Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• Iman SHAKERI ¹
• Ali Mehdad ²
• hadi farhadi ³

¹ 1- PhD student in Psychology, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Isfahan (khorasgan) branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran.

² Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Isfahan (khorasgan) branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran. (Email: alimahdad.am@gmail.com )

³ 3- Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Isfahan (khorasgan) branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract

Introduction
Given the changing nature of today’s workforce, it is becoming increasingly common, and at times even vital, for employees to be well-prepared for navigating complex social situations to fulfill everyday organizational demands. However, while effective interpersonal interactions are clearly required in many occupations, an ongoing deficiency of critical interpersonal knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAOs) among employees has been widely recognized. The current study seeks to answer a critical call in the literature for better methods of assessing and developing employee interpersonal KSAOs, especially in terms of how to assess employee effectiveness in the application of these KSAOs to socially complex situations. Specifically, the current study develops and provides initial validity evidence for a situational judgment test (SJT) of critical social thinking, the underlying set of processes that put interpersonal KSAOs into practice.
Method
The present study was conducted within the framework of descriptive and correlation based psychometric design. The statistical population included all managers of the Iran Alloy Steel Company in the first half of 2022, of which 196 people (for exploratory factor analysis and reliability) and 210 separate people (for confirmatory factor analysis and convergent validity), who were selected by stratified sampling method. In order to design the situations and answer options of the scale, were used viewpoints of subject matter experts, and to analyze the data, reliability analysis, correlation methods, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used.
Results
In otder to investigate the validity of situational judgment test of critical social thinking several method were used. The exploratory factor analysis with principal components method and varimax rotation, as expected, suggested a structure based on three subscales include "scanning", "appraising/assessing", "interpreting". Confirmatory factor analysis showed the researcher’s hypothesis that the structure is based on three components is confirmed. Also, convergent validity was confirmed by its correlation with the scores of critical social thinking in the assessment center. Evaluation of internal consistency of scale by Cronbach’s alpha method and correlation of each question whit total score, showed that questions of this scale have acceptable internal consistency.
Discussion
overally, the study findings showed situational judgment test of critical social thinking is composed of three factors and acceptable validity and reliability. Consequently, it can be applied to measure critical social thinking of employees in complex organizational situations. This research has provided promising fields for studies that measure and develop critical social thinking in the workplace.

Keywords: situational judgment test, critical social thinking, factor analysis, assessment center

Keywords

• Keywords: situational judgment test
• critical social thinking
• factor analysis
• assessment center

Main Subjects

• Psychometrics scales