The star employee scale: Conceptualization, scale development, and measurement validation

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-19-2026

Department

College of Business

Abstract

While the importance of attracting and retaining star employees is widely acknowledged in organizational research, the methods used to identify such individual shave largely relied on narrow, traditional metrics such as productivity, rankings, or formal recognition. As the conceptualization of stars has evolved, these conventional measures fall short of capturing the complexity and multifaceted nature of what it truly means to be a “star.” This misalignment has led to theoretical ambiguity and inconsistent empirical findings. To address this gap, we developed and validated the Star Employee Scale (SES) across four studies. Following a three-stage process, we established the instrument's structure(Studies 1 and 2), assessed its convergent and discriminant validity (Study 3), and tested its criterion-related validity (Study 4) to produce a comprehensive instrument that captures the multidimensional nature of star employees by integrating key dimensions of performance, status, visibility, and social capital. The SES offers a more holistic and robust measurement for assessing degree of stardom, thereby enhancing both conceptual clarity and empirical consistency.

Publication Title

Applied Psychology

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