Multimethod Job Design Questionnaire

Description

The Multimethod Job Design Questionnaire (MJDQ) was developed by Campion (1988) to more accurately describe a wide range of features of jobs. Other measures have focused on the motivational aspects of jobs and have included aspects such as autonomy, intrinsic feedback, extrinsic feed­ back, social interaction, goal clarity, participation, and recognition. The MJDQ also covers mechanistic, biological, and perceptual/motor aspects of jobs. These four dimensions (motivational, mechanistic, biological, and per­ ceptual/motor aspects of jobs) represent a synthesis of alternative view­ points about a job. That is, the traditional motivational perspective focuses on the psychological meaning of jobs and looks to enhance job aspects such as autonomy, skill variety, and task significance. Other disciplines such as industrial engineering focus more on the mechanistic aspects of jobs, whereas ergonomics focuses on the human factors or perceptual/motor aspects of jobs. The biological view focuses on work physiology and aims to minimize physical stress and strain on the worker (Campion, 1988).

Reliability

Coefficient alpha values for the motivational aspects of jobs ranged from .81 to .94 (Campion & McClelland, 1991; Wong & Campion, 1991). Alpha val­ ues for mechanistic aspects of jobs ranged from .75 to .89, from .72 to .88 for biological aspects of jobs, and from .85 to .93 for perceptual/motor aspects of jobs (Campion, 1988; Campion & McClelland, 1991). Correlations among job ratings provided by job incumbents, managers, and job analysts ranged from .76 to .86 for motivational, mechanistic, and perceptual/motor aspects of jobs. The correlations among ratings of biological aspects were small and not statistically significant (Campion, 1988).

Validity

Motivational job design correlated positively with an employee’s affective view of the job, mental ability level required, mental demands, better customer service, and job efficiency (Campion & McClelland, 1991; Wong & Campion, 1991). Mechanistic and perceptual/motordesign correlated negatively with mental demands of a job (Campion & McClelland, 1991).

Source

Items

Respondents indicate the extent to which each statement is descriptive of their job on a scale where 1 = strongly agree, 2 = agree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 4 = disagree, 5 = strongly disagree, and (blank)= don’t know or not applicable. Scores for each scale are averages of the items.

Motivational scale items:

1. The job allows freedom, independence, or discretion in work scheduling, sequence, methods, procedures, quality control, or other decision making
2. Intrinsic job The work activities themselves provide direct and clear information as to the effectiveness (e.g., quality and quantity) of your job performance
3. Extrinsic job Other people in the organization, such as managers and co-workers, provide information as to the effectiveness (e.g., quality and quantity) of your job performance
4. Social The job provides for positive social interaction such as teamwork or co-worker assistance
5. Task/goal The job duties, requirements, and goals are clear and specific
6. Task The job has a variety of duties, tasks, and activities
7. Task The job requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work. It gives you a chance to do an entire piece of work from beginning to end
8. Ability/skill-level requirements. The job requires a high level of knowledge, skills, and abilities
9. Ability/skill The job requires a variety of knowledge, skills, and abilities
10. Task significance. The job is significant and important compared with other jobs in the organization
11. Growth/learning. The job allows opportunities for learning and growth in competence and proficiency
12. There are opportunities for advancement to higher-level jobs
13. The job provides for feelings of achievement and task accomplishment
14. The job allows participation in work-related decision making
15. The job has access to relevant communication channels and information flows
16. Pay adequacy. The pay on this job is adequate compared with the job requirements and with the pay in similar jobs
17. The job provides acknowledgment and recognition from others
18. Job People on this job have high job security

Mechanistic scale items:

19. Job The job is highly specialized in terms of purpose, tasks, or activities
20. Specialization of tools and The tools, procedures, materials, and so forth used on this job are highly specialized in terms of purpose
21. Task The tasks are simple and uncomplicated
22. Single The job requires you to do only one task or activity at a time
23. Skill simplification. The job requires relatively little skill and training time
24. The job requires performing the same activity(ies) repeatedly
25. Spare time. There is very little spare time between activities on this job
26. Many of the activities of this job are automated or assisted by automation

Biological scale items:

27. The job requires fairly little muscular strength
28. The job requires fairly little lifting and/or the lifting is of very light weights
29. The job requires fairly little muscular endurance
30. The seating arrangements on the job are adequate (e.g., ample opportunities to sit, comfortable chairs, good postural support, etc.)
31. Size The work place allows for all size differences between people in terms of clearance, reach, eye height, legroom, and so forth
32. Wrist The job allows the wrists to remain straight without excessive movement
33. The work place is free from excessive noise
34. The climate at the work place is comfortable in terms of temperature and humidity and it is free of excessive dust and fumes
35. Work There is adequate time for work breaks given the demands of the job
36. Shift The job does not require shift work or excessive overtime

Perceptual/motor items:

37. The lighting in the work place is adequate and free from glare
38. The displays, gauges, meters, and computerized equipment on this job are easy to read and understand
39. The programs in the computerized equipment on this job are easy to learn and use
40. Other The other equipment (all types) used on this job is easy to learn and use
41. Printed job materials. The printed materials used on this job are ea y to read and interpret
42. Work place The work place is laid out so that you can see and hear well to perform the job
43. Information input The amount of information you must attend to in order to perform this job is fairly minimal
44. Information output The amount of information you must put out on this job, in terms of both action and communication, is fairly minimal
45. Information processing The amount of information you must process, in terms of thinking and problem solving, is fairly minimal
46. Memory requirements. The amount of information you must remember on this job is fairly minimal
47. There is relatively little stress on this job
48. The chances of boredom on this job are fairly small