The effect of frame-of-reference on the construct validity of the South African personality inventory

Abstract

Orientation: Organisations in South Africa have increasingly become more reliant on personality inventories, not only for selection purposes but also for developmental purposes. When testing candidates and/or employees, language and cultural differences should be taken into consideration. This may be affected by the respondent�s frame of reference when completing a personality inventory. To standardise the context participants use when completing a personality inventory, adding a standard frame-of-reference after each line item could affect the construct validity of the inventory. This presents a new set of challenges to personality researchers. o Research purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate the effect of a contextualised versus a non-contextualised inventory on the reliability and construct validity of the six-factor South African Personality Inventory, hereafter referred to as the SAPI1. The use of research objectives guided the developing arguments in order to achieve the purpose of the study. o Motivation for the study: Language and culture play a very important role when testing individuals from a cross-cultural background. Studies have shown that language affects the responses to line items, especially when the test is not in the respondent�s home language. Recently, researchers started experimenting with using contextualised inventories and the effect on criterion-related validity. This study will investigate the effect of contextualisation on the construct validity of the SAPI, by adding a specific frame of reference, hereafter referred to as FOR, to each line item of the inventory. Each line item received an �in the workplace� tag, i.e. I am happy �in the workplace�. Research design, approach and method: A quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional research design was followed. The sample was determined through the use of a convenient non-probability sampling technique, used to administer the SAPI within a large Retailer operating in all nine provinces of South Africa. The respondents are both based in offices as well as working in stores and functioning at administrative, junior management and senior management levels. Two parallel inventories were distributed amongst participants and randomly assigned to complete either the contextualised inventory (n = 144) or the non-contextualised inventory (n = 193). Through the use of exploratory factory analysis (EFA) and Cronbach alpha coefficients the researcher matched the pattern of the contextualised inventory to the pattern of the non-contextualised inventory. o Practical/managerial implications: The SAPI has been designed specifically for South Africa and has through research proved to be a valid, reliable measurement of personality. The instrument should assist South African organisations to foster and create a workforce measured by an instrument that is truly culturally unbiased. Personality types can be matched to specific positions as the instrument can be used for both selection as well as developmental purposes. o Contribution/value-add: By expanding knowledge on the conceptualisation of the FOR effect on personality inventories this study added value to both the theoretical as well as practical aspects of the research on the SAPI. The study will contribute on a practical level by means of analysing the effect that FOR have on the construct validity and reliability to the SAPI specifically.