What Do International Business Professionals Say about the TOEIC?

In today’s globalized world, the English language is regarded as a necessity to raise the international competitiveness of domestic industries for countries like South Korea. To assess employees’ qualifications in South Korea for international business, international companies have used the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) over the past 30 years. However, few empirical studies have investigated how thoroughly the TOEIC achieves its designated purposes in international business workplaces. The purpose of this study is to examine to what extent the intended meanings and uses of TOEIC scores and consequences of TOEIC use are achieved in the Korean context. Drawing on an argument-based validation framework using the stakeholder approach, the extent to which the TOEIC’s designated purposes have been achieved was investigated by collecting various validity related evidence through interviews with employers (n = 6) and employees (n = 10) in international business workplaces. The overall findings represent the complexity of relationships between stakeholders’ understanding and uses of TOEIC scores that are affected by contextual factors in South Korea. The findings call for including contextual factors in validation frameworks and studies. Validation researchers may need to pay more attention to contextual factors and collect validity evidence in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.