Abstract
Orientation: For optimal outcomes, it is suggested that employees receive support from their organisation to use their strengths and improve their deficits. Employees also engage in proactive behaviour to use their strengths and improve their deficits. Following this conversation, the Strengths Use and Deficit Correction Questionnaire (SUDCO) was developed. However, the cultural suitability of the SUDCO has not been confirmed.Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the bias and structural equivalence of the SUDCO.Motivation for the study: In a diverse cultural context such as South Africa, it is important to establish that a similar score on a psychological test has the same psychological meaning across ethnic groups.Research design, approach and method: A cross-sectional survey design was followed to collect data among a convenience sample of 858 employees from various occupational sectors in South Africa.Main findings: Confirmatory multigroup analysis was used to test for item and construct bias. None of the items were biased, neither uniform nor non-uniform. The most restrictive model accounted for similarities in weights, intercepts and means; only residuals were different.Practical/managerial implications: The results suggest that the SUDCO is suitable for use among the major ethnic groups included in this study. These results increase the probability that future studies with the SUDCO among other ethnic groups will be unbiased and equivalent.Contribution: This study contributed to existing literature because no previous research has assessed the bias and equivalence of the SUDCO among ethnic groups in South Africa.
Highlights
Organisations were almost exclusively concerned with those aspects of employees and their work that need to be improved upon
The results showed that the hypothesised four-factor model fitted the data best (χ2 = 1428.09; df = 224; p = 0.00; comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.93; Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) = 0.92; Root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.08; SRMR = 0.05; Akaike information criterion (AIC) = 64183.61; Bayesian information criterion (BIC) = 64544.78)
It was confirmed that the Strengths Use and Deficit Correction Questionnaire (SUDCO) measures four distinct factors that were labelled as perceived organisational support for strengths use (POSSU), perceived organisational support for deficit correction (POSDC), strengths use behaviour (SUB) and deficit correction behaviour (DCB)
Summary
Organisations were almost exclusively concerned with those aspects of employees and their work that need to be improved upon During this time, organisations were mainly focused on the development of employees’ weaknesses or deficits (Carr, 2004; Slade, 2010; Wood & Tarrier, 2010). In recent years, research has shown that employees are organisations’ greatest asset and that if they are well cared for, employees’ well-being can be beneficial to the organisation (Wood, 2005). This realisation ignited the positive psychology movement that focuses on the aspects of human life that make individuals flourish (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Of particular interest in the positive organisational scholarship tradition is how employees’ strengths can be applied for optimal outcomes for both the individual and the organisation (Cameron et al, 2003; Clifton & Harter, 2003)
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