The quiet quitting scale: Development and initial validation

Petros Galanis; Aglaia Katsiroumpa; Irene Vraka; Olga Siskou; Olympia Konstantakopoulou; Ioannis Moisoglou; Parisis Gallos; Daphne Kaitelidou; Petros Galanis; Aglaia Katsiroumpa; Irene Vraka; Olga Siskou; Olympia Konstantakopoulou; Ioannis Moisoglou; Parisis Gallos; Daphne Kaitelidou

doi:10.3934/publichealth.2023055

AIMS Public Health

2023, Volume 10, Issue 4: 828-848. doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2023055

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Research article Special Issues

The quiet quitting scale: Development and initial validation

1.
Clinical Epidemiology Laboratory, Faculty of Nursing, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
2.
Department of Radiology, P. & A. Kyriakou Children's Hospital, Athens, Greece
3.
Department of Tourism Studies, University of Piraeus, Piraeus, Greece
4.
Center for Health Services Management and Evaluation, Faculty of Nursing, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
5.
Faculty of Nursing, University of Thessaly, Larissa, Greece
6.
Faculty of Nursing, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Received: 20 August 2023 Revised: 10 September 2023 Accepted: 07 October 2023 Published: 17 October 2023

Introduction
COVID-19 pandemic causes drastic changes in workplaces that are likely to increase quite quitting among employees. Although quiet quitting is not a new phenomenon, there is no instrument to measure it.

Objective
To develop and validate an instrument assessing quiet quitting among employees.

Methods
We identified and generated items through an extensive literature review and interviews with employees. We carried out the content validity by content experts and we calculated the content validity ratio. We checked face validity by conducting cognitive interviews with employees and calculating the item-level face validity index. We conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to investigate the quiet quitting scale (QQS) factorial structure. We checked the concurrent validity of the QQS using four other scales, i.e., Copenhagen burnout inventory (CBI), single item burnout (SIB) measure, job satisfaction survey (JSS) and a single item to measure turnover intention. We estimated the reliability of the QQS measuring Cronbach's alpha, McDonald's omega, Cohen's kappa and intraclass correlation coefficient.

Results
After expert panel review and item analysis, nine items with acceptable corrected item-total correlations, inter-item correlations, floor and ceiling effects, skewness and kurtosis were retained. Exploratory factor analysis extracted three factors, namely detachment, lack of initiative and lack of motivation, with a total of nine items. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed this factorial structure for QQS. We found statistically significant correlations between QQS and CBI, SIB, JSS and turnover intention confirming that the concurrent validity of the QQS was great. Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega of the QQS were 0.803 and 0.806 respectively.

Conclusion
QQS, a three-factor nine-item scale, has robust psychometric properties. QQS is an easy-to-administer, brief, reliable and valid tool to measure employees' quiet quitting. We recommend the use of the QQS in different societies and cultures to assess the validity of the instrument.
- instrument,
- scale,
- quiet quitting,
- validation,
- employees
Citation: Petros Galanis, Aglaia Katsiroumpa, Irene Vraka, Olga Siskou, Olympia Konstantakopoulou, Ioannis Moisoglou, Parisis Gallos, Daphne Kaitelidou. The quiet quitting scale: Development and initial validation[J]. AIMS Public Health, 2023, 10(4): 828-848. doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2023055

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Abstract

Introduction

COVID-19 pandemic causes drastic changes in workplaces that are likely to increase quite quitting among employees. Although quiet quitting is not a new phenomenon, there is no instrument to measure it.

Objective

To develop and validate an instrument assessing quiet quitting among employees.

Methods

We identified and generated items through an extensive literature review and interviews with employees. We carried out the content validity by content experts and we calculated the content validity ratio. We checked face validity by conducting cognitive interviews with employees and calculating the item-level face validity index. We conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to investigate the quiet quitting scale (QQS) factorial structure. We checked the concurrent validity of the QQS using four other scales, i.e., Copenhagen burnout inventory (CBI), single item burnout (SIB) measure, job satisfaction survey (JSS) and a single item to measure turnover intention. We estimated the reliability of the QQS measuring Cronbach's alpha, McDonald's omega, Cohen's kappa and intraclass correlation coefficient.

Results

After expert panel review and item analysis, nine items with acceptable corrected item-total correlations, inter-item correlations, floor and ceiling effects, skewness and kurtosis were retained. Exploratory factor analysis extracted three factors, namely detachment, lack of initiative and lack of motivation, with a total of nine items. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed this factorial structure for QQS. We found statistically significant correlations between QQS and CBI, SIB, JSS and turnover intention confirming that the concurrent validity of the QQS was great. Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega of the QQS were 0.803 and 0.806 respectively.

Conclusion

QQS, a three-factor nine-item scale, has robust psychometric properties. QQS is an easy-to-administer, brief, reliable and valid tool to measure employees' quiet quitting. We recommend the use of the QQS in different societies and cultures to assess the validity of the instrument.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all participants in our study. This research received no external funding.

Conflict of Interest

Petros Galanis is an editorial board member for AIMS Public Health, and he's also guest editor of AIMS Public Health Special Issue, and he was not involved in the editorial review or the decision to publish this article. All authors declare that there are no competing interests.

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