The factorial structure of job-related affective well-being: Polish adaptation of the Warr’s measure

Abstract

Objectives: The first aim of the study reported in this article was to test the factorial structure of job-related affect in a Polish sample. The second aim was to develop the Polish adaptation of the Warr's job-related affective well-being measure published in 1990, which is designed to assess 4 types of affect at work: anxiety, comfort, depression, enthusiasm. Material and Methods: A longitudinal study design with 2 measurement times was used for verifying the psychometric properties of the Polish version of the measure. The final sample consisted of 254 Polish employees from different professions. Participants were asked to fill in a set of questionnaires consisting of measures capturing job-related affective well-being, mood, and turnover intention. Results: The first step of analysis was to test the theoretically-based structure of the job-related affective well-being measure in a Polish sample. The confirmatory factor analysis revealed that a 4-factor model best describes the structure of the measure in comparison to 5 alternative models. Next, reliability of this measure was assessed. All scales achieved good internal consistency and acceptable test-retest reliability after 2 weeks. Finally, the convergent and discriminant validity as well as the criterion and predictive validity of all job-related affective well-being scales was confirmed, based on correlations between job-related affect and mood as well as turnover intention. Conclusions: The results suggest that the Polish adaptation of Warr's job-related affective well-being measure can be used by scientists as well as by practitioners who aim at assessing 4 types of affective well-being at a work context. Int J Occup Med Environ Health 2018;31(4)

Test of the bifactor model of job-related affective well-being

“…Our research findings supported the four correlated factors model over the proposed bifactor model. According to our results, neither the bifactor, nor a single factor or hierarchical model fit the data better than the four factor model; this is consistent with the results of other studies (Gonçalves & Neves, 2011;Laguna, Mielniczuk, et al, 2017;Mäkikangas et al, 2007;Mielniczuk & Laguna, 2018). All of those findings confirm that job-related affective well-being, as measured by Warr's instrument (1990) capture four specific, interrelated affective dimensions.…”

“…First, our analyses were based on samples coming from one country, Poland. Even if the factorial structure of the measure was confirmed in other samples of Polish employees (different than one presented in this paper, i.e., employees of small and medium size companies Laguna, Mielniczuk, et al, 2017;Mielniczuk & Laguna, 2018) and shows cross-culture invariance (Laguna, Mielniczuk, et al, 2017;Mielniczuk & Laguna, 2018), the bifactor model should be examined further in other cultural contexts.…”

“…The factorial structure of the measure proposed by Warr (1990) was assessed in a several studies (Cifre & Salanova, 2002;Daniels et al, 1997;Gonçalves & Neves, 2011;Laguna, Mielniczuk, et al, 2017;Mäkikangas et al, 2007;Mielniczuk & Laguna, 2018;Sevastos et al, 1992;Van Horn et al, 2004;Warr, 1990) Investigations of the general factor of job-related affective well-being (Gonçalves & Neves, 2011;Van Horn et al, 2004) raise the question of how well-being should be understood: Does it primarily refer to specific affective dimensions, or should it be considered as a more global phenomenon that captures the general subjective estimation of whether a person feels well or unwell at work? Both conceptualizations are of interest in counselling and in work and organizational psychology research.…”

“…Job-related affective well-being was evaluated using the Polish version (Mielniczuk & Laguna, 2018) of the measure proposed by Warr (1990). It consisted of 12 items and answers were given on a 6-point scale (1 = never; 2 = occasionally; 3 = some of the time; 4 = much of the time; 5 = most of the time; 6 = all of the time).…”

“…Job-related affective well-being was assessed using the Polish version (Mielniczuk & Laguna, 2018) of the measure proposed by Warr (1990).…”