The research behind the Bates ExPI™ places weight on both traditional and more pragmatic principles of science and scholarship. The Bates ExPI™ Three-Dimensional Model was developed after careful examination of "related literature" in relevant areas of theory and empirical field studies. The sources represent multiple disciplines —social, organizational, normative, and psychological—of the phenomenon of executive presence.
To determine face validity, we interviewed many senior executive leaders and expert practitioners in executive assessment and development to square theory and empirical research with the "clinical observations" of those at the front lines. We recruited a panel of 10 Ph.D.-level international experts in executive assessment and development to independently review the constructs (dimensions and facets) as well as a large pool of items that were created for each facet in the Bates ExPI™ questionnaire. They were asked to identify the best items, to eliminate items they regarded as "deficient" (and explain why), and to offer any other suggestions for improvement. Their inputs converged rather nicely, allowing us to easily select sufficient best items (six per facet) to build our Bates ExPI™ questionnaire. This ensures strong construct validity, which goes to the robustness of model, meaning it represents the multi-dimensional nature of the phenomenon of executive presence well.
