The development and validation of a measure of disengagement

Abstract

Even though no measure of disengagement exists, researchers and practitioners have claimed to identify employees who are disengaged using measures that assess satisfaction, engagement, or burnout. This study outlines the development and initial validation of a theoretically-based measure of employee disengagement. Consistent with theory, the measure is composed of affective, physical, and cognitive factors. Data from 709 participants collected through Amazon‟s crowdsourcing tool, Mechanical Turk (MTurk), show that disengagement is distinct from, but moderately related to engagement, burnout, and withdrawal. Consistent with theory, low levels of the psychological conditions of psychological meaningfulness, safety, and availability predicted higher level of disengagement. Additionally, high levels of psychological meaningfulness and psychological availability predicted high levels of engagement. The new measure of disengagement developed in this study may help researchers develop a more accurate understanding of disengaged employees.