Roumanian adaptation of Utrecht Work Engagement Scale: The examination of validity and reliability

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to validate the Romanian version of Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-R). The study was developed in three phases: (1) adaptation for Romanian language of Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (17 item version and 9 item version) (Shaufeli & Bakker, 2003); (2) a comparative analysis of the two scales; (3) a validity analysis for UWES-9 on Romanian population. The factor structure for the two scales was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. The results indicate that the fit indices for UWES-17 are lower than for UWES-9. The comparative analysis of the results indicate that UWES-9 is, generally, more adequate to be used in Romanian organizations. The internal consistency of the UWES-9 scales have values between .70 and .80 and the consistency for the unique factor is almost .90 that suggests a better adequacy for the single factor model. The construct validity analysis shows that work engagement is related to personality dimensions, organizational citizenship and counterproductive work behaviors, organizational justice and job content aspects. The results support the reliability and validity aspects for the tested instrument.