Survey of Work Styles

Douglas N. Jackson, Ph.D. & Anna Gray, Ph.D. © 1987, 1994, 1998

The SWS was developed in an attempt to meet the need for a brief, yet comprehensive, multidimensional self-report measure of the Type A Behavior Pattern (TABP). The SWS is economical, convenient, and objective, and has sound psychometric properties when compared with existing measures.

Applications

• Work-related stress.
• Employee selection and placement.
• Managerial counseling and development.
• Work attitudes, turnover, and absenteeism.
• Behavioral correlates of coronary diseases.

Scale Definitions

Contemporary Conceptualization of TABP

TABP is most often measured with interviews, which are time-consuming and susceptible to biases. Other measures of the TABP fail to appreciate the multidimensionality of Type A behavior pattern. The SWS may be administered to individuals or groups, and takes approximately 15 minutes to complete. Careful attention was paid to minimizing response biases. The SWS measures six distinct components of TABP: Anger, Job Dissatisfaction, Time Urgency, Impatience, Work Involvement, and Competitiveness.

The SWS is highly correlated with the Rosenman Type A Structured Interview. It uniquely accounts for individual differences in the patterns of Type A behavior. Separate patterns have different implications for work performance and quality of interpersonal relations.

Comprehensive Report

The SWS Developmental Report provides detailed advice for each component of TABP. This information is valuable for coaching, research on work-related stress, the promotion of good health, and as a pre-hire assessment in business and industrial settings.

SWS Scales

Anger: Propensity to become antagonized, resulting in an emotional excitement characterized by an evident display of feelings (flushed cheeks, accelerated heart rate), and a desire or intent to punish or seek revenge.

Job Dissatisfaction: Absence of positive emotional state resulting from appraisal of one’s job on a number of dimensions, such as work difficulty or promotional opportunities.

Time Urgency: Preoccupation with work deadlines and similar pressures, resulting in hurried, abrupt motor mannerisms and behavioral style.

Impatience: Intolerance of time delays and interruptions; unwilling to accept ineptitude and/or tardiness on the part of others.

Work Involvement: Preoccupation with one’s job and the demands it imposes, to the exclusion of the pursuit of recreational and/or social activities.

Competitiveness: Tendency to struggle to defeat others in order to achieve recognition or obtain a prize, even in situations judged to be non-competitive.

Scale A: Sum of responses to items keyed specifically to predict Rosenman’s Structured Interview.

Global Type A: Sum of all six dimensions.

Norms

SWS norms are currently based on a sample of 233 men and 133 women living in the greater metropolitan district of Boston, Massachusetts. Mean ages were 55 years for males and 49 years for the females.

Reliability

The SWS has been demonstrated to have appreciable internal consistency reliability. Coefficient alpha for the Global Type A scale is typically around .90, and subscale values range from .71 to .84.

Validity

Results from a number of studies involving the SWS support its validity as a multidimensional measure of the Type A behavior pattern as predictive of physiological arousal and responses to stressful work environments. The SWS shows meaningful relationships with managerial performance.

Hand Scoring

Materials required for hand scoring include a manual, one question/answer sheet, one scoring sheet and one scoring template per respondent.

Mail-in Scoring

The SWS is available in a machine scored format, for use by organizations and others investigating the work behavior patterns of personnel. The SWS Basic Report provides a profile of scores for the six (6) SWS scales, an overall Type A score, a second Type A score based on those items most predictive of the Rosenman Structured Interview, scale descriptions and a table of raw responses. The SWS Developmental Report is based on your client’s responses to the Survey of Work Styles. This extensive report provides your clients with an enhanced understanding of their profile on the Type A characteristics in order to assist in the development of effective work styles and personal relations. Profile scores show how your clients compare with other people in terms of the characteristics measured by the SWS. Careful examination of your clients’ profiles can aid in an understanding of your clients’ personal characteristics on others, in work settings and in other areas of day-to-day living. Each client is provided with a detailed narrative of developmental advice, one set for each component of the Type A behavior pattern. The SWS Developmental Report employs state-of-the-art technology based on complex statistical to provide specific advice, free of inconsistencies. The comprehensive laser printed report includes extensive narrative materials and detailed graphs and illustrations. There are a plethora of applications for the SWS Developmental Report which include development and counseling, health promotion, and pre-hire assessment in business and industrial settings. Materials required for mail-in scoring are the manual, and for each respondent one machine scorable question/answer sheet and one scoring coupon.

Software

Administer and score the SWS directly on your computer using our SigmaSoft for Windows software. The SWS software produces the two types of report described in the mail-in scoring paragraph above as well as a Data Report. The Data Report presents the scores found in the Basic Report in a format designed for use by other programs. In addition to the software itself, you will need to purchase enough coupons to pay for each report you wish to produce.

Report Type	Coupons Required
Developmental	6
Basic	3
Data	2

This software also makes it easy to input answers or scale scores from paper and pencil administrations. You may import data scanned by an optical mark reader by using our SigmaSoft Scanning Utility and scannable answer sheets.

Internet

The Survey of Work Styles can also be completed at SigmaTesting.Com, our exciting online testing platform that allows you instant local and remote testing and administrative access to a full range of tests and test results.

Prices

Click here for detailed pricing information.