The leisure motivation of Japanese managers: a research note on scale development

Abstract A Japanese version of the Leisure Motivation Scale was posted to 446 Japanese firms trading in the UK; three questionnaires per firm were sent, the response rate for firms being 67% (N = 300). The total number of managers surveyed was 297 male with 15 female responses being excluded. The factor structure and scale reliabilities approximate those reported in the original instrument; however for our sample a five rather than four factor solution was regarded as optimal. The names attached to the subscales were as follows: Intellectual, Competence/Mastery, Stimulus Avoidance, Peer Influence and Friendship. This new analysis opens up the debate on the nature of leisure motivation in particular the need for caution in adopting in an unquestioning fashion the American empirical model. This note offers both a partial validation of the original scale but also points up some psychometric flaws in the original conceptualization and operationalization of the largely American-based research: the modified instrument was therefore used for an ongoing research project relating leisure motivation to various aspects of psychological well-being.