Personal Initiative (Frese)
HR & WorkReliability: alpha 0.833 sample items
About this scale
A multi-item measure of dispositional personal initiative — proactive, self-starting, and persistent behaviour in pursuing work goals.
Sample item(s)
“I actively attack problems”
“Whenever something goes wrong, I search for a solution immediately”
“Whenever there is a chance to get actively involved, I take it”
Reliability
Reported internal consistency: alpha 0.83. As a rule of thumb, Cronbach’s α ≥ .70 is considered acceptable, ≥ .80 good, and ≥ .90 excellent for established measures.
Notes
Foundational personal-initiative measure.
Source & citation
Frese, M., Fay, D., Hilburger, T., Leng, K., & Tag, A. (1997): The concept of personal initiative: Operationalization, reliability and validity in two German samples. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 70, No. 2, pp. 139–161.
Source. Scale details are summarised from the publication cited above. Always consult the original source for the full item set, scoring, and permission to use.
Use it in your research
Need to check the reliability or psychometrics of this scale in your own data? Use the free DrAIStudio research tools:
Cronbach’s alpha calculator
All statistical calculators
Search the full Scale Atlas
Academic writing humanizer