Application of Item Response Theory to UWES
We recognize that we should take into account the tendency
to suppress the expression of positive affect
among Japanese employees when comparing positive
aspects of well-being, particularly with other western
countries. So, our second question is:
“Is the UWES sensitive to change in the extent of
work engagement among employees in non-western
countries like Japan?”
To answer this question, an advanced psychometric
scale analysis called Item Response Theory (IRT) [43]
was applied to our cross-cultural data. IRT is a modelbased
approach to understand the nonlinear relationships
between individual characteristics (e.g., traits),
item characteristics (e.g., difficulty), and individuals’
response patterns. The use of IRT to study individual
difference variables, such as work engagement, is advantageous
for several reasons [44,45].