3.3.2. HR practices
We generated a five-item scale for HR practices to promote
learning a language (an independent variable) based on discussions
with Japanese HR practitioners who were industry experts. In
order to refine our items, we also consulted existing items of HR
practices (e.g., Wright, Gardner, Moynihan, & Allen, 2005) and
perceived organizational support for development (Kraimer et al.,
2011). We asked respondents to rate the extent that they agreed or
disagreed with the five items. Sample items include: ‘‘My company
offers training for its employees to learn foreign languages such as
English’’ and ‘‘The level of foreign language proficiency is a
criterion for promotion’’. (See Appendix A for the complete set of
items.) Respondents rated their perceptions using seven-point
Likert-type scales, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly
agree). The alpha coefficient for this measure was .93. The CFA
results of the measurement model had a reasonable fit to the data
although RMSEA was beyond the recommended threshold: x2
[5] = 179.49, p < .01; CFI = .94; GFI = .90; RMSEA = .23.