APPENDICIES
4.5. Mixed Method Research Design
4.6.4. Instruments for Data Collection
For the quantitative part of this study, data was collected through the use of the following instruments as part of a booklet10 which comprised of a consent sheet and biographical questionnaire and included but was not limited to the Psychological Capital Scale (PsyCap), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), General Health Questionnaire-12 item version (GHQ-12), Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) and Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI). The scales used in the quantitative survey have all been widely used in the context of employee wellbeing and especially within the context of nursing research.
4.6.5. Reliability and Validity of Instruments
4.6.5.1. Satisfaction with Life Scale
The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) was developed by Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin (1985) and is a short, 5-item instrument designed to measure global cognitive judgements of subjective wellbeing. The scale consists of 5 uni-directional attitude
10 See Appendix 3. Quantitative Booklet.
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expressions. For example, items such as, “I am satisfied with my life” and “If I could live my over, I would change almost nothing” are examples of these type of measurements.
Each expression was evaluated based on a 7-point Likert scale (1 – strongly disagree to 7 – strongly agree). The scale has been found to be reliable by Pavot and Diener (1993) for diverse populations with indicated by internal reliability of reported Cronbach alpha
coefficients of between 0.79 and 0.89. A South African study conducted with 570 residents living in Soweto by Maluka and Grieve (2008) found the scale to be reliable with a reported Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.77. Similarly, another South African study carried out by Westaway, Maritz and Golele in 2003 has shown very strong internal reliability, with a Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.92. This study found the scale to be reliable with a reported Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.866.
4.6.5.2. The General Health Questionnaire-12
The General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) was developed as a screening tool by Goldberg (1978) to detect those likely to have or to be at risk of developing psychiatric disorders. It measures aspects of mental health and consists of four sub-scales: somatic symptoms, anxiety and insomnia, social dysfunction and severe depression. The GHQ-12 (Goldberg & Hillier 1979) measures aspects of mental health by assessing symptoms and signs of non- pathological mental ill-being or lack of mental wellbeing. It consists of four sub-scales: somatic symptoms, anxiety and insomnia, social dysfunction and severe depression (Maslach et al. , 2001). The GHQ-2 has been found to be a reliable with a
Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.79 that was found for the population studied by Goldberg and
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Hillier (1979). Other studies conducted on a sample of young people found the scale to be reliable with a Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.87 (Maslach & Jackson, 1981). Furthermore, a study conducted by Koen, van Eeden and Wissing (2011a) on a sample of 312 South African nurses working in both private and public health facilities found the scale to be reliable with a reported Cronbach alpha of 0.84 which confirms that the GHQ-12 is a reliable measure. This study found the scale to be reliable with a reported Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.829.
The items on the scale has four responses, ranging from “better than usual” to “much less than usual.” For the purposes of this study, the Likert scale of 1-2-3-4 was used. The scores obtained in the GHQ were calculate by summing up all the scores in the 12 questions and deducting 11 from the total. Some examples of the items on the GHQ-12 scale are as follows:
i. The respondents have not been able to concentrate on what you are doing;
ii. The respondents have lost sleep due to worry;
iii. The respondents have been constantly under strain.
4.6.5.3. Job Content Questionnaire
The Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) is a self-report questionnaire designed to measure social and psychological characteristics of job design, focusing on the psychological and social structure of the work situation—issues relevant to work demands, decision making opportunities and social interaction (Karasek, 1985). The JCQ has been widely used in research on different populations and validated. The construct, job strain is made up of two sub-scales: psychological demands and decision latitude (Karasek, 1985). In a study conducted on a group of nurses in Quebec, Bourbonnais and Mondor (2001) reported
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Cronbach alpha coefficients for job decision latitude to be 0.72 and for psychological demands 0.79. The Cronbach alpha coefficients were found to be generally acceptable and the overall average alpha coefficients for women was 0.73 and men 0.74 (Nunnaly &
Bernstein, 1994). Within the South African context, Johnston et al. (2013) found it to be reliable with reported Cronbach alpha coefficients of 0.76 for job demands and 0.80 for job control on a sample of employed South Africans from various industries and professions. The most common profession reported in their study was accountant and administrator.
Furthermore, the JCQ has also been used in a study on a mining population in South Africa (Hodgskiss & Edwards, 2013) and was found to be reliable.
In order to demonstrate how the JCQ was used in this study, Figure 4.7 depicts the relationship between the constructs and the sub-scales.
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Figure 4.8. Schematic Representation of the Job Content Questionnaire
The questionnaire was divided into four different sections to measure the different sub- scales:
i. Section I: This section of the questionnaire measured skill discretion, decision authority, psychological workload and physical exertion. This section consisted of 15 questions rated on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 4 = strongly agree. Some examples of items included: “My job requires that I learn new things” and “I have a lot to say about what happens on my job.” The Cronbach alpha coefficient for this sub-scale in this this study was 0.705.
ii. Section II: This measured job satisfaction/dissatisfaction and consisted of 5 items.
Examples of items on this section included: “How satisfied are you with your job”
and “Is this job what you wanted when you applied for it.” The Cronbach alpha coefficient for this sub-scale in this study was 0.476.
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iii. Section III: This section of the questionnaire measured physical / psychosomatic strain with 5 items rated on a 4-point Likert scale. Examples of items included: “How often do you become tired in a very short period of time” and “Do you have trouble with poor appetite.” The Cronbach alpha coefficient for this sub-scale in this study was 0.748.
iv. Section IV: This measured depression / life dissatisfaction with 8 items rated on a 7- point Likert scale. The items here required the respondent to rate their life in terms of whether they found their lives “Boring or interesting” and “Worthwhile or useless.”
The Cronbach alpha coefficient for this sub-scale in this study was 0.806.
4.6.5.4. Maslach Burnout Inventory—Human Services Survey
The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) is valuable tool for assessing burnout in human service, education, business and government professions. It was developed in 1981 by Maslach, Jackson, Schaufeli and Schwab (Ashtari, Farhady & Khodaee, 2009). The MBI consists of 22 items that measure professional burnout in human service, education, business and government professionals. It focuses on three areas, namely; emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and personal accomplishment. Items such as: “I feel emotionally drained by my work” and “I feel frustrated by my work” are used to measure burnout while an item like:
“I really don’t care about what happens to some of my patients/clients” is used to measure depersonalisation and lastly “I feel full of energy” is used to measure personal achievement.
The questionnaire uses a response scale ranging from 0-6 with “Never” being indicated by a (0) and “Everyday” by (6). The MBI has been shown to have good internal consistency with
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a level of alpha values ranging between 0.81 and 0.92 since its original validation in 1981 (Aguayo, Vargas, de la Fuente & Lozano, 2011).
The MBI-HSS has been used in South Africa on a sample of nurses by van der Colff and Rothmann (2009). Their study reported Cronbach alpha coefficients of 0.88 for
emotional exhaustion, 0.75 for depersonalisation and 0.71 for personal accomplishment. This study found the scale to be reliable with a reported Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.852.
4.6.5.5. Psychological Capital Questionnaire-24
The Psychological Capital Questionnaire was developed by Luthans et al. in 2007b and is a 24 item scale divided into four subscales, with 6 items in each subscale measuring the following four constructs of PsyCap: hope, resilience, optimism and self-efficacy. Items such as: “I feel confident helping to set target/goals in my work area” and “I feel confident presenting information to a group of colleagues” measure self-efficacy, whereas resilience is measured with an item such as: “I usually take stressful things at work in my stride.” The PCQ has been found to have good internal consistency with a Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.93 reported by Avey, Luthans, Smith and Palmer (2010). Similarly, Roberts, Scherer and Bowyer (2011) reported a Cronbach alpha coefficient value of .89 in their findings making the PCQ a reliable measure of the four constructs of psychological capital. Within the South African context, the PCQ-24 has been used in a study by Gӧrgens-Ekermans and Herbert (2013), to investigate the internal validity, reliability and external validity pf the PCQ-24 on a South African sample. The South African sample was made up of employees at managerial and non-managerial levels at a construction company in the Western Cape. Cronbach alphas
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for the sub-scales were reported as follows; hope: α = 0.81; self-efficacy: α = 0.83; resilience:
α = 0.69 and optimism: α = 0.67.
Most of the scales used met the recommended 0.7 cut-off as suggested by Nunnally and Bernstein (1994). However, as reported in the literature, optimism and resilience have been shown to have less internal consistency compared to the other two sub-scales (Johnston et al. 2013). This study found the scale to be reliable with a reported Cronbach alpha
coefficient of 0.872.