Army Command Climate: The Viability of Single-Item Measures
Abstract
All Active Duty Army company commanders are required to conduct an initial command climate assessment within 30 days of assuming command, with assessments 6 months and 12 months later, and annually thereafter. If command climate dimensions could validly be assessed with single-item as opposed to multi-item assessments, this would significantly reduce the time requirement for Soldiers taking the surveys. A series of 13 multi-item command climate scales developed by ARI in prior research was used as the foundation for the single-item command climate measures. Existing literature on organizational climate and single-item construct measures was used to create unidimensional definitions for each construct. These definitions were leveraged as the single-item measures for the dimensions. Data were collected from 1,683 Soldiers at 55 companies across eight locations to evaluate psychometric and criterion-related validity and compare results using the single-item and multi-item scales. Results generally supported the feasibility of using the 13-item assessment tool as a quick health check on the command climate of a unit. Modifications for various scales and single items that could be changed to improve the single-item reliabilities are discussed and recommendations are made for further research and practical application.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1093932
Entities
People
- Chelsey Byrd
- Cory Adis
- Jessica Badger Darrow
- Katherine Rahill
- Michelle Wisecarver
- Richard Hoffman