| Item Text | Actively tested |
|---|---|
a) I am willing to work harder than I have to in order to contribute to the success of my company/ organization.Item Text:Recommendations:
We recommend adding the word "current" to this statement (see item c) to make it clear that the statement refers to current and not former employment. We also suggest that the subordinate clause be placed at the beginning of the sentence to prevent it from being ignored when answering the item. A possible formulation would be:
“To contribute to the success of my current company/organization, I am willing to work harder than I normally have to.” [„Um zum Erfolg meiner jetzigen Firma/Organisation beizutragen, bin ich bereit, härter zu arbeiten als ich normalerweise muss.“] Findings:Two thirds (n = 10) of the test persons agree or strongly agree with the statement.
Test person 05 spontaneously comments that it is unclear to her whether this item refers only to the company/organization she is currently working for or whether it is more a general attitude: "I ask myself, is this about my company where I am currently working? Or, if I were to work for another company tomorrow, that I could now name my future company? I am just thinking about whether this is a general question. Am I generally willing to do these things for my company or is it a snapshot of the current company?” (TP 05). This respondent states that an explicit reference to the "current" company, as in item c), would clarify the intention of the question and facilitate the answer. The spontaneous comments of test subject 08 and test subject 12 make it clear that item a) may be difficult for civil servants or employees in non-profit organizations to answer because these companies/organizations are not geared to maximize profits and it is therefore unclear how the success of the companies/organizations can be measured:
Test person 14 (strongly disagree) thought of their current job when answering the statement, and test person 02 (don’t know) - due to the misinterpretation of the term "organization" - thought of different activities in different companies. The remaining four test subjects (TP 03, TP 04, TP 09, TP 13) ignored the subordinate clause "to contribute to the success of my company/organization" when answering the statement and only referred to whether they were generally willing or able to work harder than necessary (for whatever purpose) when answering the item:
Question Topic:
Job and career/ Job motivation & attitudes
Construct:Commitment to employer
|
Yes |
b) I am proud to work for my company/organization.Item Text:Recommendations:
Again, we recommend adding the word "current" to the statement to make it clear that the statement refers to current and not former employment:
“I am proud to work for my current company/organization.” [„Ich bin stolz darauf, für meine jetzige Firma/Organisation zu arbeiten.“] Findings:The majority of the test persons (n = 11) agree or strongly agree with this statement. Two test persons (TP 09, TP 15) answer with "neither nor" and two other test persons answer with "Don’t know" (TP 02, TP 14). Subject 02 justifies her "don’t know" answer with difficulties in understanding the term "organization" (see general findings on question 5) and subject 14 states that she has problems with the answer scale in this statement: She can only "rather agree" and since this category is not offered, she chooses "Don’t know.“
With the exception of test person 02, all test persons stated that they had thought of their company/organization when answering this statement. Four of these respondents (TP 09, TP 11, TP 13, TP 15) also note that the phrase "be proud" is too strong or somewhat exaggerated:
Question Topic:
Job and career/ Job motivation & attitudes
Construct:Commitment to employer
|
Yes |
c) I would refuse another, better paid job to stay with my current company/organization.Item Text:Recommendations:
We recommend avoiding the negative wording "reject" in this statement, as this causes difficulties in using the response scale. A possible reformulation would be:
“I would stay with my current company/organization, even if they offered me another, better-paid position." [„Ich würde bei meiner jetzigen Firma/Organisation bleiben, auch wenn man mir eine andere, besser bezahlte Stelle anbieten würde.“] Findings:Three test persons (TP 02, TP 11, TP 14) answered with "Don’t know" and justified their answer with the fact that it depends on the respective circumstances whether one would refuse such a position or not. Several factors (and not only payment) would play a role here: "The statement is formulated too generally. There are certainly 1,000 other reasons why you would turn something down, and not just because the current company is so great. It depends on the individual case, the situation. For example, whether the head of the other company is good." (TP 14)
The remaining test persons agree (n = 5) and disagree (n = 7) with the statement in approximately equal parts. However, the questions of the test leaders made it clear that in this second group a total of three test persons (TP 03, TP 04, TP 09) had ticked off a "wrong" answer because of the negatively formulated item and the associated difficulty in expressing with the answer scale that they wanted to stay with the current company or felt comfortable with it, and actually wanted to answer "agree" instead of "disagree”:
Question Topic:
Job and career/ Job motivation & attitudes
Construct:Commitment to employer
|
Yes |
