Learn to Manage Your Organization's Culture

OCQ – CPR Tool: Background Information

Why should we have a basic understanding of an organization’s climate in times of organizational change? An organization’s climate is the glue that unites employees in difficult times and provides them with a guideline on how to make sense of the challenges that accompany change. Based on an in-depth study of the literature and our practical experience in over 80 companies, we have identified a number of forces that determine the climate of change in an organization. These forces encompass the context in which change occurs and how change is handled. For a more detailed and technical discussion of the psychometric properties of the instrument that was developed to measure organizational change climate we refer to Bouckenooghe, D, Devos, G. & Van den Broeck H. (2009). Organizational change questionnaire – Climate of Change, Processes, and Readiness: Development of a New Instrument. The Journal of Psychology, 143(6), 559–599 (download the article: ocqcpr-background-article.pdf).

The questionnaire includes 43 items and covers 11 scales. These 11 scales include the context in which change occurs and how the change is handled. The context operates at three levels (organizational level/departmental-team level/individual level). More specifically:

• at the organizational level: Some organizations are more open to change than others. Research on change management shows important factors such as trust in leadership and politicking shape companies´ readiness for change.
• at the departmental/team level: The diversity between departments can sometimes be enormous (e.g. ability of management to lead change, etc.). This is where line management plays a decisive role in making or breaking the change depending on their ability to manage diversity successfully.
• at the individual level: The successful implementation of change also depends on people’s readiness for change. Depending on their personal qualities, individuals can react differently to changes (e.g., cognitive readiness for change, etc.).

Overall literature has shown strong consensus about the salient role of (a) the internal context under which change occurs (climate of change); (b) the process of how change is dealt with; and (c) the level of readiness for change in understanding the processes that lead to successful change implementation (Armenakis, Harris, Feild, 1999; Bouckenooghe, 2012; Rafferty, Jimmieson, & Armenakis, 2013). Because a diagnosis of these elements that facilitate an organization’s capacity for change is a condicio sine qua non before moving further with the next phases of a planned change project (for a more detailed discussion about these phases please consult ´how to become a master of change´ or ´crash course in change management´), it is essential for practitioners to have an instrument that allows them to make a reliable and valid assessment of readiness for change and its enablers: the-climate-of-change and process-of-change elements. This tool measures all three components.

Strongly inspired by the human relations movement (Emery & Trist, 1965; McGregor, 1960), one of the basic assumptions underlying the development of the instrument was that in times of change, interpersonal interaction with colleagues and superiors is highly valued, making the nature of such relationships a salient feature in shaping people’s support for change (Bouckenooghe, De Clercq, Deprez, 2013). This interpersonal dimension is also reflected at the climate-of-change level and process-of-change level. An overview of the conceptual model and the underlying dimensions measured by the OCQ-CPR are depicted in the figure below.

Overview scales

Climate of change/internal context variables

General support by supervisors (4 items) involves the extent to which employees´ experience support and understanding from their immediate supervisor/manager. More specifically it assesses management’s openness and support to reactions of their staff.

Trust in leadership (4 items) is the extent to which staff members perceive corporate management as trustworthy. Does management practice what they preach? Do they keep their promises? Are they honest and fair towards all departments? To put differently, employees feel they can communicate openly about problems, without running the risk of being held responsible for it.

Cohesion (4 items) captures the extent of cooperation and trust in the competence of team members. It is the perception of togetherness or sharing within the organization setting, including the willingness of members to support each other. In general are colleagues accessible?

Participatory management (3 items) is the extent to which staff members are involved in and informed about decisions that directly concern them. Can procedures and guidelines be discussed bottom up?

Politicking (3 items) describes the perceived level of political games within the organization. A high degree of politicking leads to unnecessary expense, considerable delays, and unwillingness to share knowledge.

Change specific process factors

Ability of management to lead change (7 items) refers to the capacity of management to guide, coach and motivate their employees successfully through the change.

Involvement in the change process (6 items) refers to the sense of ownership or control over the change process that captures the quality of change communication and the extent to which organizational members participate in the change process.

Attitude of top management toward change (3 items) involves the stance top management is taking with regard to change. Does management support the change initiative? Are they actively involved in the change?

Readiness for change dimensions

Intentional readiness for change (3 items) is the extent to which employees are prepared to put their energy into the change process.

Cognitive readiness for change (3 items) encompasses the beliefs and thoughts people hold about the change. For example, what are the benefits or disadvantages caused by the change?

Emotional readiness for change (3 items) captures the affective reactions toward change.

Companies That Used the Tool Successfully

For-profit organizations

Not-for-profit organizations

Among many other organizations…

How to Get Access

For commercial and supported research use

License to use

You need a License to Reproduce/Administer if:

• you want to do a paper and pencil survey.
• you want to use the instrument on PsychData, Zoomerang, Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey™, etc.

A License to Reproduce will allow you to either conduct a paper and pencil survey, or re-type and reformat for use online.

Purchasing options

If you want more information about prices for administration of the OCQ-CPR, scoring and analyses of data, please contact me.

Feedback report

In case you would decide to purchase the questionnaire we can provide you with a feedback report. A possible report was included for illustrative purposes. Note that reports can be tailored.

Download ocqcpr-report-example.pdf

For non-commercial unsupported research

The authors are making the OCQ-CPR available for research use to grow the information database associated with the and OCQ-CPR to provide further evidence of validity and reliability. The OCQ-CPR can only be used by researchers who meet specific requirements. A key requirement is that you will only use the OCQ-CPR for research and not for consulting, training or any similar purpose. Additionally, this must be for non-commercial unsupported research purposes, which means that you will not now or in the future directly or indirectly use the content for profit-seeking or other financial or commercial motivations but rather will use the content solely to further research that is purely academic or public-good driven. Your license to the content is personal to you and is solely for such non-commercial research purposes.

To obtain the OCQ-CPR we will ask you to:

1. agree to our abovementioned research use conditions
2. describe your research project:
   • main focus of the research
   • key hypotheses related to the OCQ-CPR
   • sample characteristics/number of participants
   • rater sources/methods of data collection
   • organizational characteristics
   • country or countries
   • language or languages if not English

What We Can Do for You

Our consulting focuses on improving organizational effectiveness by assisting our clients in developing and achieving their strategic objectives through a focus on people, work and performance. Our practice brings together knowledge, skills, and experience in organizational development, change management, human resources and data-mining. We provide consulting assistance to our clients in following areas:

1. change management:
   • workshop creating organizational change awareness program
   • commitment charting
   • organizational climate assessment & diagnosis
   • customized change management plans
2. organizational development:
   • development and assessment surveys
   • data-analysis and data-mining
3. strategic human resources management:
   • human capital planning and forecasting
   • work engagement assessment
   • psychological capital profile analysis