Validation of the Psychological Entitlement Measurement in South Korea

Abstract: Our study validated psychological entitlement measurements in South Korea. Individuals naturally develop expectations about their relationships. However, the distorted perception of relationships deepens the perception of entitlement. Entitled employees behave with self-serving bias and feel special about themselves, leading to a negative social relationship in the workplace and organizational culture. Therefore, understanding and managing employees’ psychological entitlement in the human resource development field is important. Nevertheless, the appropriate measurements that do not result from a cultural context are lacking. Considering the diversity and applications of psychological entitlement measurements, it is necessary to validate the measurement in Eastern contexts such as that South Korea. In this study, we validated a psychological entitlement measurement in two Korean samples using factor analysis, including exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, verifying reliability, and the Rasch model based on item response theory. We developed Korean versions of psychological entitlement measurements consisting of eight items and found that psychological entitlement has a positive relationship with narcissism but a nonsignificant relationship with unethical pro-organizational behavior. We confirmed that our modified measurement shows a more acceptable convergent and discriminant validity than the original 9-item measurement. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications and suggestions for future research.