Organizational Identification - Measures of OI

Measures of OI

From Riketta’s (2005) meta-analytic review, we can deduce that Mael and Ashworth’s (1992) OI measure is narrower and more distinct from the affective organizational commitment, while the OI questionnaire has more overlap with the affective organizational commitment. In addition, Mael and Ashworth’s (1992) OI measure may be more useful than either the OIQ or affective commitment scale when examining or predicting employee extra role behavior and job involvement. However, the OI questionnaire is a better indicator of employee intentions to leave the organization than either the affective commitment scale or Mael and Ashworth’s OI measure.

Mael and Ashworth’s (1992) OI measure:

1. When someone praises my organization, it feels like a personal compliment.
2. When someone criticizes my organization, it feels like a personal insult.
3. I am very interested in what others think about my organization.
4. When I talk about my organization, I usually say “we” rather than “they”.
5. My organization’s successes are my successes.
6. If a story in the media criticized my organization, I would feel embarrassed.

Miller, Allen, Casey, and Johnson (2000) modified the OI questionnaire by selecting 12 items from 25 in order to improve reliability, internal consistency, and meaningfulness of the measure. According to Rikketa’s (2005), as well as Miller, Allen, Casey, and Johnson’s (2000) analyses, this particular measure is more reflective of affective organizational commitment, as opposed to OI, but it can be very useful in prediction of employee turnover intentions.

Items from Miller, Allen, Casey, and Johnson’s (2000) modified OI questionnaire with original source references (the blanks should be replaced with the name of the specific organization of interest to the surveyor):

Membership:

1. I am proud to be an employee of ______ (Buchanan, 1974).

Loyalty:

1. I would describe ______ as a large “family” in which most members feel a sense of belonging (Hall, Schneider, & Nygren, 1970).
2. I would be willing to spend the rest of my career with ______. (Buchanan, 1974)

Similarity:

1. ______’s image in the community represents me well (Cheney, 1982).
2. I find that my values and the values of ______ are very similar (Mowday et al., 1979; Porter & Smith, 1970).

Recently, Edwards and Peccei (2007) have developed an OI measure that taps into three separate but closely related factors of OI. The three factors include a) the categorization of the self as an organizational member, b) the integration of the organization’s goals and values, as well as c) the development of an emotional attachment, belongingness, and membership to the organization. Appropriately, these three factors incorporate the main components from OI definitions throughout OI research thus far. Because each factor was measured by two separate items, Edwards and Peccei were able to conduct confirmatory factor analysis for their three factor model fit across two independent samples.

Interestingly, their results indicate the lack of discriminant validity among the three factors of OI. And although the model with three underlying dimensions of OI fits the data slightly better, the one factor model also yields satisfactory fit. In other words, while it may be useful to conceptualize OI in terms of three main components, these components are strongly correlated. Therefore for the practical purposes of OI measurement, Edwards and Peccei suggest creating a composite or aggregate of the three dimensions and using the six-item measure as a single overall scale of OI.

Edwards and Peccei’s (2007) OI measure:

1. My employment in the organization is a big part of who I am (self-categorization and labeling).
2. I consider myself an organization person (self-categorization and labeling).
3. What the organization stands for is important to me (values and goals).
4. I share the goals and values of the organization (values and goals).
5. My membership of the organization is important to me (belongingness and membership).
6. I feel strong ties with the organization (belongingness and membership).