Strategic Organizational Sustainability Climate: Scale Development and Validation

Abstract

The Strategic Organizational Sustainability (SOS)Climate encompasses the employee perceptions of the policies, practices, and procedures that promote long term organizational success in the era of pressing economic, social, and environmental challenges. In order to promote such workplace climate, organizations must be able to measure it. To this end, the SOS Climate scale was developed and validated using first a phenomenological approach in interviews with sustainability professionals working in organizations across economic sectors. After this, scale items were generated and judged, followed by a pilot study. Principal component analysis was conducted for preliminary dimensionality and item reduction. Lastly, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on a new sample of full-time employees in the US for scale validation. Results and implications of the scale as a business measurement tool are discussed as well as strengths and limitations of the current study. Finally, recommendations for future research are also provided.