Adaptation of a German Multidimensional Networking Scale into English

Networking refers to building and maintaining personal contacts in order to obtain resources that, in turn, enhance one's career success and work performance. This study reports the translation and adaptation of a multifaceted German networking scale (Wolff & Moser, 2006) into English and focuses on the equivalence of the two language versions. Going beyond the often used translation-backtranslation method, we used a parallel translation-backtranslation method in combination with two expert committees to arrive at the English scale version, aiming to obtain at least structural equivalence. We utilize a bilingual sample (N = 76) as well as monolingual samples from the US (N = 174) and Germany (N = 228) to examine the equivalence following the three steps suggested by Robin, Sireci, and Hambleton (2003). First, psychometric properties of the scales were satisfactory and comparable across the language versions. Second, weighted multidimensional scaling supported our assumption that structural equivalence holds. Finally, an analysis of differential item functioning (DIF) showed no, or negligible, DIF for 40 items, and moderate or large DIF for only 4 items.