Development and psychometric testing of the organizational silence behavior scale for healthcare professionals

Abstract

Organizational silence maintained by professionals working in the healthcare sector could result in various moral dilemmas and might negatively affect patient care. The aim of this methodological study was to develop a scale that measured the organizational silence behaviors of healthcare professionals. During the development of the scale, researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 30 healthcare professionals in order to create a draft pool of 66 scale items. After content validity, a 62 item scale was drafted. In the second stage of development, psychometric properties of the scale were evaluated. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis indicated that adequate fit indices (chi(2) value to degrees of freedom = 3.54; goodness-of-fit index = .92; root mean square error of approximation = .90) were achieved and resulted in a 32 item scale with four subscales. These subscales were assessed using a 5 point Likert scale. The Cronbach's alpha for the scale was .93, and for the subscales, it was as follows: silence climate: alpha = .91, silence based on fear: = .91, acquiesce silence: alpha = .93, and silence based on protecting the organization: alpha = .85. The Organizational Silence Behavior Scale was successfully developed and showed satisfactory validity and reliability. It is usable among healthcare professionals.