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EMPLOYEE ATTITUDE SURVEYS IN A MULTINATIONAL ORGANIZATION: CONSIDERING LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN ASSESSING MEASUREMENT EQUIVALENCE
Author(s) -
RYAN ANN MARIE,
CHAN DAVID,
PLOYHART ROBERT E.,
SLADE L. ALLEN
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
personnel psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.076
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1744-6570
pISSN - 0031-5826
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-6570.1999.tb01812.x
Subject(s) - equivalence (formal languages) , multinational corporation , psychology , covariance , functional equivalence , hofstede's cultural dimensions theory , measurement invariance , social psychology , measure (data warehouse) , linguistics , statistics , mathematics , political science , confirmatory factor analysis , structural equation modeling , computer science , pure mathematics , law , philosophy , database
The cross‐cultural equivalence of a multinational employee opinion survey was examined using multiple‐groups covariance structure analysis to examine 4 scales in 4 countries. Cultural and linguistic influences were considered by assessing equivalence across 2 pairs of countries having the same language but different cultures (U.S. and Australia, Mexico and Spain) and across countries differing in culture and language (U.S. and Mexico). The measure was equivalent across U.S. and Australian samples only. Analyses indicated items that were the source of lack of invariance. One cause explored was translation problems. Practical issues in assessing measurement equivalence in employee opinion surveys are discussed.