Developing and validating a team cultural intelligence scale

Abstract

With a social–cognitive framework, this article presents the further development and a six‐step validation procedure for a team cultural intelligence (TCQ) scale that measures the abilities that cross‐cultural teams need to perform vital tasks, extract information, and make decisions by leveraging the unique perspectives of diverse team members. In the first step, the confirmation of the content validity of the instrument is based on extant literature, which indicates a second‐order latent factor TCQ and five first‐order latent dimensions. The other validity tests appear in four empirical studies with different samples, mainly of employees working in cross‐cultural teams. Reliability testing shows that, after the removal of one item, TCQ and its dimensions attain adequate to good reliability, leading to a 20‐item TCQ scale. The third step reveals robust psychometric properties, in support of the assumed factor structure, and points to adequate convergent and discriminant validity. Next, tests indicate nomological and criterion‐related validity of TCQ and its dimensions in relation to team performance outcomes and other team characteristics. Finally, in the sixth validation step, TCQ exhibits incremental validity for explaining variance in innovative work behavior, beyond team members' individual CQ. These findings have relevant implications and suggest avenues for further research.