Measuring workplace climate: reliability and validity of the 12-item Organizational Climate Scale (OCS-12)

Abstract

In order to investigate the reliability and validity of the short version of the 30-item Organizational Climate Scale (OCS-30; Toshima and Matsuda, 1992, 1995), a self-administered questionnaire was conducted in a sample of 819 employees of two medium-sized private companies in Japan by using the OCS-30, the Generic Job Stress Questionnaire (GJSQ), and the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). The OCS has two subscales, i.e., the Tradition Scale (TS) and the Organizational Environment Scale (OES). The organizational climate perceived by each worker can be grouped into four categories based on the subscale scores: low TS and high OES (Active), high TS and high OES (Governed), low TS and low OES (Disorganized), and high TS and low OES (Reluctant). Principal component analysis for the OCS-30 was submitted (varimax rotation, the number of factors = 2), and 6 items for each factor, with factor loadings greater than 0.50, were selected for the short version, which constituted the 12-item Organizational Climate Scale (OCS-12). Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficients of the two subscales of the OCS-12 were acceptable; 0.63 for the TS and 0.71 for the OES. Both two subscales of the OCS-12 were significantly correlated with the GHQ-12 and many subscales of the GJSQ, which indicated the good constructive validity of the OCS-12. Among 4 types of organizational climate categorized by the OCS-12, the "Active" group showed the lowest job stress scores. It is suggested that the OCS-12 could be a reliable and valid instrument for assessing workers' perception of workplace climate.