Job Role Discretion scale

Description

This measure, (Job Role Discretion) developed by Gregersen and Black (1992), assesses the extent to which employees believe their job role gives them discretion to make choices about how and when things are done. The greater an individual’s dis­cretion as to what work gets done, how it gets done, and by whom, the greater the empowering sense of responsibility the individual would feel for those decisions. Thus, regardless of the job, role discretion is likely to increase felt responsibility. Role discretion may be particularly relevant to internation­ ally assigned employees who are in autonomous roles away from a parent company’s headquarters (Gregersen & Black, 1992).

Reliability

Coefficient alpha values ranged from .80 to .87 (Aryee, Chay, & Tan, 1994; Gregersen & Black, 1992; Gregersen & Stroh, 1997).

Validity

Role discretion was negatively correlated with role conflict and ambiguity. Role discretion was positively correlated with role clarity, having an organi­zational sponsor, organizational commitment to both the parent company and a foreign operation, and work adjustment. (Gregersen & Black, 1992; Gregersen & Stroh, 1997).

Source

Items

Responses are obtained on a 5-point Likert-type scale where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree.

1. I have discretion as to what work gets done.
2. I have discretion as to how work gets done.
3. I have authority to decide what tasks to delegate.
4. I have freedom to choose what to become an expert in
5. I have discretion as to what tasks subordinates do.
6. I have authority to decide what work gets shared.
7. I have freedom to decide how much of a generalist or expert to become.
8. I have discretion as to what I am responsible for