In: Psychology
Operationalizing variables can be a difficult task for a researcher. Choose a conceptual variable that is of interest to you and then attempt to operationalize it, that is, how could this variable be measured in a research study? Also identify the level of measurement of your variable (i.e., categorical, ordinal, interval, ratio).
Variable: Organizational cynicism
OPERATIONAL DEFINITION:
Organizational cynicism is defined as an attitude formed by faith, feelings and behavioral tendencies. It is a negative attitude including the three dimensions developed by a person to his organization, namely; cognitive, affective, and behavioral structure of the cynical construct (Dean et al., 1998).
The cognitive dimension of organizational cynicism is the belief in the organization’s lack of honesty. It is the belief that the organization’s practices lack justice, honesty and sincerity.
The affective dimension of organizational cynicism refers to the emotional/sentimental reactions to the organization. The sensitive/emotional consists of strong emotional reactions towards the organization. Cynics may feel disrespect and anger towards their organizations; or feel discomfort, hatred and even shame when they think about their organizations. Thus, cynicism is related to various negative senses.
The behavioral dimension of organizational cynicism refers to negative tendencies and mainly humiliating attitudes. This dimension consists of negative and frequently critical attitudes. Strong critical expressions towards the organization are the most prominent of behavioral tendencies. These may occur in various forms, mostly expressions about the organization’s lack of honesty and sincerity.
Organizational cynicism will be measured using the
Organizational Cynicism Scale by Brandes,
Dharwadkar, and Dean (2000). The measure is comprised of three
sub-scales that assess each of the three dimensions of
organizational cynicism including affect, cognition, and behavior.
The
overall scale has an alpha of .86 with sub-scale alphas of .80 for
Affect, .77 for Behavior and .85for Cognitive. Brandes et al.
(2000) demonstrated convergent validity by showing that the three
theoretical components offered by Dean et al. (1998) could be
modeled through a factor analysis. Organizational cynicism has been
measured by the five-item scale of Likert of (Completely Agree) to
(Completely Disagree) where each statement has five options.
The variable is a scale variable that is, it is measured by ratio scale. The scale used gives a quantitative value and differences can be inferred from the values from the scale. Also zero indicates lack of organizational cynicism. Thus the scale is a ratio scale
Reference
Dean, J. W., Brandes, P., Dharwadkar, R. (1998). “Organizational Cynicism”, Academy of ManagementReview, 23:2, 341-352
Note: Taken from my dissertation so no plagiarism (delete this)