Adapting Organizational Culture Scale into Healthcare Professional Education: A Scale Validity and Reliability Analysis

Abstract

Background: This study aims to adapt and validate the Organizational Culture Scale (OCS) by İpek (1999) for higher education institutions in healthcare professional training, emphasizing the unique cultural dimensions within these settings. The importance of organizational culture in academic and scientific progress is highlighted, necessitating precise instruments for its assessment. Methods: The adaptation involved expert consultations across health disciplines, removal of redundant items, and rigorous statistical validation, including exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, utilizing a sample of 402 students from various health-related faculties. The process was guided by established practices, including the Lawshe technique for content validity and the "tens" rule for sample size determination. Results: The adapted scale, reduced to 23 items across six factors, demonstrated satisfactory validity and reliability. The factor analysis accounted for 47.885% of the variance, with factors named success orientation, organizational belonging, process planning, organizational support, management power, and bureaucratic processes. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the scale's structure, and reliability analysis yielded a Cronbach's alpha of 0.860. Conclusions: The study successfully adapts the OCS for healthcare professional education, offering a reliable and valid tool for assessing organizational culture in this context. The adapted scale provides insights into organizational culture's impact on educational quality, suggesting its use in strategic planning and improvement initiatives. Future research should continue validating the scale across different contexts.