Developing a New Measure of Work Alienation

Abstract

There is limited research on work alienation in contemporary management studies. One of the possible reasons is the lack of a parsimonious and validated measure of work alienation. The present study reports the construction and evaluation of a new scale for measuring work alienation, in the interest of facilitating further research in this area and aiding the detection and assessment of worker alienation, providing cues to which management should pay attention for any consequent correction, if needed. In Study 1, we developed an initial scale in order to assess the construct and administered it to 99 management executives in India. Exploratory factor analysis led to a revised unidimensional scale, which was then administered to a second sample. In Study 2 (N = 371), confirmatory factor analysis was conducted and the reliability and validity of the scale was assessed. The results indicate good psychometric properties for the newly developed measure of work alienation, providing a robust measure for its use in testing worker alienation and facilitating any required correction to ensure enhanced employee well-being.The concept of alienation has a rich history in the social sciences and is discussed across a broad range of subjects such as theology, philosophy, sociology, psychology, and psychiatry (see Johnson, 1973, for a review of the usage of the

Gender or Occupational Status: What Counts More for Well-Being at Work?

“…The alienation was assessed using the eight-item Work Alienation Scale (Nair & Vohra, 2009) (i.e. "I do not feel connected to the daily events in my workplace").…”

Correlates of work-alienation and positive job attitudes in high- and low-status workers

“…It was studied and discussed across several subjects such as theology, philosophy, sociology, psychology, and psychiatry (Nair & Vohra, 2009). Karl Marx (1844/1961 was the first author that developed the concept of work alienation .…”

“…More recently, researchers (Banai, Reisel, & Probst, 2004;Hirschfeld & Feild, 2000) have tended to return to the unidimensional conceptualization of work alienation (Nair & Vohra, 2009). …”

“…In the present study, we relied on the unidimensional definition of alienation advanced by Nair and Vohra (2009), assuming work alienation as estrangement or disengagement from work role (Ashforth, 1989;Hirschfeld & Feild, 2000;Nair & Vohra, 2009). …”

Drivers and Outcomes of Work Alienation

“…Although previous DRIVERS AND OUTCOMES OF WORK ALIENATION 3 research has reported that alienation is inversely related to a handful of these work characteristics (e.g., Banai & Reisel, 2007;Banai, Reisel, & Probst, 2004), these studies have either used a multidimensional measure of alienation, or a measure of alienation that is too broad in focus. In the present study, a validated, uni-dimensional measure of alienation is used (Nair & Vohra, 2009). Moreover, no other study, to our knowledge, has simultaneously assessed these four precursors of alienation.…”