Samantha Sim

Socially desirable responding : enhancement and denial in 20 countries

This article investigated the dimensionality, measurement invariance, and cross-cultural variations of social desirability. A total of 3,471 university students from 20 countries completed an adapted version of the Marlowe–Crowne scale. A two-dimensional structure was revealed in the pooled sample, distinguishing enhancement (endorsement of positive self-description) and denial (rejection of negative self-description). The factor structure was supported in most countries; medium-sized item bias was found in two denial items. In a multilevel analysis, we found that (a) there was more cross-cultural variation in denial than enhancement; (b) females tended to score higher on enhancement whereas males tended to score higher on denial; (c) the Human Development Index, an indicator of country socioeconomic development, was the best (negative) predictor of denial; and (d) both enhancement and denial seemed to be associated with country-level values and personality pertinent to “fitting in.” We conclude that social desirability has a positive and a negative impression management dimension that are meaningfully associated with country-level characteristics, and we argue that social desirability is better interpreted as culturally regulated response amplification.

Measurement Invariance of the Brief Multidimensional Student’s Life Satisfaction Scale Among Adolescents and Emerging Adults Across 23 Cultural Contexts

There is hardly any cross-cultural research on the measurement invariance of the Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scales (BMSLSS). The current article evaluates the measurement invariance of the BMSLSS across cultural contexts. This cross-sectional study sampled 7,739 adolescents and emerging adults in 23 countries. A multi-group confirmatory factor analysis showed a good fit of configural and partial measurement weights invariance models, indicating similar patterns and strengths in factor loading for both adolescents and emerging adults across various countries. We found insufficient evidence for scalar invariance in both the adolescents’ and the emerging adults’ samples. A multi-level confirmatory factor analysis indicated configural invariance of the structure at country and individual level. Internal consistency, evaluated by alpha and omega coefficients per country, yielded acceptable results. The translated BMSLSS across different cultural contexts presents good psychometric characteristics similar to what has been reported in the original scale, though scalar invariance remains problematic. Our results indicate that the BMSLSS forms a brief measure of life satisfaction, which has accrued substantial evidence of construct validity, thus suitable for use in cross-cultural surveys with adolescents and emerging adults, although evaluation of degree of invariance must be carried out to ensure its suitability for mean comparisons.

Leading with mindfulness: Exploring the relation of mindfulness with leadership behaviors, styles, and development

Introduction A recent Forbes article stated that “Mindfulness is hot right now – Hollywood hot, Davos hot, Main Street hot … For business leaders, encouraging mindfulness is more than just being tuned in; its a strategy to improve person and company-wide performance and productivity” (Bruce 2014). Leadership is a perennially trendy topic, and its fusion with mindfulness creates a combination of potential uber-trendiness. But is this hype justified? Our endeavour in this chapter is to elaborate on the connections between mindfulness and leadership. A related goal is to take a critical look: generally both mindfulness and leadership are viewed in a positive light. Although “leadership” evokes ideas of strengths and charisma, transformation, and achievement. Yet at the same time, a “dark side” of leadership and leaders also surfaces in the form of leader arrogance, hubris, cronyism, abusive supervision, and outright dictatorships. Perhaps even more so than with leadership, mindfulness appears to be seen as almost universally positive. Indeed, a large number of studies have found beneficial effects of mindfulness for, among others, individual health, psychological wellbeing, and functioning (Chiesa and Serretti 2010; Eberth and Sedlmeier 2012). Also, as shown in the various chapters of this book and other work, a strong case can be made that mindfulness and mindfulness practice have substantial potential to improve the quality and outcomes of work life (see also Glomb et al . 2011). Finally, empirical research on the effects of leader mindfulness provides evidence of beneficial consequences for employees including increases in employee job performance, job satisfaction, and need satisfaction, and reductions in emotional exhaustion (Reb, Narayanan, and Chaturvedi 2014). Although we are in broad agreement with claims regarding the benefits of mindfulness in general and for leadership in particular, at the same time, one can wonder whether there are any downsides to leaders being mindful.

On enhancing the cross-cultural comparability of Likert-Scale Personality and Value Measures: A comparison of common procedures : Enhancing comparability

This study aims to evaluate a number of procedures that have been proposed to enhance cross–cultural comparability of personality and value data. A priori procedures (anchoring vignettes and direct measures of response styles (i.e. acquiescence, extremity, midpoint responding, and social desirability), a posteriori procedures focusing on data transformations prior to analysis (ipsatization and item parcelling), and two data modelling procedures (treating data as continuous vs as ordered categories) were compared using data collected from university students in 16 countries. We found that (i) anchoring vignettes showed lack of invariance, so they were not bias–free; (ii) anchoring vignettes showed higher internal consistencies than raw scores where all other correction procedures, notably ipsatization, showed lower internal consistencies; (iii) in measurement invariance testing, no procedure yielded scalar invariance; anchoring vignettes and item parcelling slightly improved comparability, response style correction did not affect it, and ipsatization resulted in lower comparability; (iv) treating Likert–scale data as categorical resulted in higher levels of comparability; (v) factor scores of scales extracted from different procedures showed similar correlational patterning; and (vi) response style correction was the only procedure that suggested improvement in external validity of country–level conscientiousness. We conclude that, although no procedure resolves all comparability issues, anchoring vignettes, parcelling, and treating data as ordered categories seem promising to alleviate incomparability. We advise caution in uncritically applying any of these procedures. Copyright

What Goes Up Must… Keep Going Up? Cultural Differences in Cognitive Styles Influence Evaluations of Dynamic Performance

Past research on dynamic workplace performance evaluation has taken as axiomatic that temporal performance trends produce naïve extrapolation effects on performance ratings. That is, we naïvely assume that an individual whose performance has trended upward over time will continue to improve, and rate that individual more positively than an individual whose performance has trended downward over time—even if, on average, the 2 individuals have performed at an equivalent level. However, we argue that such naïve extrapolation effects are more pronounced in Western countries than Eastern countries, owing to Eastern countries having a more holistic cognitive style. To test our hypotheses, we examined the effect of performance trend on expectations of future performance and ratings of past performance across 2 studies: Study 1 compares the magnitude of naïve extrapolation effects among Singaporeans primed with either a more or less holistic cognitive style, and Study 2 examines holistic cognitive style as a mediating mechanism accounting for differences in the magnitude of naïve extrapolation effects between American and Chinese raters. Across both studies, we found support for our predictions that dynamic performance trends have less impact on the ratings of more holistic thinkers. Implications for the dynamic performance and naïve extrapolation literatures are discussed.

The Influence of Mindfulness on Cooperative Intentions and Behavior

We examine the role of mindfulness in introducing a cooperative mindset in interpersonal interactions. We hypothesize that mindfulness will increase cooperative intentions and behavior. In study 1, mindfulness measured as an individual difference was positively related to prosocial social values and negatively related to competitive social values. In study 2, a short mindfulness intervention increased recall of cooperative heuristics in an upcoming negotiation. In study 3, negotiation dyads that engaged in a short mindfulness intervention attained more integrative outcomes (“win-win” situations). Taken together these studies show that mindfulness can increase cooperative intentions and behaviors. We discuss theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and future directions.