Work as meaning inventory: psychometric properties and additional evidence of the Brazilian version
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-4327e3225Keywords:
Labour, Professional development, PsychometricsAbstract
Meaningful work promotes the professional development of individuals and organizations. This study aimed to translate, adapt, and present additional evidence of the validity of the Work as Meaning Inventory – WAMI for the Brazilian population. It addressed 2,111 workers (67% women) aged between 18 and 77. The results indicate that the inventory’s Brazilian version has a linguistic structure appropriate to the Brazilian Portuguese and satisfactory goodness of fit indices for the one-factor structure, in addition to invariance across sexes. Additionally, evidence of external convergent validity was found with life satisfaction and job satisfaction, which was negative for exhaustion. The conclusion is that meaningful work benefits the well being of workers and organizations. Thus, we recommend that this adapted version be used in the Brazilian context, as it meets the psychometric requirements for adapting instruments across cultures.
Downloads
References
Akin, A., Hamedoglu, M. A., Kaya, Ç., & Sarıçam, H. (2013). Turkish version of the Work and Meaning Inventory (WAMI): Validity and reliability study. Journal of European Education, 3(2), 11-16. Retrieved from http://www.eu-journal.org/index.php/JEE/article/view/194
Allan, B. A., Batz-Barbarich, C., Sterling, H. M., & Tay, L. (2019). Outcomes of meaningful work: A meta‐analysis. Journal of Management Studies, 56(3), 500-528. doi:10.1111/joms.12406
Allan, B. A., Autin, K. L., Duffy, R. D., & Sterling, H. M. (2020). Decent and meaningful work: A longitudinal study. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 67(6), 669-679. doi:10.1037/cou0000432
Andrade, A. L., Omar, A., & Salessi, S. (2020). Generic Job Satisfaction Scale: Psychometric qualities of the version adapted to Portuguese. Avaliação Psicológica, 19(4), 361-370. doi:10.15689/ap.2020.1904.15804.02
Arnoux-Nicolas, C., Sovet, L., Lhotellier, L., & Bernaud, J.-L. (2017). Development and validation of the meaning of work inventory among French workers. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 17(2), 165-185. doi:10.1007/s10775-016-9323-0
Autin, K. L., & Allan, B. A. (2019). Socioeconomic privilege and meaningful work: A psychology of working perspective. Journal of Career Assessment, 28(2), 241-256. doi:10.1177/1069072719856307
Brown, T. (2015). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. New York, NY: Guilford.
Correia, I., & Almeida, A. E. (2020). Organizational justice, professional identification, empathy, and meaningful work during COVID-19 pandemic: Are they burnout protectors in physicians and nurses? Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 566139. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.566139
Di Fabio, A. (2018). The Work and Meaning Inventory: Primo contributo alla validazione della versione Italiana [The Work and Meaning Inventory: First contribution to the Italian validation]. Counseling: Giornale Italiano di Ricerca e Applicazioni, 11(1), 1-3. Retrieved from https://rivistedigitali.erickson.it/counseling/archivio/vol-11-n-1/pokret_im_article-12676/
Duffy, R. D., Blustein, D. L., Diemer, M. A., & Autin, K. L. (2016). The psychology of working theory. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 63(2), 127-148. doi:10.1037/cou0000140
Ferrando, P. J., & Lorenzo-Seva, U. (2018). Assessing the quality and appropriateness of factor solutions and factor score estimates in exploratory item factor analysis. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 78(5), 762-780. doi:10.1177/0013164417719308
Finch, J. D. (2014). The dimensionality of the work and meaning inventory (Minor dissertation). Retrieved from hdl.handle.net/10210/12007
Fouché, E., Rothmann, S. S., & van der Vyver, C. (2017). Antecedents and outcomes of meaningful work among school teachers. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 43(1), 1-10. doi:10.4102/sajip.v43i0.1398
International Test Commission. (2017). The ITC Guidelines for Translating and Adapting Tests (Second edition). Retrieved from https://www.intestcom.org/files/guideline_test_adaptation_2ed.pdf
Latorre, F., Pérez-Nebra, A. R., Queiroga, F., & Alcover, C. M. (2021). How do teleworkers and organizations manage the COVID-19 crisis in Brazil? The role of flexibility i-deals and work recovery in maintaining sustainable well-being at work. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(23), 12522. doi:10.3390/ijerph182312522
Leonardo, M. G. L., Pereira, M. M., Valentini, F., Freitas, C. P. P., & Damásio, B. F. (2019). Adaptação do Inventário de Sentido do Trabalho (WAMI) para o contexto brasileiro [Adaptation of Work and Meaning Inventory (WAMI) to the Brazilian context]. Revista Brasileira de Orientação Profissional, 20(1), 79-90. doi:10.26707/1984-7270/2019v20n1p79
Lysova, E. I., Allan, B. A., Dik, B. J., Duffy, R. D., & Steger, M. F. (2019). Fostering meaningful work in organizations: A multi-level review and integration. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 110, 374-389. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2018.07.004
Pires, F. M., & Andrade, A. L. (2022). Career choices: Adaptation and initial evidence of the Work Volition Scale in Brazil. BBR. Brazilian Business Review, 19(2), 153-170. doi:10.15728/bbr.2021.19.2.3
Putnick, D. L., & Bornstein, M. H. (2016). Measurement invariance conventions and reporting: The state of the art and future directions for psychological research. Developmental Review, 41, 71-90. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2016.06.004
Rosso, B. D., Dekas, K. H., & Wrzesniewski, A. (2010). On the meaning of work: A theoretical integration and review. Research in Organizational Behavior, 30, 91-127. doi:10.1016/j.riob.2010.09.001
Schuster, M. S., & Dias, V. V. (2018). Oldenburg Burnout Inventory - validação de uma nova forma de mensurar Burnout no Brasil [Oldenburg Burnout Inventory - validation of a new way to measure Burnout in Brazil]. Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 23(2), 553-562. doi:10.1590/1413-81232018232.27952015
Steger, M. F., Dik, B. J., & Duffy, R. D. (2012). Measuring meaningful work: The work and meaning inventory (WAMI). Journal of Career Assessment, 20(3), 322-337. doi:10.1177/1069072711436160
Zanon, C., Bardagi, M. P., Layous, K., & Hutz, C. S. (2014). Validation of the Satisfaction with Life Scale to Brazilians: Evidences of measurement noninvariance across Brazil and US. Social Indicators Research, 119(1), 443-453. doi:10.1007/s11205-013-0478-5
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The Editorial Board authorizes free access to and distribution of published contentes, provided that the source is cited, that is, granding credit to the authors and Paidéia and preserving the full text. The author is allowed to place the final version (postprint / editor’s PDF) in an institutional/thematic repositor or personal page (site, blog), immediately after publication, provided that it is available for open access and comes without any embargo period. Full reference should be made to the first publication in Paidéia. Access to the paper should at least be aligned with the access the journal offers.
As a legal entity, the University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto School of Philosophy, Sciences and Languages owns and holds the copyright deriving from the publication. To use the papers, Paidéia adopts the Creative Commons Licence, CC BY-NC non-commercial attribution. This licence permits access, download, print, share, reuse and distribution of papers, provided that this is for non-commercial use and that the source is cited, giving due authorship credit to Paidéia. In these cases, neither authors nor editors need any permission.
When deriving from research involving human beings, manuscripts need IRB approval, in compliance with the guidelines and standards of the Brazilian National Health Council Resolution 196/96 – Ministry of Health. Authors should attach the digital copy of the IRB declaration of approval, according to instructions displayed further ahead.
