Cross-translation of the job descriptive index: Validity and reliability procedure for the translation

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Nasser, Ramzi | Diefenbach, Bahia^;

Affiliations: The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research, P.O. Box 4567, Abu dhabi, United Arab Emirates | The United Arab Emirates University, United Arab Emirates

Note: [] Corresponding author.

Abstract: This study outlines a translation procedure for an attitudinal instrument. The study investigated the cross-translation of the Job Descriptive Index Sub scale of ‘type of work.’ The cross-translation or committee translation procedure asks two or more translators to translate a text from source to target language, then an expert assesses the validity of these translations. Empirically, this method has three translators, translate the instrument from English to Arabic and then an expert assesses the translations made by the three translators. This method was supported by having 180 bilinguals attempt the source language and later attempt the target language instrument or the translated instrument. The two versions are then compared through the ANOVA, correlational analyses and factor analyses. The results indicated a high reliability for the Arabic and English versions. The committee translation approach provides a valid method for translation, the results however, showed that the instrument in both languages did not show item to item similarity or equivalence.

Keywords: Cross-translation, Job descriptive index, Procedure, Reliability

DOI: 10.3233/WOR-1996-7102

Journal: Work, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 3-11, 1996