A Review and Synthesis of the Measurement Invariance Literature: Suggestions, Practices, and Recommendations for Organizational Research

Abstract

The establishment of measurement invariance across groups is a logical prerequisite to conducting substantive cross-group comparisons (e.g., tests of group mean differences, invariance of structural parameter estimates), but measurement invariance is rarely tested in organizational research. In this article, the authors (a) elaborate the importance of conducting tests of measurement invariance across groups, (b) review recommended practices for conducting tests of measurement invariance, (c) review applications of measurement invariance tests in substantive applications, (d) discuss issues involved in tests of various aspects ofmeasurement invariance, (e) present an empirical example of the analysis of longitudinal measurement invariance, and (f) propose an integrative paradigm for conducting sequences of measurement invariance tests.