Responses to the original and revised Job Diagnostic Survey: Is education a factor in responses to negatively worded items?

The original and revised versions of the Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) were administered to 3,044 public sector employees in a range of jobs, and results confirmed earlier findings that a revised version of the JDS using only positively worded items better fits the five-factor structure underlying the instrument. Evidence was obtained that respondents' education level is not the reason for the problems experienced with negatively worded items, nor does it appear that less educated workers are inherently less able to distinguish between job characteristics. Recommendations are made for the use of the revised JDS in future research and practice