IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jhappi/v14y2013i2p415-432.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring Optimism in Organizations: Development of a Workplace Explanatory Style Questionnaire

Author

Listed:
  • Paul Smith
  • Peter Caputi
  • Nadia Crittenden

Abstract

Some researchers measure optimism by analysing explanations for hypothetical scenarios in explanatory style questionnaires. The most commonly used instrument, the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ), has been shown to predict success in business, education and sport. However, these predictions were achieved by using composite scores of subscales. Our analysis of 15 measures revealed the ASQ and many other explanatory style questionnaires have low internal consistency. Furthermore, the majority of these measures use situations that have poor face validity for corporate applications, while some work-specific scenarios are only relevant to narrow domains such as selling insurance. To fulfil the need for a work-related explanatory style measure that could assess levels of optimism in any organizational setting, we developed the Workplace Explanations Survey (WES). This 5-factor measure was tested on a sample of 341 individuals working in a range of organizations and it has good internal consistency. We anticipate the WES will stimulate research into workplace optimism and provide clearer insights for optimism training, thus boosting both individual and organizational success. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Smith & Peter Caputi & Nadia Crittenden, 2013. "Measuring Optimism in Organizations: Development of a Workplace Explanatory Style Questionnaire," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 415-432, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:14:y:2013:i:2:p:415-432
    DOI: 10.1007/s10902-012-9336-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10902-012-9336-4
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10902-012-9336-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martinko, Mark J. & Moss, Sherry E. & Douglas, Scott C. & Borkowski, Nancy, 2007. "Anticipating the inevitable: When leader and member attribution styles clash," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 158-174, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cam Caldwell & Larry Floyd & Ryan Atkins & Russell Holzgrefe, 2012. "Ethical Duties of Organizational Citizens: Obligations Owed by Highly Committed Employees," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(3), pages 285-299, October.
    2. Lord, Robert G. & Gatti, Paola & Chui, Susanna L.M., 2016. "Social-cognitive, relational, and identity-based approaches to leadership," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 119-134.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:14:y:2013:i:2:p:415-432. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.