Development and validation of the team grit scale

Abstract

The aim of this research was to build a valid and parsimonious scale to measure team grit. The construct of team grit is in its nascency with very little empirical research or theoretical explication of the construct. Given the importance of teams in society, including in work organisational contexts, and the identification of grit at the individual level, the researcher argues that team grit is an important driver of team effectiveness. Although several team-level measures exist, no scale exists for measuring grit in teams. Due to the lack of research into grit at a collective level the starting point for the study was to explicate the domain of team grit through a review of literature. Following the development of the team grit domain, a qualitative study was undertaken through ten team focus groups. The proposed elements of team grit were tested, and team functioning was explored. These engagements offered a deeper understanding of the team grit construct. An item pool was drafted from literature and the focus groups, and tested with expert reviewers, who were scholars in the field of organisational behaviour, grit, and scale development. The main quantitative phase included four waves of data collection from 938 respondents across multiple countries. The first exploratory factor analysis wave was conducted among South African respondents obtained through social media. A second exploratory study, among South African respondents in business, was used to purify the scale. The third wave, based on data from the USA, again explored the factor structure and offered a confirmed factor structure for testing nomological validity. The fourth and final UK based panel data confirmed the factor structure, as well as the measurement invariance across the final two datasets. The resultant eight-item and two factor scale has discriminant validity in relation to individual grit. The scale also displays nomological validity, and evidence was found for metric, scalar and residual invariance across geographical samples. This study contributed to theory in identifying two closely connected factors which constitute team grit. It also empirically links team grit to antecedents of team psychological safety and team goal commitment. Moreover, team grit predicts team innovation and team work engagement. The scale offers a new construct for measuring an important team quality, thus making a strong methodological contribution. For practitioners, the scale offers an opportunity to measure team grit with team development implications that may boost innovation and engagement.