Reducing subjectivity in the assessment of the job environment: development of the Factual Autonomy Scale (FAS)

Self-report measures of job stressors have been criticized for being too subjective, rendering relations with other variables inconclusive. The Factual Autonomy Scale (FAS) was developed to reduce subjectivity by careful choice of fact-based items. Results of two studies showed that when compared to the Job Diagnostic Survey autonomy scale, the FAS demonstrated superior convergent validity with alternate sources (supervisors in Study 1 and coworkers in Study 2), and discriminant validity when correlated with the remaining JDS core characteristics subscales. In addition, the FAS was correlated to a lesser extent than the JDS autonomy scale with job satisfaction. Incumbent FAS scores and not JDS scores correlated significantly with job performance as assessed by supervisors. It is suggested that it is feasible to develop fact-based items for scales of the work environment that reduce the degree of subjectivity of responses. Copyright (C) 2003 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.