Reliability and Validity of the Japanese version of the Job Characteristics Scale among nurses

Abstract

Job characteristics theory proposes that five job characteristics of skill variety, task significance, task identity, autonomy, and feedback are associated with internal motivation and these affect work-related outcomes. This study developed a Japanese version of the Job Characteristics Scale based on the modified scale (Idaszak & Drasgow, 1987) of the Job Diagnostic Survey (Hackman & Oldham, 1975), which includes a scale for measuring the five job characteristics, and verified its reliability and validity in nurses. Permission from the original author was obtained beforehand. In June 2017, anonymous self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 308 nurses working in an acute care hospital, and 297 responses were collected. The responses of 240 with no missing values in the developed scale were analyzed. All Cronbach's alphas for the subscales were over 0.7, the item-total correlation coefficients were 0.46–0.67, and the intraclass correlation coefficients by a retest method were 0.62–0.71. Four factors were extracted by exploratory factor analysis. However, the results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed higher goodness of fit for the five-factor model based on the theory than the four-factor model identified by exploratory factor analysis. To confirm criterion validity, correlation coefficients of each subscale of the developed scale with job satisfaction and psychological empowerment were calculated. Significant correlations were found as assumed (coefficients were 0.23–0.53 for job satisfaction and 0.16–0.73 for psychological empowerment). Internal consistency, reproducibility, factorial validity, and criterion validity were confirmed, demonstrating acceptable reliability and validity of the developed scales for use by nurses.