Exploring a conative measure of employee behaviour

Abstract

This research introduces a 15-item scale to measure love of the job in a professional context. The impetus for measuring job love was derived from extant psychology and sociology theory on the impact that the trilogy of mind has on behaviour. Although two of the dimensions of this trilogy (cognition and affect) are empirically measured in the organizational context, the third dimension of the trilogy (conation) appears to be overlooked. Interpersonal love theory supports the assumption that people who love an object are driven by a conative force, beyond cognition or emotion (affect) to preserve that object. We propose that jobs can be loved and valued objects and that this conative drive can be evaluated through a measure of love. The job love scale was tested on a sample of 310 professional accountants and consultants in Canada. Exploratory principal axis factoring indicated the presence of three key factors: passion, intimacy, and commitment. Results of structural equation modelling indicated discriminant validity between the job love scale and job satisfaction and job engagement. This new job love measure benefits organizational behaviour scholarship by tapping into the conative drive to explain employee behaviour.