A Practical Scale for Multi-faceted Organizational Health Climate Assessment

The current study sought to develop a practical scale to measure workplace health climate in a way that has not previously been conceptualized – as a three-faceted approach from the employee perspective serving as an indicator of a healthy organization. The goal was to create a short, useable yet comprehensive scale that could translate into practical use by organizations and occupational health professionals planning workplace interventions. To accomplish this, the proposed multi-faceted organizational health climate scale (MOHCA) assesses three-facets which match up with three organizational levels: 1) organization 2) supervisor and 3) workgroup. Ten items were developed and tested on two samples, one cross-organization and one within-organization. After exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, one item was dropped and a nine-item hierarchical three-factor structure was retained. Validity tests confirmed the MOHCA scale has convergent validity with related constructs, such as perceived organizational support and supervisor support, as well as discriminant validity between MOHCA and safety climate. Lastly, criterion-related validity was found between MOHCA and health-related outcomes. The multi-faceted approach taken in creating the MOHCA scale resulted in a scale that can be easily translated into practice, offering a means for diagnosing the shortcomings of an organization or workgroup’s health climate and identifying places for potential health and well-being interventions. Findings from this study also point to the importance of developing workplaces that promote employee health and well-being