Developing and Validating a Scale to Assess Organizational Behavior Foundations

This study was implemented to develop and validate a scale to assess organizational behavior foundations. Meanwhile, considering Hinkin’s (1995) scale development stages and using Robbins and Judge’s (2008-2009) framework, a survey was made containing 3 dimensions (individual, group and organizational), and 23 fundamental factors. The surveys were implemented among 250 male and female staff of an organization selected using simple stratified random sampling method. To develop the scale, first we identified a potential set of items for the constructs; next we assessed the psychometric properties of the scale by examining its components’ relationship, using item-total correlations analysis. Results indicated that the scale was well-constructed, and had high reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis also was used to assess the measurement model and to infer the existence of construct’s validity. Results demonstrated that the scale contains relatively good validity to explain the effects of organizational behavior foundations on staff behavior.


Introduction 1.
As most studies indicate, organizational effectiveness is a significant concern for management labor in each organization (GitaKumari and Pradhan, 2014, p 46;Hossein, Ramezaninezhad, Yousefi, Sajjadi, Malekakhlagh, 2011;Chelladurai, 1987).Although Organizational effectiveness holds different meanings to different people, majority of authors approve that to understand organizational effectiveness various criteria ought to be measured and different organizational functions need to be evaluated (Hossein, etal. 2011, p 2).On the other hand, organizational effectiveness is the consequence of organizational performance and it can be measured through three different dimensions; employee performance, operational performance, and financial performance (Ketkar & Sett, 2009, p 1 ).Accordingly, People and their performance within organization are key elements to achieve organization's effectiveness (Michie and West, 2004;Rogers & Wright, 1998;as stated in GitaKumari and Pradhan, 2014, p 46).That is if employees perform better, it will contribute to overall effectiveness of the organization (Gita Kumari, Pradhan, 2014, p 46).The performance of the employees is a result of many factors including the behavior of them in the organization which is highly influential in the performance of the organization, too.As a matter of fact, the behavior of organization members will eventually result in its effectiveness or ineffectiveness through affecting the performance of the organization.It is the people and their working behavior not the physical capital that is seen as the most important predictor of organizational performance.Hence, the issue of people's behavior prediction and management has never been so important than it is today, and it requires the investigation of many variables (i.e.factors within the individual or the unit in which an individual is employed or the organization as a whole).These variables simultaneously affect the behavior of the people who in turn, play the optimum role in the performance and effectiveness of organizations.
Actually, Due to the importance of organizational behavior constructs in organization and management processes, hundreds of scales have been developed.These scales aimed to assess a lot of attitudes, perceptions, or opinions of organizational members and were to scrutinize hypothesized relationships of these elements with other constructs or behaviors (Hinkin, 1995, p 967).However, no comprehensive and complete scale has been developed to measure the contribution of entire prominent organizational behavior dimensions or factors in members' behavior and performance all at once.Hence, a comprehensive and integrated tool is required to investigate the factors mentioned in individual, group and organizational dimensions in order to measure and predict the impact of these factors on the behavior of members of the organization, and as a result offer further individual and organizational performance and effectiveness.
The results of this study could prepare a ground for analysis and evaluation of individuals' behavior within organization, and direct management behavior in order to lead the organization toward the desired effectiveness.This could be achieved through measuring the impact of each dimension or factor on members' behavior and performance.

Organizational behavior and organizational behavior dimensions
Most researchers and scholars (Moorhead & Griffin, 2010;Robbins andJudge, 2008, 2009;Shermerhorn et al., 2002;Wagner and Hollenbeck, 2010;Mullins, 2002;Nelson and Quick, 2012;Olguin et al, 2009) defined organizational behavior as the study of human behavior in organizations, the study of individuals behavior facing with the organization and organization itself.But they have specifically studied and analyzed its factors in three dimensions: individual, group and organizational.Moreover, all the existing knowledge of organizational behavior scope considers issues which affect the behavior of individuals, and consequently organizational performance and effectiveness in these three dimensions (Delta, 2006;Robbins, 2005;Dubrin, 2007;Robbins & Judge, 2008, 2009;McShane and Vonglino, 2010;Luthans, 2011).These dimensions act as important agents in forming individuals' behavior within organizations in conjunction with each other.In this regard, a great number of different scholars undertook various researches in the scope of organizational behavior dimensions (i.e.individual, group and organizational) and lots of scales were developed to assess these factors accordingly.
Among them the researches on individual behavior dimension includes the issues about individual behavior.Individual behavior is a result of individual's participation within organizations.This behavior consists of productivity as an indicator for the effectiveness of the individual's job and is measured based on services offered at first; but it also assesses performance which is much broader than efficiency and covers all related activities to job.Researches on group dimension focus on variables such as productivity and performance, too.But some unique features (including norms that guide the behavior of members of the group) which help determine the effectiveness of group behavior and create cohesion among group members are also considered.Studies on organizational dimension deal with features such as organizational function, effectiveness, communication with the environment, and employees' relationship.Therefore, the behavior of organization is examined based on them in order to return investment, increase growth rate or the organization's ability to survive, and their ability to satisfy external investors and regulators, and internal units and employees.Obviously, the impact of these dimensions is different depending on our position and level of analysis.Accordingly, so far a variety of models and frameworks have been proposed to analyze organizational behavior (Bear, 1980;Ivanko, 2012;Torkzadeh and Dehghan Harati, 2015).Development of these scales is indicative of the chief role of organizational behavior principles in individuals and organizations effectiveness and performance enhancement.
The results of these studies and a lot of others suggest that studying these dimensions: individual, Group or organizational, will lead to management and authorities understanding about personnel needs and expectations, and consequently will increase their job experience quality.As a matter of fact, considering these dimensions will result in individuals and organizations better effectiveness and performance in the long run.However, the impacts of these dimensions have not been investigated coherently and simultaneously in an organization because of the loss of a comprehensive instrument to accomplish it.This study, however, attempted to achieve this goal.Table 1 shows some of these studies.

ATTITUDES
Favorable or unfavorable interpretations of the environment that allows the individual to express a positive or negative reaction (Shermerhorn et al., 2003;Robbins, 2009) Cognition, emotion, action, dissonance, organizational commitment, job satisfaction PERCEPTION the set of processes by which a person notifies environmental stimuli and organizes and interprets them (Luthans, 1992;Robbins and Judge, 2008;Moorhead and Griffin, 2010;Shermerhorn et al., 2003) Stimuli, organize events based on experience, individual interpretation of events, and individual experiences of the organization's past events or dealings.

GROUP GROUP FEATURES
Features that shape the behavior of its members.And make the contribution of individual behavior and group performance predictable in the future.(Robbins andJudge, 2008 and2009) Roles, group norms, group status, group size, level of group cohesion, group functions (security, status, esteem, independence, power, providing objective), composition (heterogeneity) interaction, decision-making and collective thinking, single action and indifference, group's culture and environment

LEADERSHIP
The ability to influence a person or group on a track to achieve a set of goals (Robbins andJudge, 2008, Mullins, 2002) Human communication, goal setting, creating individual motivation and direction

COMMUNICATIONS
A process by which individuals, groups and organization are linked together using the signs and verbal messages in formal and informal contexts.And will create the meaningful relationships between them.(Luthans, 1992, Mac Crosky andMac Crosky, 2005;Lunenburg and Ornstein, 2012).

POWER
The ability to influence corporate decision making processes and influencing the organization's activities (Tolbert and Hall, 2009) Expertise, legitimacy, authority, discipline, coercion, information, culture, environmental domination, ethics

POLITICS
A series of activities outside the official roles of members to acquire, or to increase the use of power and other resources within organization.(Gary and Ariss, 1985;Robbins and Judge, 2008;Hoy and Miskel, 2013) Political tactics (flattery, networking, data management, managing interpretations and perceptions, coalition building, and behaving others as scapegoats) Political games (insurgency, creating power games, powerdriven games, expert power, power to rule ... ) Power games (leaving the organization, protest, loyalty to organization)

CONFLICT
Perceived incompatibilities or opposing views among groups that allows an individual or a group, individual see other individuals and groups as potential obstacles to the realization of its goals.(Williams, 2011;Rezayian,2004) Cognitive conflict (task, group precautions, resources) emotional conflicts (social-emotional issues, group values, group identity), interpersonal conflict (conflict of roles and personality) intergroup conflict (vertical Conflict, horizontal conflict, line and staff…) fundamental conflict (conflict of purpose, procedure, and cognition), emotional (feelings such as anger, distrust, etc.).

ORGANIZATIONAL ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
Formal pattern of interactions and coordination between individuals, with different jobs within groups and organizations to achieve organizational goals and to Detect limits and boundaries of individuals and groups responsibilities in the use of resources.(Bartol et al., 2001, Mullins, 2002;Jones, 2012;Hoy and Miskel, 2013) Formalization, centralization, process, context, enabling structure, hindering structure

STRATEGY
Outline the precautions and required actions (Shermerhorn et al., 2003) to achieve substantial goals of an organization through determining goals, adopting procedures and resource allocation (Robbins, 2001) Organization precautions Corporate Actions Organization desirables Goal -setting Procedure Selection Allocation of resources

TECHNOLOGY
A complex combination of hardware, software, brain application, human resources and organizing and management within an organization (Jafarnejad, 1999) by which human capability is extended convert inputs into outputs in an organization (Daft, 1999) Hardware (physical equipment) Software (application of hardware) Brain application (the reasons for the use of hardware) Human resources (talent required for using software and hardware) Management and organization ( economic and social and administrative arrangements, and mechanisms)

JOB DESIGN
Building specialized content, methods and job relationships to fulfill individuals' personal and social needs (trade association of the UK, 2008) including; creating responsibility for the consequences, creating meaningful jobs, and knowledge creation through the outcomes of the activities (Hackman & Oldham, 1980) Skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, feedback

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
A System of common perceptions of organizational members toward the organization which separates organizations from one another (Schein, 1990, 2004, Lunenburg and Ornstein , 2012;Desson & Clouthier , 2010) Innovation, attention to detail, attention to consequences, pay attention to people, pay attention to teamwork, racing, stability

ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE
Set of organizational internal characteristics (Hoy and Miskel, 2013), and relatively durable quality of the organizational environment (Spirol, 2008) that influences the behavior of organizational members and determines their feelings toward the organization.

ENVIRONMENT
Set of factors that are associated with the target system and are effective on the system's goal and performance, but system has little control on them (Daft, 2001;Robbins, 1990;Torkzadeh, 2008).Cultural, economic, social, political, legal ISSN 2039-9340 (print) Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences

Population and sampling size
The population consisted of all staff of an organization (1,100 people).Using simple stratified random sampling method and with regard to Morgan table 285 individuals were selected as the sample.Surveys were distributed among them and response rate was % 87.7 (250 individuals).Table 3 illustrates the demographic characteristics of the study participants based on their gender.

Research design and steps
The overall goal of this study was to develop and validate a scale to assess the foundations of organizational behavior.
To do so, Hinkin's (1995) scale development stages were considered.Given to Hinkin's stages, to formulate the model a wide review was carried out on the existing frameworks and finally possible constructs were identified considering Robbins and Judge's (2008) framework as a rather complete framework.For scale's item generation and for data collection_ in a deductive manner, theoretical and research literature of organizational behavior dimensions and the factors underlying them were studied thoroughly: And given to this framework, organizational behavior foundations were established as three dimensions; individuals, group and organizational.Individual dimension embraces nine factors: Biographic characteristics, personality, intelligence, abilities, values, attitudes, perception, learning and motivation.Group dimension consists of seven factors: characteristics of group, leadership, communication, power, politics and conflict, and social capital.And organizational dimension consists of seven factors: strategy, organizational structure, technology, job design, organizational culture, organizational climate, and environment.For Scale Development at first, to design the study we identified a potential set of items for the constructs under consideration and examined their correlation with each other.Second, for scale construction we used item-total correlations to form the scale.Third, Cronbach's Alpha was used for reliability assessment and finally the scale was developed in a five-point Likert type.The aim of all the previous stages in the scale development process was to create measures that prove validity and reliability.Finally, to assume the presence of construct validity, confirmatory factor analysis was used.confirmatory factor structure of the scale along with factorial loads.This study aimed to develop and validate a scale to assess organizational behavior foundations.According to Hinkin (1995), in order to formulate and validate a scale two points should be considered; first, the components and their relevance and second, total model's validation.For the first purpose, the results of item-generation and scale development, item total construction and reliability assessment were satisfactory and showed that the scale had a high validity and reliability.For the second purpose, the results of confirmatory factor analysis showed high construct validity between the dimensions and items and total model.
Corporations are striving to achieve sustainable and efficient competitive advantages within their environment.They do it through using different resources and performing a lot of activities.One of them is human resources and the processes for managing them.Management literature is full of statements from theorists that "people are our most important asset" and "people make all the difference".Moreover, there is a growing body of literature supporting that the effectiveness with which corporations manage, develop, motivate, involve, and engage in environment is a key dynamic of how well those corporations perform in different aspects; especially human resource management.This, in turn, creates a certain value for organizations to learn about their components, specially their members' behavior (March 1999;Shermerhorn et al., 2002;Luthans, 2011).In general, the impact of individual, group and organizational elements within the organization on the behavior of people and improving their performance and, consequently, individual and organizational effectiveness is unquestionable and could not be ignored (Robbins and Judge, 2008).That is why, a gap was felt to develop a scale in order to facilitate understanding and identifying organizational behavior foundations and factors' impact on individual's working behavior and their performance.In this study we tried to fulfill this goal.The aforementioned scale is presented at the end of this article.

Table 2 :
Definitions, factors and indicators of organizational behavior foundations scale

Table 3 :
Number and percent of the participants based on their gender demographic characteristics

Table 4 :
Distribution of items of the scale in terms of dimensions and factors of organizational behavior foundations