Method Effects, Measurement Error, and Substantive Conclusions

Common method variance is routinely viewed as a pervasive problem in organizational research, one that undermines good science and biases empirical conclusions. The authors review research that has used multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) designs to estimate the magnitude of common method variance in organizational research. The results of this study show that method variance accounts for less variance (18%) than has been suggested by previous...