Organizational Frustration Scale

Spector, P. E. (1975). Organizational Frustration Scale. Princeton, NJ: ETS Test Collection.

Comments: The 29-item OF Scale assesses organizational frustration. The original OF Scale consisted of 37 items based on the responses of 25 workers to the question “What is frustrating?” After an item analysis, only 29 items were re- tained that dealt with a job, a supervisor, and a job environment as they related to frustration (“the interference with an ongoing overt or covert response sequence”). The author has also developed the Work Locus of Control Scale (1988). Sample: The sample consisted of 71 workers employed in a mental health institution and 10 additional workers includ-

ing secretaries, nurses, custodians, clerical workers, and mental health aides.

Reliability: The alpha coefficient was 0.88 for the second sample of 50 workers.

Validity: Predicative validity was established through significant correlations between the OF Scale and the following worker behaviors: sabotage, hostility, and indirect aggression.

Factor Analysis: A principal components factor analysis with a varimax rotation yielded the following six factors: aggression against others, sabotage, wasting of time and materials, interpersonal hostility and complaining, interpersonal aggression, and apathy about the job.

Data Analysis: Scale means and standard deviations are reported. Norms are available from a psychiatric hospital (31 workers), general hospital (120 workers), county engineering department (44 workers), general hospital (140 work- ers), federal government (101 workers), and state research organizations (82 workers).

References

Organizational Frustration Scale

1. People act nasty toward me at work.
2. I find that every time I try to do something at work I run into obstacles.
3. There are a lot of petty and arbitrary rules at work.
4. I feel thwarted in my efforts to be creative.
5. My supervisor is always chewing me out.
6. My supervisor feels my performance is worse than it is.
7. I find it easy to talk to my supervisor.
8. I feel that I am accomplishing something worthwhile at work.
9. I enjoy my job.
10. The demands made of me at work are reasonable.
11. Policies at work are not fair.
12. My work area is a pleasant place to be.
13. I often feel that I am being run ragged.
14. I am given entirely too much work to do.
15. I find that some of the people I have to deal with are not competent.

16. I often have problems doing my job because of the incompetence of others.
17. My supervisor always seems to be looking over my shoulder.
18. My supervisor does not trust me.
19. I feel trapped in my job.
20. My job is not at all fulfilling.
21. I dread having to interact with my supervisor.
22. I do not like many of the tasks I have to do.
23. My job is boring and monotonous.
24. I get blamed for things that are not my fault.
25. I don’t have the authority to do what I am supposed to do at work.
26. It seems that one person tells me to do one thing and another person tells me to do something else at work.
27. I am told to do things I don’t think I should do at work.
28. I often have to waste time doing administrative tasks at work.
29. I often feel frustrated at work.

Scoring: Agree completely = +3; Agree pretty much = +2; Agree slightly = +1; Disagree completely = −3; Disagree pretty much = −2; and Disagree slightly = −1. Items 1–6, 11, and 13–29 are worded positively (+3 means maximum frustration and –3 means minimum frustration). Items 7–10 and 12 are worded negatively (+3 means minimum frustra- tion and −3 means maximum frustration).