Method Effects of Positive Affectivity, Negative Affectivity, and Impression Management in Self-Reports of Work Attitudes

Publication Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

1-2001

Abstract

Positive affectivity (PA), negative affectivity (NA), and impression management (IM), which have been commonly asserted to be method factors that artifactually inflate relations among self-reports of work attitudes, were simultaneously examined using latent variable models. The substantive relations among work attitudes were constituted by direct and indirect effects (through organizational commitment) from job satisfaction and perceived organizational support to intent to quit. Results showed a strong and negative latent correlation between NA and IM but only a weak and positive latent correlation between NA and PA. PA and IM were not correlated. PA had significant and substantial method-effects loadings on measures of work attitudes, NA had no significant method-effects loadings, and IM had significant method-effects loadings only on intent to quit. Latent variable model comparisons that provide direct tests for the impact of these 3 method effects on estimation of substantive relations among work attitudes indicated that the impact was trivial. Implications of the findings are discussed in the context of investigations of method effects and research on relations among substantive constructs involving the use of self-report measures.

Keywords

work attitudes, positive affectivity, negative affectivity

Discipline

Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Research Areas

Psychology

Publication

Human Performance

Volume

14

Issue

1

First Page

77

Last Page

96

ISSN

0895-9285

Identifier

10.1207/s15327043hup1401_05

Publisher

Taylor and Francis

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup1401_05

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