Construction of Shame-Proneness Scale of Employee Malay People: A Study from Indonesia

PURPOSE: Culture plays a role in determining how individuals interpret their experiences. In previous studies, the experience of shame has been associated with negative behavior. However, for Malays who interpret shame more positively, the experience of shame serves to inhibit negative behavior. Therefore, shame-proneness in Malays cannot be measured as it is measured in different cultures. Two studies in this research aimed to construct a measure of shame-proneness for Malays in a work context. This measuring instrument is devoted to the work context because so many situations cause shame in everyday life. By limiting the measurement of shame for employees, the conditions that arise in the measuring instrument can be more specific. METHODS: In the first study, a qualitative study was conducted to explore the experience of shame in Malays. The second study used a quantitative method to construct a measuring instrument of shame that has good psychometric properties. RESULTS: The results of in-depth interviews with nine Malay employees resulted in four indicators of shame in Malay people in the work context, namely, negative self-evaluation, withdrawal, perceiving negative evaluation from others, and motivation to change the self. In the second study, 456 Malay civil servants in Pekanbaru, Indonesia, were asked to respond to a 27-item shame-proneness scale based on these four indicators. Based on the exploratory factor analysis results, the four indicators narrowed down to three factors. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the 18-item proneness scale with three factors was the best and showed acceptable goodness of fit. CONCLUSION: Shame-proneness scale of Malay employees scale was conducted in order to compose an instrument using a more comprehensive psychological approach. This has satisfactory psychometric properties and thus potentially measures the shame-proneness of Malay employees in Indonesia more accurately.