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The structure and measurement of overtime work: A scale development study among Chinese employees

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Abstract

There existed a lack of measuring instruments to clarify employees’ psychological motivation for working overtime, which challenged the management of employees’ occupational safety and health. Therefore, this article conducted three studies to develop and validate the Motivation for Overtime Work among Chinese Employees (MOW-CE) questionnaire. Study 1 developed the initial questionnaire, consisting of 55 questions. Study 2 involved a formal questionnaire exploring overtime work motivation, which was based on the data obtained from 208 valid questionnaires. Reliability analysis, item analysis, and principal component analysis were carried out to examine six factors, including promotion, belongingness, survival, companion, standard, and aimless, consisting of 21 items. Based on these data, Study 2 constructed the progressive model of external–internal overtime work motivation. Finally, Study 3 validated the formal questionnaire by analyzing the data obtained from 1412 valid questionnaires. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed good convergence validity and structural discrimination, and the questionnaire also passed the reliability test. This study proposes a new questionnaire that facilitates an understanding of why individuals work overtime according to an advanced model of external-internal motivations.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This research was funded by the Think Tank of Green Safety Management and Policy Science (2018 “Double First-Class” Initiative Project for Cultural Evolution and Creation of CUMT), grant number[2018WHCC03], the National Natural Science Funding of China, grant number[71673271], Jiangsu Philosophy and Social Sciences Excellent Innovation Cultivation Team, grant number[2017ZSTD031], 13th Five Year” Brand Discipline Construction Funding Project of China University of Mining and Technology, grant number[2017], the Social Science Funding of Jiangsu Province[20GLC009].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, Jiangsu Province, China

    Bei Liu, Hong Chen, Congmei Hou & Yujie Wang

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  1. Bei Liu
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  2. Hong Chen
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  3. Congmei Hou
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  4. Yujie Wang
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Contributions

BL conceptualized this study, calculated the data, and drafted this article. HC designed the study and revised the article. CH and YW did valuable works on searching literature and specifying research method.

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Correspondence to Hong Chen.

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Conflict of Interest

The Authors Declare that the Research Was Conducted in the Absence of any Commercial or Financial Relationships that Could Be Construed as a Potential Conflict of Interest, and all Authors Approved the Final Manuscript

Ethics Statement

This study was carried out in accordance with the recommendations outlined by the Ethical Codes of Consulting and Clinical Psychology of the Chinese Psychological Society. The protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the China Occupational Safety and Health Association-Occupational Mental Health Professional Committee, and all participants in our study provided their written informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Bei Liu and Hong Chen are Co-first authors

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Liu, B., Chen, H., Hou, C. et al. The structure and measurement of overtime work: A scale development study among Chinese employees. Curr Psychol 41, 8985–8995 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-01259-1

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