Development and validity of a scale to measure workplace culture of health

To describe the development of and test the validity and reliability of the Workplace Culture of Health (COH) scale.

Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed on data from a health care organization (N = 627). To verify the factor structure, confirmatory factor analysis was performed on a second data set from a medical equipment manufacturer (N = 226).

The COH scale included a structure of five orthogonal factors: senior leadership and polices, programs and rewards, quality assurance, supervisor support, and coworker support. With regard to construct validity (convergent and discriminant) and reliability, two different US companies showed the same factorial structure, satisfactory fit statistics, and suitable internal and external consistency.

The COH scale represents a reliable and valid scale to assess the workplace environment and culture for supporting health.