Work Environment Scale by Moos & Insel

Increase work environment productivity and satisfaction

Rudolf H. Moos & Paul M. Insel

The Work Environment Scale (WES) helps you evaluate productivity, assess employee satisfaction, and clarify employee expectations to ensure a healthy work environment.

Administer the WES to individuals or groups. The Manual provides normative data and information on clinical, consulting, and program evaluation uses. In particular, the 4th edition of the WES Manual provides updated norms and new information about the clinical and research applications of the WES. The Interpretive Report Form (included in the reproduction license) and Personal Reports assist with your interpretation of results and provide scale assessment information.

The WES is available in three forms (All three forms (R, I, E) are included):
Form R (Real) measures an employee's perception of the work environment
Form I (Ideal) measures the ideal workplace goals and values your employee holds
Form E (Expected) assesses an employee's work environment expectations

	Paper by mail		Digital download (PDF)
WES Manual/Sampler Set Includes non-reproducible instrument and scoring key marked “sample”		$40.00

WES Online Survey Let Mind Garden do your data collection for you. Our Transform system* allows you to enter the email addresses of your participants - up to the purchased number - and we will administer the instrument and provide you with a csv (comma delimited) file. * click here for web-browser compatibility information Alternatively, you can administer the instrument yourself by ordering the paper form or the PDF/ electronic form. In either case, you will receive just one copy of the instrument and written license to reproduce/ administer the purchased number. Includes one copy of the scoring key - does not include the Manual. Pricing depends on quantity - please see below.
License to Reproduce/Administer
Number of Participants	Paper by mail		Digital download (PDF)	Online Survey (for data collection)
1-50		$100.00		$120.00
51-100		$110.00		$132.00
101-150		$135.00		$162.00
151-200		$160.00		$192.00
201-250		$200.00		$240.00
251-300		$228.00		$274.00
301-350		$252.00		$302.00
351-400		$288.00		$346.00
401-450		$324.00		$389.00
451-500		$360.00		$432.00
For pricing for larger quantities, please click here

Translations of this instrument are available. Click here to see a complete list of translations, along with more details on our translation policy.

WES Personal Reports

Let us do the administration for you. We will send you a link to a unique and secure online "control panel" where you will enter clients names and email addresses. Clients will be sent an email with a secure url address to take the evaluation* in privacy at their convenience. You can monitor their progress from your control panel. Instruments will be scored and a report returned to you. The personal profile is a graphic picture of the various subscales and dimension of the respondent's perception of the work environment. The report includes the interpretation of the scale scores, item examples that contributed to each score, next steps to take with the respondent, and a case example for how to interpret the profile.
* click here for web-browser compatibility information

WES

Personal Reports web admin icon

Select the desired number of reports from the drop-down menu. The following volume pricing applies:
Individual Report	$15.00 each
2-10 reports	$14.00 each
11-20 reports	$13.00 each
21-50 reports	$12.00 each
51-100 reports	$11.00 each
For larger quantities, please contact us

See a sample WES report (pdf, 29kb)

Get the free Adobe Acrobat here

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Work Environment Scale Annotated Bibliographies

Rudolf H. Moos

A compilation the 1st and 2nd editions of the annotated bibliographies of the Work Environment Scale that cover research on the WES from 1973 through 2007.

			Digital download (PDF)
WES Bibliography		$20.00

About the WES

The Work Environment Scale (WES) measures the social environment of all types of work settings. It comprises ten subscales or dimensions, which are divided into three sets: the Relationship Dimensions, the Personal Growth or Goal Orientation dimensions, and the System Maintenance and System Change dimensions.

Relationship Dimensions

The first three dimensions measured by the WES are the Relationship Dimensions, which assess how committed employees are to their jobs, how friendly the employees are, and how supportive they are of each other, and how supportive managers are of employees.

Involvement

The Involvement subscale measures the extent to which employees are concerned about and committed to their jobs, for example: how challenging the work is, the pride people have in the organization, and the effort they put into what they do.

Coworker Cohesion

The Coworker cohesion subscale taps the extent of which employees are friendly and supportive of one another, for example: the effort people make to help a new employee feel comfortable, the interest they have in each other, and how frank they are about their feelings

Supervisor Support

The Supervisor Support subscale assesses the extent to which management is supportive of employees and encourages them to be supportive of one another, for example: how often supervisors compliment and employee who does something well, how often they give full credit to the ideas contributed by employees, and whether employees feel free to ask for a raise.

Personal Growth or Goal Orientation Dimensions

The Personal Growth, or Goal Orientation, subscales make up another set of WES dimensions. This set focuses on the emphasis on independence, getting the job done, and job demands. These dimensions include the Autonomy, Task Orientation and Work Pressure subscales. All three subscales contribute to a description of the work setting’s goal orientation; Autonomy and Task Orientation tap personal growth dimensions as well.

Autonomy

The Autonomy subscale measures the extent to which employees are encouraged to be self-sufficient and to make their own decisions, for example: how much freedom employees have to do as they like, how much they are encouraged to make their own decisions, and whether people can use their own initiative to do things.

Task Orientation

The Task Orientation subscale taps the degree of emphasis on good planning, efficiency, and getting the job done, for example: how much attention people pay to getting work done, how often things get “put off until tomorrow,” and how efficient and task-oriented the workplace is.

Work Pressure

The Work Pressure subscale assesses the degree to which the pressure of work and time urgency dominate the job milieu, for example: how much time pressure there is to keep working, how often there seems to be an urgency about everything, and whether people can afford to relax.

System Maintenance and System Change Dimensions

The System Maintenance and System Change Dimensions , the last set of dimensions measured by the WES, assess the work setting’s emphasis on rules and policies and on variety and innovation; it also taps the pleasantness of the physical setting. The four subscales in this domain are Clarity, Control, Innovation, and Physical Comfort.

Clarity

The Clarity subscale taps the extent to which employees know what to expect in their daily routine and how explicitly rules and policies are communicated, for example: how well activities are planned, how clearly the responsibilities of supervisors are defined, and how well the details of assigned jobs are explained to employees.

Control

The Control subscale assesses the extent to which management uses rules and pressures to keep employees under control, for example: how much following policies and regulations is emphasized, whether people are expected to follow set rules in doing their work, and how closely supervisors watch employees.

Innovation

The Innovation subscale measures the degree of emphasis on variety, changes, and new approaches, for example: whether doing things in a different way is valued, whether new and different ideas are tried out, and whether the place is one of the first to try out a new idea.

Physical Comfort

The Physical Comfort subscale measures the extent to which the physical surroundings contribute to a pleasant work environment, for example: how good the lighting is, how stylish and modern the place appears, and whether the colors and decorations make the place warm and cheerful work in.

From the WES Manual

Applications for Clinicians, Consultants, and Program Evaluators

The WES can be used to describe workplace social environments, contrast employees’ and managers’ views of their work groups, and compare actual and preferred work environments. Individual employees’ perceptions of a work group can be compared with one another. The WES can also be used to facilitate counseling and career planning and help formulate clinical case descriptions. In addition, the WES has some important applications for program evaluation. The WES can help to plan and monitor change in work settings, evaluate the impact of intervention programs, and promote improvement in the workplace.

Although many applications of the WES focus on aggregate scores and the work setting as a whole, the WES can also help counselors and others whose primary interest is the individual rather than the overall workplace. An individual profile reveals how a person views the work setting and his or her place in it. Unlike most assessment procedures, which may describe characteristics such as intelligence, personality, or interests, an individual WES profile reveals a person’s perceptions. Thus, as a source of unique information about the individual, the WES can enhance client assessment.

Here are some examples of when an assessment of a workplace is useful:

To diagnose problems. An assessment helps to analyze and understand possible problems in a work group.
Before change. An assessment done before a planned organizational change (such as a merger, restructuring, or technological change) sets a benchmark for measuring the impact of that change.
To promote change. An assessment can contribute to the process of change. Just as biofeedback can alleviate headaches, feedback of information about the work climate is a powerful way to promote change.
After change. An assessment helps to evaluate how an experimental, planned, or unexpected change has affected the work group (provided that data gathered before the change was instituted are available).
To appraise and improve leadership. Managers can obtain information about their effectiveness in shaping the desired work climate in their area of the organization.
To build teams. As a group seeks to increase its effectiveness, information about the work climate raises relevant issues for discussion and action.
To identify risks. An assessment identifies work climates that place the work group at risk for individual or organizational problems, such as high absenteeism, high turnover, or poor work quality.

Inventory Booklet Samples:

Test booklets feature three types of forms, with ninety items to measure ten subscales.

Form R

In the Real Form the items are worded asking the respondent to describe the place in which they work.

A. The work is really challenging	T	F
B. People go out of their way to help a new employee feel comfortable.	T	F

Form I, Form E

Ideal (Form I) and Expectations (Form E) forms allow people to describe the work environment as what an ideal work environment would be like or as the work environment they are about to enter will be like.