Development and validation of the Work Style Reform Scale.

Area of Science:

• Occupational health and safety
• Organizational psychology
• Human resource management

Background:

• Japan's 2019 Work Style Reform Act aims to reduce long working hours.
• Effective work style reform hinges on employee and company capabilities.
• A validated scale is needed to measure competencies for successful reform.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the Work Style Reform scale.
• To assess competencies crucial for implementing work style reforms.
• To evaluate the scale's reliability and validity.

Main Methods:

• Developed a 17-item scale with three subscales: Work Style, Personal Style, and Work Environment.
• Conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on data from 1,641 Japanese workers.
• Utilized multi-trait multi-method analysis to assess convergent and discriminant validity.

Main Results:

• A 9-item scale was finalized after response bias and factor analyses.
• Sufficient construct validity, reliability, and convergent validity were found for all subscales.
• Discriminant validity was adequate only for the Work Style subscale.

Conclusions:

• The Work Style subscale is a valid measure for assessing reform competencies.
• The Personal Style and Work Environment subscales require further refinement and validation.
• Future research should focus on improving discriminant validity and adding items to the Personal Style subscale.