Job Descriptive Index (JDI)
The job Descriptive Index (JDI) was officially introduced in 1969 by Smith, Kendall, and Hulin and has since
become the “gold standard” of job satisfaction scales (Landy, Shankster & Kohler 1994).
Job Descriptive Index is a scale used to measure six major factors associated with job satisfaction: the nature of
the work itself, attitudes towards supervisors, relations with co-workers, opportunities for promotion, salary and
benefit, work condition in the present environment. The job satisfaction scales have 70 items. Participants use a 5-
point scale on which they are supposed to show between five point scales. The scale has a Cronbach alpha of
.092. Since the original introduction of the JDI, the measure has undergone two major updates: the first in (1985),
and the second in (1997), and the second in 1997 (Kihm, Smith & Irwin, 1997).