Employment insecurity, workplace injustice and employees' burnout: A validation study

Objectives: This study was designed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of employment insecurity and workplace injustice scales, and to examine their associations with workers' burnout status.

Methods: Study subjects were participants of a national survey of paid employees in Taiwan, consisting of 9636 men and 7406 women. A self-administered questionnaire was used for the assessment of four aspects of psychosocial work hazards, including employment insecurity (6 items), workplace injustice (9 items), job control (9 items), and psychosocial work demands (7 items). In-depth interviews with 10 employees were also conducted post the survey for a qualitative evaluation of the questionnaire.

Results: Cronbach's á for both of the scales were above 0.76, indicating satisfactory internal consistencies. Exploratory factor analyses with the four scales of psychosocial work hazards revealed a factor pattern that was consistent with the theoretically assumed structure, except that items with statements in reversed direction were loaded on separated factors.

As expected, higher levels of employment insecurity and workplace injustice were associated with higher burnout scores. However, results from qualitative interviews suggested that some respondents interpreted and responded to questions in different manners.

Conclusion: Findings from this study suggested satisfactory reliability and validity of the two scales. Nevertheless, further improvement is needed.