Conceptual Versus Empirical Distinctions Among Constructs: Implications for Discriminant Validity

By James K. Harter, Frank L. Schmidt. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 2008

101 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Computer Networks and Communications, Management Science and Operations Research, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/266a3da37b5a07833574e0c62e3832d2b7389a21

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Computer Networks and Communications

In Management Science and Operations Research

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Engaged in Engagement: We Are Delighted We Did It (2008, methodology): “The kind of research paradigm implemented by researchers at Gallup (Harter & Schmidt, 2008), for example, illustrates that point.”
Linking justice, trust and innovative work behaviour to work engagement (2014, background): “, 2004), unit (Harter and Schmidt, 2008) and organisational level (Schneider et al.”
The Bright Side of Being Prosocial at Work, and the Dark Side, Too: A Review and Agenda for Research on Other-Oriented Motives, Behavior, and Impact in Organizations (2016, background): “Indeed, it might be worthwhile to determine if all of these constructs are truly distinct and relevant, or if there is a potential issue of construct proliferation to be addressed (Harter & Schmidt, 2008).”
RETRACTED: Psychological processes linking authentic leadership to follower behaviors (2010, background): “…conceptualization of engagement, at least for now, we define engagement as the extent to which an employee is cognitively, emotionally, physically and psychologically connected during the performance of his or her work roles (Harter & Schmidt, 2008; Harter et al., 2002; Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004).”
Job Burnout and Employee Engagement (2012, background): “Correlations as high as –.85 intimate that respondents, as a part of their day-to-day work routines, do not— and probably cannot—make the same types of logical distinctions made by engagement and burnout researchers (Harter & Schmidt, 2008).”
The Chrysalis Effect (2017, background): “In addition, the Chrysalis Effect likely results in continued construct and theory proliferation (Harter & Schmidt, 2008).”
The problem of empirical redundancy of constructs in organizational research: An empirical investigation (2010, background): “In fact, the implicit assumption is often that if researchers can make a conceptual, theoretical, or logical distinction between constructs then this distinction will also exist in the minds of employees or survey respondents (Harter & Schmidt, 2008).”
The nature of employee engagement: rethinking the employee–organization relationship (2017, background): “However, although there has been an increase in interest in employee– organization relationship concepts in the past decade, there has not always been a clear conceptual or methodological distinction between them (Harter & Schmidt, 2008; Rotter, 1990).”
Tackling the Problem of Construct Proliferation (2016, background): “To a surprising extent, the need to make empirical distinctions between related organizational constructs remains unmet (Harter & Schmidt, 2008).”
Transformational leadership and turnover (2017, background): “However, the relevance of the questionnaire was raised by some scholars as it only reports on the conditions in organization which facilitate employee engagement (Harter and Schmidt, 2008; Macey and Schneider, 2008).”
Investigating the incremental validity of employee engagement in the prediction of employee effectiveness: A meta-analytic path analysis (2017, background): “Despite the resounding popularity of EE among practitioners, academic researchers have increasingly questioned whether EE is overlapping with other well-established job attitude constructs (e.g. Harter & Schmidt, 2008, Newman & Harrison, 2008).”