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The measurement properties of the role conflict and role ambiguity scales: A review and extension of the empirical research
Author(s) -
Smith Carlla S.,
Tisak John,
Schmieder Robert A.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of organizational behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.938
H-Index - 177
eISSN - 1099-1379
pISSN - 0894-3796
DOI - 10.1002/job.4030140105
Subject(s) - ambiguity , psychology , social psychology , variance (accounting) , confirmatory factor analysis , discriminant validity , scale (ratio) , role conflict , extension (predicate logic) , econometrics , psychometrics , statistics , structural equation modeling , developmental psychology , internal consistency , mathematics , computer science , economics , physics , quantum mechanics , accounting , programming language
The measurement properties of the Rizzo, House and Lirtzman (1970) role conflict and role ambiguity scales have been debated in the research literature for several years. The criticisms are that the scales do not measure separate constructs and are contaminated by method variance. However, some researchers have presented evidence supporting the scales' continued use as independent measures. We attempted to clarify the running debate by re‐examining these issues and presenting additional data, which focused on the item level of analysis. Using confirmatory factor analyses and item statistics, we show discriminant validity for the role conflict and ambiguity scales across three diverse samples of workers. We also contend that the evidence for method bias is not as strong as previously argued.