Development and validation of the Work Style Reform Scale

Abstract

In Japan, the “Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts to Promote Work Style Reform” was enforced in 2019 to reduce long working hours. However, work style reforms largely depend on workers’ and companies’ awareness and abilities. This study aimed to develop the Work Style Reform scale to assess the competencies required for work style reform and to examine its validity and reliability. This study was conducted with a diverse sample of 1,641 Japanese workers, and 17 questions across three subscales—Work Style, Personal Style, and Work Environment—were developed. After a response bias analysis, some items were discarded based on an exploratory factor analysis; the reliability coefficients were calculated; and a confirmatory factor analysis was performed. The convergent and discriminant validity were evaluated through a multi-trait multi-method analysis. Finally, nine questions remained. Construct validity, reliability and convergent validity were sufficient for all Subscales, and discriminant validity was sufficient only for Work Style. In conclusion, while Work Style was sufficient, issues remained in other subscales. To improve the accuracy of them in the future, it is necessary to examine the validation of discriminant validity using different indicates and the addition of new items to the smallest subscale; Personal Style.