Tool (MSIT) is a freely available 35-item measure of exposure to seven dimensions of the psychosocial work environment that, if not properly managed, can lead to harm to employees. Consistent with transactional stress theory that conceptualizes psychosocial hazard exposures as potential contributory factors in health impairment (Cox & Griffiths, 2010), research has explored associations between psychosocial hazard exposures measured using the MSIT and a variety of health indices (Bartram, Yadegarfar, & Baldwin, 2009; Bevan, Houdmont, & Menear, 2010; Guidi, Bagnara, & Fichera, 2012; Kasi & Haslam, 2013; Kerr, McHugh, & McCrory, 2009; Magnavita, 2012; Marcatto, D’Errico, Di Blas, & Ferrante, 2011; Ravalier, McVicar, & Munn-Giddings, 2013; Toderi et al, 2013) To date, this latter category of studies has explored the MSIT largely in relation to psychological health through the use of many different measurement instruments including the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (Zigmond & Snaith, 1983), the General Wellbeing Questionnaire (Cox, Thirlaway, Gotts, & Cox, 1983), the Job-related Wellbeing Scale (Warr, 1990), the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI; Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1996) and the GHQ-12 (Goldberg & Williams, 1988). Such findings strengthen the case for using the MSIT to assess the risk to health posed by employees’ exposure to psychosocial hazards
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