Mias – I agree. I've used opinion surveys provided by a number of vendors over the years and although they claim item validity, I don't think I have ever seen construct validity looking for groups of items to fall out into coherent factors. I just used opinion survey data for my dissertation and the factor analysis basically showed that the items were all one big factor.
It depends on what you want to measure. There are validated sets of items that have been developed by various researchers for various constructs. For instance, Milton Rokeach developed a 'values' scale. Dennis Organ developed a scale for Organizational Citizenship. There are validated scales for many constructs like leader-member exchange, organizational identification, job satisfaction, alienation, etc. made up of sets of question items. A good approach might be to do a lit search for meta-analyses on the construct(s) you are interested in and either construct an instrument from these or add these items to an existing opinion survey that your organization already plans to conduct. Just some thoughts. Hope they are helpful. Bob O'Neal.
From: Organization Development and Change Listserv [mailto:ODC-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of de Klerk, Mias (JJ)
Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2011 3:51 AM
To: ODC-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: [ODC-L] Instruments to measure culture, climate, engagement and well-being
Dear colleagues
I am looking for recommendations on scientifically sound instruments to measure constructs such as organizational culture, organizational climate, employee engagement and general well-being in organizations. With the plethora of commercial measures that are readily available, I find that these constructs are too often measured in organizations with instruments that were "sold" convincingly by consultants, rather than using scientifically sound instruments. I would appreciate any recommendations of instruments, articles or references to articles.
My apologies for cross-postings
Kind regards
Mias de Klerk
Mias de Klerk, PhD
Sasol
Tel: +27-(0)11-344 0219
Fax: +27-(0)11-522 6734
Cell: +27-(0)82 901 5480
mias.deklerk@sasol.com
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