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Job Satisfaction Survey

JSS
psychologysocial sciencesFree for research use

A 36-item measure of employee satisfaction with nine work-related facets: Pay, Promotion, Supervision, Fringe Benefits, Contingent Rewards, Operating Conditions, Coworkers, Nature of Work, and Communication. Originally developed for human-service employees and since validated across a wide range of occupations.

Items
36
Response format
6-point Likert scale
Version
1.0
Subscales
9

Ready-to-cite methods sentence

Job satisfaction was measured with the 36-item Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS; Spector, 1985), which produces nine facet scores (four items each) and a total satisfaction score after reverse-scoring the 19 negatively-worded items. Total-scale internal consistency was α = .91 in the norming sample.

Reliability & validation

Validation population
Norming sample across human-service, academic, and manufacturing settings
Cronbach's α
0.6–0.91

Subscales

PayPromotionSupervisionFringe BenefitsContingent RewardsOperating ConditionsCoworkersNature of WorkCommunication

Response anchors

Disagree very much · Disagree moderately · Disagree slightly · Agree slightly · Agree moderately · Agree very much

Known limitations

Subscale alphas for Operating Conditions and Coworkers are modest (≈ .60), so interpret these two facets with caution. Use the total score when comparing overall satisfaction across groups; use facet scores when targeting specific interventions.

Original citation

Spector, P. E. (1985). Measurement of human service staff satisfaction: Development of the Job Satisfaction Survey. American Journal of Community Psychology, 13(6), 693-713.

https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00929796

Questions researchers ask

What does the JSS measure?

A 36-item measure of employee satisfaction with nine work-related facets: Pay, Promotion, Supervision, Fringe Benefits, Contingent Rewards, Operating Conditions, Coworkers, Nature of Work, and Communication. Originally developed for human-service employees and since validated across a wide range of occupations.

How many items does the JSS have?

The Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) has 36 items across 9 subscales: Pay, Promotion, Supervision, Fringe Benefits, Contingent Rewards, Operating Conditions, Coworkers, Nature of Work, Communication.

Is the JSS free to use?

The JSS is free to use for non-commercial academic research. You don't need to pay a license fee, but you should always cite the original publication.

Is the JSS reliable?

Validation studies report Cronbach's α of 0.6–0.91. See the reliability section for the population studied and full statistics.

Who developed the JSS, and how do I cite it?

Spector, P. E. (1985). Measurement of human service staff satisfaction: Development of the Job Satisfaction Survey. American Journal of Community Psychology, 13(6), 693-713. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00929796

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Library entry verified January 2024. Metadata is provided for reference; item wording is available inside Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing.