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Multistudy Report

Development of a Shortened Version of the Latent and Manifest Benefits of Work (LAMB) Scale

Published Online:October 17, 2017https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000434

Abstract

Abstract. Paid work offers latent benefits (e.g., social contact, time structure) that go beyond mere access to financial resources in predicting individuals’ psychological well-being. Despite the importance of the concept for organizational research and practice, available instruments measuring these latent benefits suffer either from psychometric deficiencies or from a scale length that makes integrating them into large-scale work/life surveys cumbersome. Thus, the current two studies (N = 1,054 and N = 677) report on the development of the Short Latent and Manifest Benefits of Work scale (LAMB-S; cf. Muller, Creed, Waters, & Machin, 2005). The new 18-item instrument showed a clear factor structure, appropriate external validities, and even slight improvements in content and criterion validity for some subscales. Overall, the LAMB-S represents an economical instrument with satisfactory psychometric properties, making it an attractive alternative in situations where participant time is limited.

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