Work Alienation as an Individual‐Difference Construct for Predicting Workplace Adjustment: A Test in Two Samples¹

Abstract

This study represents the first attempt to examine the validity of work alienation as a general attitude toward the work domain. As hypothesized, hierarchical regression analyses of data from 2 employee samples ( n = 99 and n = 250) indicated that work alienation explained incremental variance in selected workplace adjustment variables (i. e., job involvement, affective organizational commitment, affective occupational commitment, overall job satisfaction, and volitional absence) beyond the variance accounted for by work conscientiousness (i. e., dependability and achievement orientation) and by variables used to control for sources of self‐report variance (i. e., self‐deception and negative affectivity). These results support the legitimacy of work alienation as an individual‐difference construct associated with work‐related adjustment.