VandeWalle, D. (1997). Development and validation of a Work Domain Goal Orientation Instrument. Educational and Psychological Measurement 57:995–1015.
Comments: The 16-item instrument measures the goal orientation of adults. An excellent summary of goal orientation instruments is included.
Scale Construction: Sample A completed the original pilot study that consisted of 50 items. Then based on the com- ments of focus groups and statistical analyses (reliability and exploratory factor analyses), Sample B completed the revised instrument. Factor analytic procedures were conducted and reliability estimates were obtained for Sample C. Test-retest reliability procedures were conducted for Sample D.
Sample: Four samples of volunteers were used. Sample A consisted of 66 college students from an undergraduate course in management. Sample B consisted of 198 college students from five sections of undergraduate courses in management. Sample C consisted of 239 community college students from 12 sections of courses in psychology and business management. Sample D consisted of 53 community college students from four sections of introductory courses in accounting.
Reliability: Reliability estimates (Cronbach alpha) for Sample C produced the following results for the three dimensions: 0.89 for learning; 0.85 for prove; and 0.88 for avoid. Test-retest reliability over three months were: 0.66 for learning; 0.60 for prove; and 0.57 for avoid.
Validity: Face validity was established through a panel of faculty and doctoral students in the area of management who reviewed the original 50 items based on the operational definitions of three goal orientations: learning, prove, and avoid. A principal components factor analysis was performed (Sample B). It yielded three factors: the learning scale (items 1 through 6); the prove scale (items 8 through 11); and the avoid scale (items 12 through 16). Additional reliability tests were performed and items 1 and 16 were deleted. The 13-item instrument (Sample B) was cross-validated with Sample C. An additional study was conducted to establish the construct validity of the instrument as well as its predictive validity.
Data Analysis: The results of the confirmatory factor analysis are presented (goodness-of-fit values for measurement models). In addition, the results of a hypothesized nomological network for goal orientation and correlations of goal orientations scales with other constructs are reported.
References
Button, S., Mathieu, J., and Zajac, D. (1996). Goal orientation in organizational behavior research: A conceptual and empirical foundation. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 67:26–48.
Dweck, C. S., and Leggett, E. L. (1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review 95:256–73.
Helmreich, R. L., and Spence, J. T. (1978). The Work and Family Orientation Questionnaire: An objective instrument to assess com- ponents of achievement motivation and attitudes toward family and career. JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology 8:35.
Leary, M. R. (1983). A brief version of the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 9:371–76.
Smikle, S. T. (2004). Efficacy, goals, and reflection: A comparison of National Board Certified Teachers and non-national board certified teachers. PhD dissertation, Fordham University.
Work Domain Goal Orientation Instrument
1. I often read materials related to my work to improve my ability.
2. I am willing to select a challenging work assignment that I can learn a lot from.
3. I often look for opportunities to develop new skills and knowledge.
4. I enjoy challenging and difficult tasks at work where I’ll learn new skills.
5. For me, development of my work ability is important enough to take risks.
6. I prefer to work in situations that require a high level of ability and talent.
7. I would rather prove my ability on a task that I can do well at than to try a new task.
8. I’m concerned with showing that I can perform better than my coworkers.
9. I try to figure out what it takes to prove my ability to others at work.
10. I enjoy it when others at work are aware of how well I’m doing.
11. I prefer to work on projects where I can prove my ability to others.
12. I would avoid taking on a new task if there was a chance that I would appear rather incompetent to others.
13. Avoiding a show of low ability is more important to me than learning a new skill.
14. I’m concerned about taking on a task at work if my performance would reveal that I had low ability.
15. I prefer to avoid situations at work where I might perform poorly.
16. When I don’t understand something at work, I prefer to avoid asking what might appear to others to be “dumb ques- tions” that I should know the answer to already.
Scoring: Strongly Agree = 6; Agree = 5; Agree Somewhat = 4; Disagree Somewhat = 3; Disagree = 2; Strongly Disagree = 1.