Application of cognitive diagnosis models to competency-based situational judgment tests

Background: Profiling of jobs in terms of competency requirements has increasingly been applied in many organizational settings. Testing these competencies through situational judgment tests (SJTs) leads to validity problems because it is not usually clear which constructs SJTs measure. The primary purpose of this paper is to evaluate whether the application of cognitive diagnosis models (CDM) to competency-based SJTs can ascertain the underlying competencies measured by the items, and whether these competencies can be estimated precisely. Method: The generalized deterministic inputs, noisy "and" gate (G-DINA) model was applied to 26 situational judgment items measuring professional competencies based on the great eight model. These items were applied to 485 employees of a Spanish financial company. The fit of the model to the data and the convergent validity between the estimated competencies and personality dimensions were examined. Results: The G-DINA showed a good fit to the data and the estimated competency factors, adapting and coping and interacting and presenting were positively related to emotional stability and extraversion, respectively. Conclusions: This work indicates that CDM can be a useful tool when measuring professional competencies through SJTs. CDM can clarify the competencies being measured and provide precise estimates of these competencies.