THE SUBMISSIVENESS TO ORGANIZATIONAL AUTHORITY SCALE AS A MEASURE OF AUTHORITARIANISM

The authoritarianism construct has been used in numerous contexts to m easure a variety of personality dimensions. However, no study to date has evaluated measures rs elf worker attitudes toward inappropriate in structions from superiors within the workplace. This study describes t he development and psychometric properties of a new authoritarianism s cale, the Submissiveness to Organizational Authority Scale (SOAS) that as designed to assess attitudes toward inappropriate submission to au thority in the workplace. The construct validity of the SOAS was evalu ated by comparisons with the General Attitudes Toward Institutional Au thority Scale, the Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory, and the Co mpliance with Supervisor's Wishes Scale. A three month test-retest app roach ns used with 465 and 108 working college students The results in dicate that the SOAS is a unidimensional measure of inappropriate subm issive attitudes within the workplace. The small to moderate correlati ons of tile new scale with existing scales provided evidence of discri minant validity. The findings also provide evidence of internal consis tency and test-retest reliability.