Job Overload scale

Description

This measure, developed by Caplan, Cobb, French, Van Harrison, and Pinneau (1980), uses 11 items to describe an employee’s job overload. This focuses on the employee’s perceptions of quantitative job overload (rather than mental strain or psychological pressure). It asks for description of the perceived pace and amount of work.

Reliability

Coefficient alpha values ranged from .72 to .81 (Dwyer & Ganster, 1991; Phelan, Bromet, Schwartz, Dew, & Curtis, 1993; Sargent & Terry, 1998; Wallace, 1997).

Validity

Job overload correlated positively with hours worked, competitiveness, firm size, and absenteeism and correlated negatively with work satisfaction, job satisfaction, and professional commitment (Dwyer & Ganster, 1991; Phelan et al., 1993; Sargent & Terry, 1998; Wallace, 1997).

Source

Caplan, R. D., Cobb, S., French, J. R. P., Van Harrison, R., & Pinneau, S. R. (1980). Job demands and worker health. Ann Arbor: University of Michi­ gan, Institute for Social  Research.  Items were taken from  Appendix  E, pp. 238-239. Copyright© 1980. Reproduced with permission.

Items

Responses for items I to 4 are obtained on a 5-point Likert-type scale where I = rarely, 2 = occasionally, 3 = sometimes, 4 = fairly often, and 5 = very often.

1. How often does your job require you to work very fast?
2. How often does your job require you to work very hard?
3. How often does your job leave you with little time to get things done?
4. How often is there a great deal to be done?

Responses for items 5 to 11 are obtained on a 5-point Likert-type scale where 1 = hardly any, 2 = a little,3 = some, 4 = a lot,and 5 = a great deal.

5. How much slowdown in the workload do you experience?
6. How much time do you have to think and contemplate?
7. How much workload do you have?
8. What quantity of work do others expect you to do?
9. How much time do you have to do all your work?
10. How many projects, assignments, or tasks do you have?
11. How many lulls between heavy workload periods do you have?