Development and validation of the Korean Employee Engagement Scale

This study aims to develop and validate a comprehensive measurement tool to assess employee engagement in the context of South Korean organizations. The research methodology comprised four systematic scale development processes. First, a literature review and in-depth interviews were conducted to generate conceptual understanding and content. Second, 143 initial test items were developed to measure employee engagement, and the validity of this pool of items was verified through a Delphi survey. Third, a pilot test was administered to 224 respondents. As a result, 22 items invested with relevant and good psychometric evidence were derived. Lastly, a main survey was administered to 1,092 respondents and the results were analysed through a confirmatory factor analysis and reliability test. The Korean Employee Engagement Scale developed in this study consists of 22 items distributed over four subscales: organizational engagement, affective engagement, performance engagement, and cognitive engagement.