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In Western personnel psychology, control beliefs are a valued predictor for work-related outcomes. Yet, little is known about the culture-specific functioning of control in East Africa. Kenya, as an Ubuntu culture, is examined regarding control beliefs and contrasted with a German sample considered to represent an individualistic or Western culture. Responses to N=143 quantitative personality tests were attended with qualitative interviews on control beliefs (self-concept of ability, internality, powerful others, and chance). Content validity and factor structure of control beliefs were analyzed, followed by a Procrustean target rotation. Linear regression analyses were conducted to assess the predictability of job performance, achievement motivation, and well-being. Item comprehension, as well as factor structure of the four control aspects, differ between the two samples. In particular, the ‘powerful others’ control aspect diverges the most between the cultures. Linear regression analyses showed comparable, but not fully congruent predictability. Results indicate that an uncritical transfer of the control beliefs measure from one culture to another is inappropriate. Results fit in the picture of African Ubuntu philosophy, emphasizing social-relational aspects shaping control beliefs. More emic-etic based research is demanded concerning intra- and intercultural variability of control beliefs to depict a transcultural applicable and invariant model.

In this paper the authors outline the translation process involved in Macro International's evaluation of the Department of State's International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Georgia. IVLP is a long-running program in which professionals and prospective leaders from around the world participate in funded short-term visits to the United States to learn first-hand professional practices and values of American society and democracy. The authors highlight the importance of attending to the theoretical issues in, discuss contextual factors inherent in, and outline specific phases of the translation process, and present the modified decentering translation technique adapted for the project. They describe the types of translation equivalencies that were addressed and present findings that attest to the quality of the translation. They underscore the importance of the translation process as a qualitative tool for the instrument development that maps the contexts of people's li es, documents emic-etic aspects of cross-cultural research, and fosters collaborations with all stakeholders of the research project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]