INVESTIGATING THE FACTOR STRUCTURE OF ADAPTABILITY: A MEASURE OF ADAPTIVE PERFORMANCE

Abstract

The modern organizational setting is rife with circumstances that burden employees with changes that necessitate adaptation. Adaptation in this context refers to an employee’s ability to perform when new task demands are presented or current task demands are modified. Given the importance of adaptation in the workplace, the development of a robust measure of adaptive performance is prudent. This study’s purpose was to further investigate the dimensionality of adaptive performance using a combination of: (a) Measure of Adaptive Performance (MAP) items that were created by Lillard et al. (2012), (b) items created for a newly hypothesized MAP sub-dimensions of interpersonal adaptability (i.e., Flexibility of Opinion, Openness to Criticism, Openness to Others, and Emotional Perceptiveness), and (c) the Individual Adaptability Theory (I-ADAPT) items developed by Ployhart and Bliese (2006). Results from the confirmatory factor analysis support the use of this model in future research on adaptive performance. The model has an acceptable fit with the data, and should be honed over time following subsequent studies.