Research over the last three decades has addressed the importance of integrity in leadership (e.g., Burns, 1978; Fairholm, 1991; Posner & Schmidt, 1984; Vitell & Davis, 1990). Research and application are stunted without adequate measures that assess the extent to which leaders demonstrate ethical or unethical behaviors. As business activities between countries increase (Stephens & Greer, 1995), having tests available in multiple languages can have various benefits (Zumbo, 2003). The availability of a measure in different languages can allow researchers and practitioners to facilitate assessment without having to build a new test, develop understandings of new cultural differences, and conduct comparative research. This study used the differential functioning of items and tests (DFIT; Raju, van der Linden, & Fleer, 1995) framework, based on item response theory (IRT), to assess the measurement equivalence between two language versions of the Perceived Leader Integrity Scale (PLIS; Craig & Gustafson, 1998) using samples collected from the United States, New Zealand, and Mexico. The U.S. and New Zealand samples formed the English speaking or US-NZ group and the Mexico sample formed the Spanish speaking group. Two indices of DFIT were used to determine item level (NCDIF) and test level (DTF) inequivalence between the comparison groups. Results showed 17.9% (5 out of 28) of the items to be differentially functioning. No significant DTF was identified at the test level. Post hoc explanations of the items with significant NCDIF in terms of possible cultural and linguistic influences provide information about the possible reasons why the items are functioning differentially (e.g. translation errors, cultural differences, or both). Practical implications of the current study are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NCSU/oai:NCSU:etd-07062005-020822 |
| Date | 25 July 2005 |
| Creators | Datta, Anasuya |
| Contributors | Joan J. Michael, Adam Meade, Bart Craig |
| Publisher | NCSU |
| Source Sets | North Carolina State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-07062005-020822/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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