VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY STUDY FOR SOCIAL CLIMATE SCALE IN ORGANIZATIONS

Year 2017, Volume: 4 Issue: 4, 485 - 495, 30.12.2017

Perihan Eren Bana , S. Burak Bekaroglu

https://doi.org/10.17261/Pressacademia.2017.756

Abstract

Purpose- The importance of the social
environment in which employees are involved and the inter-personal
relationships in organizations have been discussed since the neoclassical
period. There are various studies related to this issue in the literature. The
purpose of this study is to develop a social climate scale in order to evaluate
the social environment in which the organization's employees are involved.

Method- The study was conducted on the
clinical and administrative employees of five public hospitals operating in
Istanbul. The research sample consists of 517 observations. In order to enable
a proper assessment of the social climate, employees working less than six
months with the organization were not included in the study. IBM SPSS 24.0 and
IBM SPSS AMOS 24.0 package programs were used to analyse the obtained data.
Factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis in the structural equation model,
binary correlations, t-tests and variance analysis (ANOVA) as well as
descriptive statistics were applied.

Findings- During the development process of
the social climate scale, a scale of 49 items was drawn based on the theories
and studies in the literature. The final scale obtained from factor analysis
consists of 26 items and 6 dimensions. These dimensions are as follows:
interpersonal coherence (7 items), organizational support (7 items), intragroup
communication (4 items), work ethic (4 items), occupational cooperation (2
items) and out of workplace relationships (2 items). The total reliability of
the scale was 0.87 and the reliability coefficients of individual dimensions
were 0.84, 0.83, 0.78, 0.71, 0.89 and 0.80, respectively. 

Conclusion- The literature is certainly not
poor in terms of studies assessing the organizational climate on the basis of a
number of dimensions such as ethical climate, safety climate, and psychological
climate. Yet, the number of studies on social climate is rather limited, with
those investigating the topic focusing mostly on education. It is believed
that, in this sense, the social climate scale developed in this study will make
a unique contribution to the literature.

 

Keywords

Organizational climate, social climate, healthcare professionals, health care services, confirmatory factor analysis

References

• Anderson, G. J. (1970). Effects of classroom social climate on individual learning. American Educational Research Journal, 7(2), pp. 135-152.
• Appelbaum, S. H., Deguire, K. J., & Lay, M. (2005). The relationship of ethical climate to deviant workplace behaviour. The International Journal of Business in Society, 5(4), pp.43-55.
• Arslan, N. T. (2004). An assay on organizational culture and climate as determinants of the organizational performance. Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi, 9(1), pp. 203-228.
• Bayar, Y., & Uçanok, Z. (2012). Ergenlerin dahil oldukları zorbalık statülerine göre okul sosyal iklimi ve genellenmiş akran algıları. Kuram ve Uygulamada Eğitim Bilimleri Dergisi, 12(4), pp. 2337-2358.
• Bock, G. W., Zmud, R. W., Kim, Y. G., & Lee, J. N. (2005). Behavioral intention formation in knowledge sharing: examining the roles of extrinsic motivators, social-psychological forces, and organizational climate. MIS Quarterly Journal, 29(1), pp. 87-111.
• Bryne, B. M. (2010). Structural equation modeling with AMOS: basic concepts, applications, and programming (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
• Büte, M. (2011). Etik iklim, örgütsel güven ve bireysel performans arasındaki ilişki. Atatürk Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Dergisi, 25(1), pp. 171-192.
• Cook, K. S.,& Whitmeyer, J. M. (1992). Two approaches to social structure: exchange theory and network analysis. Annual Review of Sociology, 18(1), pp. 109-127.
• Cooper, D. R., & Schindler, P. S. (1998). Business research methods (6th ed.). New York: The McGraw-Hill International.
• Dietz G.(2000) Serving employees in service organizations: three competing models of organizational climate for employee well-being effects on organizational effectiveness. (unpublished doctoral dissertation) Tulane University, USA.
• Emerson, R. M. (1976). Social exchange theory. Annual Review of Sociology, 2(1), pp. 335-362.
• Erdil, O., & Ertosun, Ö. G. (2011). The relationship between social climate and loneliness in the workplace and effects on employee wellbeing. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 24, pp. 505-525.
• Fındıkçı, İ. (2012). İnsan kaynakları yönetimi (8. Basım). Ankara: Alfa Basım Yayım Dağıtım.
• Güney, S. (2008). Davranış bilimleri. Ankara: Nobel Basımevi.
• Haque, A., & Sheikh, H. (1992). Employees’ perceptions of work environment in certain setting of Hyderabad city. Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research, 7(3-4), pp. 53-59.
• Homans, G. C. (1958). Social behavior as exchange. American Journal of Sociology, 63(6), pp. 597-606.
• Jones, E. S. (1997). The impact of personality and social climate variables on career choice and job satisfaction. (unpublished doctoral dissertation). Georgia State University.
• Kaczka, E. E., & Kirk, R. V. (1967). Managerial climate, workgroups, and organizational performance. Administrative Science Quarterly, 12(2), pp. 253-272.
• Klamon, V. (2006). Exploring social enterprise organizational climate and culture (unpublished doctoral dissertation). Gonzaga University.
• Lewin, K., Lippitt, R., & White, R. K. (1939). Patterns of aggressive behavior in experimentally created social climates. Journal of Social Psychology, 10(2), pp. 269-308.
• Lawler, E. E., Hall, D. T., & Oldham, G. R. (1974). Organizational climate: Relationship to organizational structure, process and performance. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 11(1), 139-155.
• Mintzberg, H. (1979). The structuring of organizations: a synthesis of the research. New Jersey, Prentice-Hall.
• Mirkin, B. J., & Middleton, M. J. (2014). The social climate and peer interaction on outdoor courses. Journal of Experiential Education, 37(3), pp. 232-247.
• Moos, R. H. (1968). The assessment of the social climates of correctional institutions. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 5(2), pp. 174-188.
• Moran, E. T., & Volkwein, J. F. (1992). The cultural approach to the formation of organizational climate. Human Relations, 45(1), 19-47.
• Mullen, B., & Goethals, G. (1987). Theories of group behavior. Springer Series in Social Psychology. Vermont: Ampersand Publisher Services.
• Özsoy, İ. (2012). The effect of work climate, self-leadership and job satisfaction on R&D performance: a study on Turkish defense industry (unpublished doctoral dissertation). Turkish Military Academy.
• Parkinson B. Fischer A.H. ve Manstead A.S.R. (2005) Emotion in social relations cultural, group, and interpersonal processes. Taylor & Francis Books, USA.
• Sayan, İ. Ö., & Küçük, A. (2014). Transformation of public personnel employment in Turkey: example of Ministry of Health. Ankara Üniversitesi SBF Dergisi, 67(1), pp. 171-203.
• Schneider, B. (1972). Organizational climate: individual preferences and organizational realities. Journal of Applied Psychology, 56(3), pp. 211- 217.
• Sönmez, K. (2014). Sağlık sektöründe örgüt ikliminin iş doyumuna etkisi (unpublished master thesis). Çağ Üniversitesi.
• Türen, U., Gökmen, Y., Tokmak, İ., & Bekmezci, M. (2014). Güvenlik iklimi ölçeğinin geçerlilik ve güvenilirlik çalışması. Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi, 19(4), pp. 171-190.
• Verdorfer, A. P., Steinheider, B., & Burkus, D. (2015). Exploring the socio-moral climate in organizations: an empirical examination of determinants, consequences, and mediating mechanisms. Journal of Business Ethics, 132(1), pp. 233-248.
• Weiss, W.M. (2003). Sport commitment: social support, psychological climate, and developmental considerations (unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Virginia.
• Wright T.F.(1998) The effects of residence hall type on student perceptions of social climate and living environment at Appalachian State University. (unpublished doctoral dissertation). Tennessee State University. USA
• Wright, S. L. (2005). Loneliness in the workplace. (unpublished doctoral dissertation). New England University, New Zealand.
• Yılmaz, K., & Altınkurt, Y. (2013). Örgütsel iklim ölçeğinin Türkçeye uyarlanması: geçerlik ve güvenilirlik çalışması. Trakya Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 3(1), pp. 1-11.