Abstract
The original 18-item Job Engagement Scale (JES18) operationalizes a multidimensional hierarchical conceptualization by Kahn (1990) of the investment and expression of an individual’s preferred self in-role performance. Encompassing three dimensions (i.e., physical, cognitive, and emotional), job engagement is a known predictor of organizational performance and personal outcomes. Using a sample (N = 7185) of military and civilian personnel nested within 60 work units in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and Canadian Department of National Defence (DND), we developed and cross-validated a 9-item short-form (the JES9) of the original JES18 in English and French. Results demonstrated that both linguistic versions of the JES9 and JES18 yielded comparable psychometric properties. The scales also displayed measurement invariance as a function of participants’ sex (male/female), employee type (civilian/regular force/primary reserve), and role (supervisor/employee). Finally, the associations between scores on the JES9 and the JES18 and a series of covariates (i.e., employees’ psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness, burnout, and turnover intentions) were assessed. Collectively, results highlight the strong psychometric soundness of the English and French versions of the JES9 and the JES18 for organizational practitioners and academics.
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Notes
We used a target length of 9 items for this short version to match the length of the short version of the UWES (UWES-9; Schaufeli et al., 2006) and to be able to achieve the local identification of all factors without having to implement arbitrary constraints. As a result, this length was conceptualized as a rigid lower bound in terms of length, but as a flexible upper bound conditional on our ability to maintain the construct coverage of all JES subscales.
According to Wikipedia, French is the 15th most common native language, the 7th most spoken language, and the 2nd most frequent official language in terms of number of countries where it is spoken. French is also one of the official languages of the United Nations, the Olympics, the World Trade Organization, and the Red Cross, as well as in 29 countries located on many continents.
Both solutions resulted in an acceptable level of model fit: JES18 (χ2 = 5571.477; df = 903; CFI = .940; TLI = .932; RMSEA = .027); JES9 (χ2 = 3715.264; df = 582; CFI = .942; TLI = .934; RMSEA = .027). In these solutions, the factors representing the covariates were all defined by strong loadings and satisfactory estimates of composite reliability: (a) relatedness need satisfaction (JES18 & 9: solutions: Mλ = .732; ω = .879), (b) autonomy need satisfaction (JES18 Mλ = .594; ω = .797; JES9 Mλ = .593; ω = .796), (c) competence need satisfaction (JES18 & 9 Mλ = .826; ω = .897), (d) burnout (JES18 Mλ = .728; ω = .901; JES9 Mλ = .728; ω = .902), and (e) turnover intentions (JES18 Mλ = .779; ω = .862; JES9 Mλ = .780; ω = .862).
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Preparation of this paper was supported by grants from the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research (CIMVHR) and from the Social Science and Humanity Research Council of Canada (435-2018-0368). This article was prepared as part of the first author’s internship conducted at the Department of National Defence.
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Houle, S.A., Rich, B.L., Comeau, C.A. et al. The Job Engagement Scale: Development and Validation of a Short Form in English and French. J Bus Psychol 37, 877–896 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-021-09782-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-021-09782-z