The International Profiler - Technical Issues

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Background
The International Profiler is a questionnaire and feedback process based on 10 competencies and 22 related dimensions relevant to working in international roles. The competencies and dimensions have been developed on the basis of current research in the field of cross-cultural studies, combined with the practical experience of experts in the field and people working in international and multi-cultural settings. It has been designed as a 'culture general' development tool. In other words it looks at the qualities required to operate successfully in an unfamiliar cultural setting whatever that may be and not in a specific culture. It is intended for use as a development tool and is not suitable for selection purposes.

The Questionnaire
The questionnaire has 80 questions each consisting of a stem and three questions, and the person completing the questionnaire is asked to choose the question which best describes them or their behaviour, and then to select the second question in the same way. The first choice is then scored with a 5 or a 4 depending on how accurate they think it is, and in the same way the second is scored with a 3 or 4. The third choice is left un-scored. There are approximately 10 questions that load onto each of the 22 dimensions.

The questionnaire and feedback report are available in English, German and French, and it is planned to have an Italian version available in Spring 2006.

A pilot version of the questionnaire was trialled with about 100 people from a range of different cultural backgrounds. The data from this was used to carry out an item analysis and to eliminate questions that were not contributing to the dimensions. Resulting from this a second version of the questionnaire was designed and is now in use.

Reliability and Validity
WorldWork is currently seeking opportunities to carry out full reliability and validity tests, and will be pleased to work with any organisation willing to provide the necessary facilities to enable this to take place. The Technical Issues document available from WorldWork provides details of the internal consistency (Alpha) co-efficients for each of the questionnaire scales.

Some 300 people have completed the second version of the questionnaire, and feedback has been provided to all of those people. From the experience of providing this we can say that the instrument has good face validity and people typically own the information contained in the feedback profile, although such experience does little more than provide some anecdotal information.

Norm Base
As at March 2006 the norm base is based on information from 1770 International Profiler questionnaires. 76 different nationalities are represented in the norm base, with the largest groups being British (23%), Germans(20%), Italians(13%) and Americans (5%). 27% of the people represented in the norm base are female.

A Technical Issues document with more details and some statistical appendices can be viewed by clicking here (PDF)