The Psychometric Evaluation of a Multidimensional Measurement Instrument of Professional Expertise *: Results from a Study in Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises in the Netherlands

Abstract

The present study of small- and medium-sized enterprises aimed to determine the reliability and validity of a measurement instrument for professional expertise. The instrument consists of five different scales (with contents ranging from 12 to 19 items each), each reflecting one of five dimensions: knowledge, metacognitive knowledge, skills, social recognition, growth, and flexibility. Participants were two different groups of raters: individual employees (N = 233) and their immediate supervisors (N = 217). The item-sets for both groups are nominally identical, except that wording was adapted to suit one group or the other. The reliabilities of the developed scales are high with Cronbach's Alpha ranging from .83 to .92, for both the self-ratings and the supervisor ratings. All five scales are homogeneous and distinctive as corroborated by the multitrait-multimethod analysis.