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This study developed the Speaking Strategies for Self-Regulated Learning Questionnaire based on Oxford's (2017) strategic self-regulation model of language learning to cross-validate the multifaceted structure of speaking strategies in English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. 963 undergraduate students from a university in Southeast China voluntarily participated in the investigation. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to verify three hypothesized models. Through model comparisons, the results indicate that the 10-factor correlated multidimensional structure is the most informative and robust model. The model sheds light on the relationships between the cognitive, affective, sociocultural-interactive strategies, and metastrategies of the ten lower-order speaking strategies. Through multiple linear regression analysis, it was found that three of the ten SRL strategies were predictive of EFL learners' speaking competence. The findings imply that Oxford's (2017) theory can be extended to the field of EFL speaking. The study concludes with implications for fostering strategic awareness among EFL learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a long history of operationalizing theoretical constructs of language proficiency by developing language proficiency scales. However, existing scales are not directly applicable in teaching and assessing Chinese as a second language (CSL) reading in US higher education contexts. Teachers need guidance regarding what component reading skills/knowledge should be taught and measured. This study developed a CSL Reading Proficiency Scale aligning to Koda's (2005) theoretical framework that models L2 reading as a three-factor construct. The scale development began with modeling the construct of CSL reading ability on the basis of literature review. Drawing on this process, an operational descriptive scheme and a descriptor pool were established and subjected to expert review of content validity. Descriptors that survived expert review were then compiled into a Likert-scale questionnaire. This instrument was tested through teachers' evaluations (N = 179) of whether CSL learners 'can do' what were denoted by descriptors. Confirmatory factor analysis exhibits solid goodness of fit between descriptors and the hypothesized three-factor model. The total score and the three subscale scores show high reliability. Evidence of convergent validity, discriminant validity, and concurrent validity indicates that the Scale measures CSL reading ability as intended. 摘要: 长期以来, 外语教学和测试领域通过制定语言水平量表来描述语言水平的理论构念。然而, 现有的量表在应用于美国高校汉语作为第二语言 (CSL) 阅读教学和测试中有一些局限性。对于具体应该教和考哪些阅读子技能和子知识, 教师们需要更多的有效指导。本研究基于Koda (2005) 的三因素第二语言阅读模型, 开发了一个新的 CSL 阅读水平量表。量表的开发始于根据已有的研究来描述 CSL 阅读能力的构念。在此基础上, 作者建立了一个描述语体系和描述语语料库。语料库中 57 条通过了专家内容效度评审的描述语被编制成一套李克特量表问卷。教师使用这套问卷对 179 位 CSL学习者的阅读能力进行了评估。验证性因子分析结果显示数据与假设的三因素模型之间具有良好的拟合度。总分和三个子量表的分数都显示出很高的信度。 此外, 该量表具有很好的收敛效度、区分效度和共时效度。 PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY: In this research, I developed a CSL Reading Proficiency Scale (the Scale) for college-level Chinese as a second language (CSL) teachers, addressing the limitations of existing scales. It is designed to measure CSL learners' reading ability and to provide CSL teachers with guidance regarding component CSL reading skills/knowledge that should be taught and measured. To develop this scale, I first reviewed previous studies on second language (L2) reading and Chinese linguistics to identify component skills/knowledge of CSL reading. Then, I collected descriptors of L2 reading ability from existing scales and created new descriptors to represent these component skills/knowledge. Four experts reviewed and improved descriptors in terms of clarity, brevity, accuracy, and content relevance etc. Fifty seven descriptors that survived the expert review were compiled into a questionnaire, which teachers used to evaluate students' reading ability. Based on the evaluation data, in addition to checking the structure of the Scale, I also examined the reliability and validity. Results show that the Scale measures CSL reading ability as intended and can yield consistent outcomes of students' reading ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The psychometric properties of two shortened and rescaled versions of widely used measures of job insecurity were evaluated. Using survey data from 292 US working adults and relying on classical test theory, confirmatory factor analysis, and item response theory analyses, results indicated that these new versions had high reliability and similar psychometric properties compared with the original versions. Empirical evidence further established favorable convergent and discriminant validity, based on the revised scales' relationships with relevant covariates. The revised versions also showed substantially improved precision of measurement over a broader range of cognitive and affective job insecurity levels (i.e. they provide greater information for a wider range of participants experiencing varying levels of insecurity). These results indicate the briefer rescaled versions should be preferred over the original scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the importance of wisdom in leadership and the crucial role that wise leaders play within organizations, this study aimed at developing a psychometrically valid scale measuring wise leadership. Data were collected from three independent samples from France and Morocco (N=626). Exploratory factor analysis, first- and second-order confirmatory factor analyses, and structural equation modeling established the convergent and discriminant validities of the new wise leadership scale. Review of the extant literature, expert judgment technique and quantitative analyses across four studies yielded a 16-item scale designed to measure wise leadership (Wise Leadership Questionnaire [WLQ]). The driving forces of this pattern of leaders' values, cognitions and behaviors are intellectual shrewdness, spurring action, moral conduct, and virtuous humility. This new wise leadership measure will be valuable for researchers and practitioners in understanding the pattern of wise leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop a scale for measuring service inclusion for tourists with disabilities in tourism and hospitality services. Transformative service research serves as the basis for the conceptualization and dimensionality. Design/methodology/approach: To develop and purify the items as well as develop dimensions, standard scale development procedures were applied. Two studies were undertaken. In Study 1, the factorial structure of the service inclusion was constructed and confirmed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. In Study 2, the field study was conducted to validate the scale. Findings: The study developed a new scale for measuring service inclusion. The results show that service inclusion is a higher-order construct with four dimensions, namely, enabling opportunity, offering choice, relieving suffering and fostering happiness. Furthermore, service inclusion has a significant effect on tourists' well-being perception, which results in more favorable behavioral responses. The newly constructed scale is declared as valid and reliable by the study that examined it for nomological validity by examining the relationship between service inclusion and tourists' perceptions of their well-being. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to develop measurement scale for service inclusion in the tourism and hospitality industry. The scale is proven as reliable and valid and is well suitable for measuring service inclusion for tourists with physical disabilities. It has potential to use for other relevant service contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher beliefs are a pivotal psychological quality for sustainable teacher development. Previous studies have mainly focused on the beliefs of English-as-a-second/foreign-language (ESL/EFL) teachers, while little attention has been paid to those of Chinese-as-an-additional-language (CAL) teachers. Particularly, there is a paucity of effort made to develop and validate instrument for measuring pre-service CAL teacher beliefs. Therefore, to further quantify the beliefs of CAL teachers is increasingly called for as an essential means to help teachers sensitize their beliefs system and promote teacher development as a sustainable goal. To be specific, the present study aims to construct a scale for gauging beliefs of pre-service CAL teachers. It firstly conceptualizes the dimensions of pre-service CAL teacher beliefs by means of semantic analysis with ROST CM6, and then cross-validates the reliability and validity of the scale with psychometric methods. Two independent samples composed of 221 and 222 pre-service CAL teachers participated in a questionnaire survey. The two samples were utilized for later Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), respectively. The two data sets have satisfactory psychometric results, all confirming that the scale subsumes three factors: Beliefs about Chinese Language Teaching (BCLT), Beliefs about Chinese Language (BCL), and Beliefs about Chinese Language Learners (BCLL). The scale validated in the present study contributes to research on pre-service CAL teacher beliefs, and provides implications for sustainable pre-service CAL teacher training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to revise the Initial Version of the Teacher Buoyancy Scale (TBS) to the Dual Component TBS by incorporating contextual resources. 434 teachers completed Dual Component TBS and Job Stress scale. Factor analyses suggested a 5-factor solution of the Dual Component TBS, separating personal and contextual resources. SEM results revealed the mediating role of teacher buoyancy between personal and contextual resources as predictors, and job stress as outcome, providing some support for its criterion validity. The role of collegial support as a contextual resource in teacher buoyancy and the meaningfulness of teacher buoyancy in understanding stress are discussed. (100 words). • Dual Component Teacher Buoyancy Scale (TBS) has two new contextual components. • New components are: support from family and friends , support from the work context. • CFA suggests teacher buoyancy is described by five factors. • Teacher buoyancy mediates the relationships of personal and contextual resources with job stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic self-efficacy beliefs influence students' academic and career choices, as well as motivational factors and learning strategies promoting effective academic success. Nevertheless, few studies have focused on the academic self-efficacy of university students in comparison to students at other levels. Furthermore, extant measures present several limitations. The first aim of this study was to develop a reliable and valid scale assessing university students' self-efficacy beliefs in managing academic tasks. The second aim was to investigate differences in academic self-efficacy due to gender, years of enrollment, and student status. The study involved 831 students (age M = 21.09 years; SD = 1.34 years; 66.3% women) enrolled in undergraduate programs. Indicators of academic experiences and performance (i.e., number of exams passed and average exam rating) were collected. A new scale measuring students' academic self-efficacy beliefs was administered. Results from a preliminary Exploratory Factor Analysis were consistently supported by findings from a Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Multigroup CFA supported the presence of measurement invariance. Analyses revealed that the new scale has eight factors: "Planning Academic Activities," "Learning Strategies," "Information Retrieval," "Working in Groups," "Management of Relationships with Teachers," "Managing Lessons," "Stress Management," and "Thesis Work." Self-efficacy dimensions showed significant relations with academic experiences and students' performance indicators, as well as differences due to gender, years of enrollment, and student status. Findings are discussed in terms of practical implications for the implementation of intervention programs aimed at fostering self-efficacy beliefs and academic success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Customer citizenship behaviors (CCB) in service sector stand out as an important means of promoting the survival of firms in a rapidly increasing competitive environment. Yet, customer citizenship behavior has not been studied sufficiently and remained a weakness according to the organizational citizenship literature. In this study, it is aimed to develop a customer citizenship behavior scale which is broader than the existing ones in the literature and can be easily adapted to different cultures and languages. In the research part, data were derived from 887 users of GSM service, which is used almost in the same way in every societies. The results present that CCB has seven sub-dimensions named as providing feedback, positive word of mouth, helping other customers, policing of other customers, suggestion for service improvement, participation to firm activities, and intention to use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction : This paper presents the development and validation of a new rubric-based Safety Climate Assessment Tool (S-CAT). The S-CAT gives companies the opportunity to use rubric descriptors, rather than traditional Likert scale responses, to self-assess their level of safety climate maturity and receive a composite score benchmarked against others in the S-CAT database. Method: The S-CAT is composed of 37 separate indicators of 8 safety climate factors identified by construction industry subject matter experts. The eight factors have between three and six indicators each with its own rubric-based response-scale. The scales comprise descriptors for five levels of safety climate maturity ranging from "inattentive" to "exemplary." Nine hundred and eighty-five respondents working in the construction industry completed the S-CAT via our online safety climate website. We used company recordable incident rates (RIR) to assess the S-CAT's criterion-related validity. Results : Cronbach alphas for each factor ranged from 0.77 to 0.90 and a confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized eight factor structure with a higher-order safety climate factor. Seven of the eight factor scores, as well as the overall S-CAT score, were significantly negatively correlated with RIR. Moreover, a relative weights analysis indicated that a weighted combination of the eight safety climate factors explained 27% of the variance in organizational RIR. Conclusions: These findings provide evidence that the S-CAT is a reliable tool allowing construction companies to self-assess their safety climate along eight different factors. Moreover, the S-CAT was significantly associated with organizational injury rates. Practical applications : We discuss how companies can use the rubric descriptors to strengthen their safety management systems and improve their safety climate maturity. • We develop a rubric-based safety climate assessment tool. • The S-CAT is validated using data from N = 985 construction industry employees. • Results confirm the reliability and expected factor structure of the S-CAT. • S-CAT scores are negatively associated with organizational injury rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A multi-dimensional and multi-level safety climate measurement scale. • Measuring safety climate for high safety management maturity. • Measuring "soft" elements that are critical success factors of management system. The proliferation of operationalisation approaches to safety climate has failed short of establishing a common set of dimensions and measurement items. Furthermore, extant measures are designed to accommodate all organisations regardless of safety management maturity; thus, a safety climate measurement scale suited to high-maturity organisations is still missing. Drawing on a systematic review of safety climate measurement literature, the article reports the development and validation of a multi-dimensional and multi-level safety climate measurement scale, suited to organisations with high safety management maturity. To corroborate the validity of the measure, the study was conducted in cooperation with health & safety managers from 15 large companies with a mature safety management system. Following initial questionnaire development, a multi-stage validation procedure was implemented on data from four large companies (totalling 880 participants) operating in the electric power distribution, oilfield services, manufacturing, minting and printing sectors in Italy. Exploratory factor analysis was used for the identification of the underlying structure of the set of items. Confirmatory factor analysis was undertaken to evaluate the model fit at the validation stages. The final version of the questionnaire consists of eight safety climate dimensions and 60 items. A short version of the scale is also validated to provide a more balanced, while complete and reliable, measurement tool (totalling 40 items). Lastly, implications for safety practitioners are discussed, providing directions on how to utilise the scale for identifying safety improvement opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advancement in innovation and information communication technologies (ICT) have enabled banks to service their customers through new channels such as Internet and mobile banking. Providing superior service quality has become a key business imperative due to the intense competition that exist in the financial services industry. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate an Internet banking service quality (IBSQ) scale for the banking sector in South Africa. A two-phase process was employed in the study. Phase I involved reviewing of previously developed scales around the world, and conducting focus group and in-depth interviews which formed the qualitative part of the scale development process. A quantitative research paradigm was adopted for Phase II in which the refinement and validation of the scale involved various statistical applications. A questionnaire was administered to male and female Internet bank customers. Data from a total of 310 usable questionnaires were analysed. Eight composite dimensions of IBSQ, namely reliability, system availability, privacy and security, website aesthetics, ease of use, functionality, efficiency, contact and responsiveness were identified through exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Of the eight dimensions, reliability was rated the most important dimension followed by system availability, and privacy and security, while contact and responsiveness was accorded the lowest level of importance. However, the overall mean values were skewed to the right, indicating that all the dimensions extracted for Internet banking services are of crucial importance to customers. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was then applied to test (confirm) the model fit. The scale portrayed a very good fit for the dataset as indicated by the goodness-of-fit indices. Banks are therefore encouraged to utilise this multidimensional scale to assess and improve their services rendered through Internet portals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research on the microfoundations of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has highlighted the need for improved measures to evaluate how stakeholders perceive and subsequently react to CSR initiatives. Drawing on stakeholder theory and data from five samples of employees (N = 3,772), the authors develop and validate a new measure of corporate stakeholder responsibility (CStR), which refers to an organization’s context-specific actions and policies designed to enhance the welfare of various stakeholder groups by accounting for the triple bottom line of economic, social, and environmental performance; it is conceptualized as a superordinate, multidimensional construct. Results from exploratory factor analyses, first- and second-order confirmatory factor analyses, and structural equation modeling provide strong evidence of the convergent, discriminant, incremental, and criterion-related validities of the proposed CStR scale. Two-wave longitudinal studies further extend prior theory by demonstrating that the higher-order CStR construct relates positively and directly to organizational pride and perceived organizational support, as well as positively and indirectly to organizational identification, job satisfaction, and affective commitment, beyond the contribution of overall organizational justice, ethical climate, and prior measures of perceived CSR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet banking is one of the most important e-services in electronic commerce; however, the lack of standardised instrument for evaluating its satisfaction may inhibit the further development of Internet banking. This study aims to develop and validate a standardised measurement regarding customer satisfaction with Internet banking (IBCS). The development process included examinations of user satisfaction literature, expert panels, and pilot studies. Web survey was used for data collection, with subjects of Internet banking customers. The result was a parsimonious 18-item instrument with six subscales (content, accuracy, format, ease of use, timeliness, and safety) tapping into dimensions of IBCS. Further, this study not only affirms that all items in prior user satisfaction studies are still valid in the context of Internet banking, but also reveals that safety issues need to be addressed by banks to improve user satisfaction of Internet banking. Because of this rigorous and systematic study, researchers can use this valid measurement as a standardised instrument for measuring customer satisfaction of Internet banking. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study aimed to develop and validate a new scale for measuring the sustainability and development of branchless banking. The study followed the scale development procedure based on Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) using SPSS 22 and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) analyses through SmartPLS. The data was collected from 150 respondents from different stakeholders of branchless banking. The EFA reported with the seven-factor solution including social sustainability, product responsibility, economic sustainability, labor practices and decent work, environmental sustainability, human rights and ethics, and branchless banking development. The structural model further validated the positive impact of human rights and ethics, labor practice and decent work, product responsibility, and social sustainability on the development of branchless banking. The study has a novelty to develop and validate the first-ever scale for measuring sustainable branchless banking. Besides, the study also provides many theoretical and practical implications for different stakeholders including academia, researchers, top management of the banks, and practitioners. • Develop and validate a new scale to measure branchless banking sustainability. • Examine the impact of sustainable branchless banking on its development. • Recommendations to improve and develop sustainable branchless banking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]