Design, development, and validation of an organizational climate survey at AUBMC -

Abstract

Creating a positive patient experience has been the focus of healthcare management literature, among others, emphasizing the need to hire, train, and retain competent healthcare employees who are able and willing to provide excellent service. The onus, however, is on the organization to provide the climate that fosters positive work relations, attitudes, and behaviors among healthcare workers. Additionally, there has been little focus on the concept of employee experience, even though the concept of patient experience strongly dominates the current healthcare management issues and has long replaced patient satisfaction. This paper aims at creating a tool that would assist management in addressing areas in the organizational climate issues that require interventions in order to improve their overall work experience of healthcare workers. This is operationalized through the 1) development of an Organizational Climate Survey based on a review of the existing literature and 2) validation among a sample of healthcare workers at a large teaching hospital in the Middle East region. The survey was administered to 2800 employees across American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC), with a response rate of 14percent (n=409). The survey tests employee perceptions of climate in relation to diverse dimensions of the institution. Following factor analyses, the dimensions of climate included in the survey were reduced to 6 namely, Teamwork, Communication, Employee-Supervisor Relationship, Feedback and Recognition, Employee Development, and Autonomy. The final questionnaire consisted of 52 items. Shifting and omission of items is discussed within the paper in addition to managerial implications.