What’s holding you back? Development of the Multi-Facet Organizational Constraints Scale (MOCS)

Abstract

Organizational constraints—which include any workplace condition that undermines a worker’s ability to perform his or her job tasks—are an important type of work stressor. Previous research has typically assessed organizational constraints as a global (i.e., unidimensional) construct. In the current paper, we argue that a facet (i.e., multidimensional) approach to assessing organizational constraints would complement the global approach in important ways. A facet approach, for instance, would provide researchers with new insights into the fundamental nature of the organizational constraints construct, and it would provide practitioners with specific, actionable information that they could use to inform organizational policies and interventions. With these potential benefits of the facet approach in mind, we developed the Multi-Facet Organizational Constraints Scale (MOCS)—a self-report measure that yields 16 separate facet-level scores. Across seven samples (total N = 1,600), we found that the MOCS had desirable psychometric properties: It yielded high levels of internal-consistency and test–retest reliability, it produced an interpretable factor structure, and we observed evidence supporting the MOCS’s construct validity. By providing a means of assessing organizational constraints facets, the current research has both theoretical and practical implications for various research areas within applied psychology, including occupational stress, organizational culture, employee training, and leadership.