The event reconstruction method: An efficient measure of experience‐based job satisfaction

Abstract

Job satisfaction is predominantly measured as global attitudinal judgment which requires employees to summarize their experiences across different job situations. In contrast, experience-based measures assess momentary thoughts and feelings of the employees in specific job situations. This paper introduces the event reconstruction method (ERM) as an efficient measure of experience-based job satisfaction that is less invasive and less time consuming compared with traditional experience sampling methods. An initial validation study is reported with N ¼ 193 employees from a German wholesale company. As expected, job satisfaction measured with the ERM was different from attitudinal job satisfaction. Also, consistent with expectations, experience-based job satisfaction was a better predictor of self-reported helping behaviour, whereas attitudinal job satisfaction was a better predictor of turnover intentions. Finally, comparing the ERM results with the results of a similar study using a traditional experience sampling method (Fisher, 2002) revealed very similar patterns.

Public versus Private Voice

“…Given that our research interest was in setting-specific reactions of managers (i.e., reactions towards voice in private vs. public), we used the event reconstruction method (ERM) developed by Grube and colleagues (2008). ERM is based on a general reconstruction approach (Kahneman, Krueger, Schkade, Schwarz, & Stone, 2004) and implies explicit vivid re-experiencing of the specific job events from the past (Grube et al, 2008). We instructed managers to recall the very last time that one of their employees communicated "ideas, suggestions, concerns, information about problems, or opinions about workrelated issues."…”

“…To make the recall task vivid, we asked managers to indicate when and where the voice event took place. Such recall cues activate access to episodic memory which reduces self-report and retrospection biases and facilitates re-experiencing thoughts and feelings associated with a specific event (Dinh & Lord, 2012;Grube et al, 2008;Iida, Shrout, Laurenceau, & Bolger, 2012;Reis & Judd, 2000). After managers reported about events, we asked them to complete measures on the focal variables and demographics, including the gender of the employees from the voice event (62% female).…”

“…In the daily survey, the managers were instructed to recall whether during the course of the day before, employees 1, 2, or 3 communicated to them "his/her ideas, suggestions, concerns, information about problems, or opinions about work-related issues." To help the managers re-experience the specific voice events, we asked them to describe where and in which setting the voice event occurred (Grube et al, 2008). Such recall cues have been found to reduce self-report (Reis & Judd, 2000) and retrospection (Iida et al, 2012) biases and help re-experience specific events more vividly (Dinh & Lord, 2012;Grube et al, 2008).…”

Untitled

“…the intrinsic and personal growth components increase with age (Grube & Hertel, 2008;Leen & Lang, 2013). This means, when adults get older, intrinsic motives like the urge to learn because of own interests and individual fulfillment become more and more important compared to motives from outside which are important for younger persons, like good grades, a good job perspective or reputation and prestige earned by learning (Heckhausen & Heckhausen, 2006).…”

Innovative and Technology-Enhanced Learning Approaches for Older Adults

“…the intrinsic and personal growth components increase with age (Grube & Hertel, 2008;Leen & Lang, 2013). This means, when adults get older, intrinsic motives like the urge to learn because of own interests and individual fulfillment become more and more important compared to motives from outside which are important for younger persons, like good grades, a good job perspective or reputation and prestige earned by learning (Heckhausen & Heckhausen, 2006).…”