Construct Validity Of The Career Resilience Questionnaire

Abstract

The construct validity of the Career Resilience Questionnaire (Fourie & Van Vuuren, 1998) was investigated by means of an oblique multiple groups factor analysis.The highest factor structure coe⁄cients of several of the items did not coincide with the respective factors that the items were postulated to measure. In addition, the correlations among the factors cast doubt on the independence of some of the constructs. The conclusion is drawn that a measure of career resilience should be based on an explicit theoretical measurement model rather than on an empirically derived measurement model. It is further recommended that the test items should have high face validity and content-saturation. OPSOMMINGDie konstrukgeldigheid van die Career Resilience Questionnaire (Fourie & VanVuuren,1998) is aan die hand van die gekorreleerde meervoudige-groeperingsmetode van faktorontleding ondersoek. Die resultate dui daarop dat verskeie items nie hulle hoogste faktorstruktuurkoe« ⁄sie« nte op die gepostuleerde faktore gehad het nie.Verder het die korrelasies tussen die faktore daarop gedui dat die gepostuleerde konstrukte nie onafhanklik is nie. Die gevolgtrekking is gemaak dat 'n meetinstrument van loopbaangehardheid (career resilience) eerder op 'n eksplisiete teoretiese metingsmodel gebaseer moet wees as op 'n empiriese verkree« metingsmodel.'n Verdere aanbeveling is dat die items oor 'n hoe« mate van gesigsgeldigheid en inhoudsversadiging moet beskik. Fourie and Van Vuuren (1998) recently made an important contribution to the industrial psychology literature by constructing a measure of career resilience, namely the Career Resilience Questionnaire (CRQ). Their conceptualization of career resilience is largely built on the work of Gordon (1995) and London (1983London ( , 1993. Career resilience refers to an ability to ''bounce back'' from adverse career related situations, and more speci¢cally to resist career disruptions amidst less than ideal circumstances (Van Vuuren & Fourie, 2000, in press). Fourie and VanVuuren (1998) explain that career resilient individuals have the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. Such individuals are likely to welcome job and organizational changes, and ¢nd working with new and di¡erent people stimulating. Career resilient individuals are also recognized by their self-con¢dent behavior and willingness to take careerrelated risks.This focus on career resilience is in line with the increasing emphasis in mainstream psychology to search for indicators of physical and psychological well-being (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Strˇmpfer,1999). Accordingly, Fourie and Van Vuuren (1998) constructed 60 items to measure career resilience. Referring to this Career Resilience Questionnaire they state: ''Items re£ect a career resilient disposition if the respondent exhibits a high degree of £exibility, adaptability, and competence despite adverse career situations'' (Fourie & Van Vuuren, 1998, p. 55). However, apart from this broad speci¢ca-tion, no explicit theoretically derived multi-...

Resilience in the modern career

“…The measure developed by Noe et al (1990) provides another option, but little evidence of its validity and reliability is available. A more complete measure was developed by Fourie and Van Vuuren (1998), but its validity was called into question in subsequent 378 CDI 20,4 research (de Bruin and Lew, 2002). Future research should focus on the development and validation of a more detailed and robust measure of CR that adequately represents its dimensionality and its relationship to psychological resilience.…”

“…Fourie and Van Vuuren (1998) developed a measure of CR and found it to have four factors: first, belief in oneself; second, disregard for traditional sources of career success; third, self-reliance; and fourth, receptivity to change. This model should be considered tentative, however, as it was developed empirically rather than theoretically and was not replicated in subsequent research (de Bruin and Lew, 2002).…”