Occupational attributional style and attitudes to work: An Australian study

Abstract

Recent research has seen the development of an occupational attributional style questionnaire (OASQ; Furnham, Brewin, & O'Kelly, 1991; Furnham, Sadka, & Brewin, 1992). Subjects attribute the causes of 16 work-related events to internal, external, stable, global, and personal control dimensions. The present study was designed to reinvestigate the relationships between scores on the OASQ and job commitment, job involvement, and job satisfaction among 140 Australian workers. A Principal Components analysis with Varimax rotation suggested that the dimensions be reduced to two composite components, namely, locus and stability/globality. Contrary to expectations, annual salary and occupational prestige were not significantly related to attributions for positive and negative events, although age and sex showed some association. After partialling out the effects of age and sex, no significant relationships were found to exist between job commitment and job satisfaction and attributions for positive and negative events on the composite dimensions. Concerns about the validity of the OASQ are raised and some suggestions for future research are made.