The event reconstruction method: An efficient measure of experience-based job satisfaction

Job satisfaction is predominantly measured as global attitudinal judgment which requires employees to summarize their experiences across different job situations. In contrast, experience-based measures assess momentary thoughts and feelings of the employees in specific job situations. This paper introduces the event reconstruction method (ERM) as an efficient measure of experience-based job satisfaction that is less invasive and less time consuming compared with traditional experience sampling methods. An initial validation study is reported with N = 193 employees from a German wholesale company. As expected, job satisfaction measured with the ERM was different from attitudinal job satisfaction. Also, consistent with expectations, experience-based job satisfaction was a better predictor of self-reported helping behaviour, whereas attitudinal job satisfaction was a better predictor of turnover intentions. Finally, comparing the ERM results with the results of a similar study using a traditional experience sampling method (Fisher, 2002) revealed very similar patterns.