The event reconstruction method: An efficient measure of experience‐based job satisfaction

Abstract

Job satisfaction is predominantly measured as global attitudinal judgment which requires employees to summarize their experiences across different job situations. In contrast, experience‐based measures assess momentary thoughts and feelings of the employees in specific job situations. This paper introduces the event reconstruction method (ERM) as an efficient measure of experience‐based job satisfaction that is less invasive and less time consuming compared with traditional experience sampling methods. An initial validation study is reported with N=193 employees from a German wholesale company. As expected, job satisfaction measured with the ERM was different from attitudinal job satisfaction. Also, consistent with expectations, experience‐based job satisfaction was a better predictor of self‐reported helping behaviour, whereas attitudinal job satisfaction was a better predictor of turnover intentions. Finally, comparing the ERM results with the results of a similar study using a traditional experience sampling method (Fisher, 2002) revealed very similar patterns.