VALIDATION OF A SITUATIONAL JUDGMENT TEST MEASURING TEAMWORK PROCESSES

Abstract

As teams have become ubiquitous in the workplace, researchers have sought to maximize their performance by examining the nature and actions of teams. Consideration has been given to the development of instruments designed for team selection and development. This study seeks to continue this aspect of team-research as it attempts to validate a situational judgment test (SJT) that measures teamwork processes.

Based upon Marks, Mathieu, and Zaccaro's (2001) taxonomy of teamwork processes, a SJT was developed by graduate students at Middle Tennessee State University. The present study gathered data from undergraduate students in order to establish the reliability and validity for the Teamwork Processes SJT. To establish reliability, data were gathered to measure the instrument's test-retest reliability and internal consistency. Results indicated that the Team work Processes SJT was a stable measure, with homogenous items. Validation attempts were done to establish both convergent and discriminant validity. The Teamwork Processes SJT converged well with another, well-established measure of teamwork. The discriminant validity results indicated that the SJT was not contaminated by measures of personality and general cognitive ability. Overall, the results from this study proved to be promising as the findings suggest that the instrument under scrutiny is a reliable measure of teamwork processes, which captures a construct above and beyond personality and cognitive ability.