Positive Organizational Culture Scale (POC-S)

Abstract

The Positive Organizational Culture Scale (POC-S), formally known as the Escala de Cultura Organizacional Positiva (E-COPo), was developed by Ortiz-Vázquez, Llorens, and Salanova in 2025. This instrument was created to provide a systematic and robust measure of positive organizational culture (POC) within diverse workplace settings.

The scale’s theoretical foundation is rooted in eight core corporate values, such as ‘Put People First’ and ‘Create Tomorrow,’ from which precise, manageable psychological constructs were derived. The initial scale contained 48 items, which were subsequently refined to a final 28-item measure through rigorous expert item analysis and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The POC-S is structured around six distinct dimensions: Open communication and support, Strategic knowledge, Trust and collaboration, Learning orientation, Recognition, and Resilience. Validation was conducted on two samples of workers from the automotive industry in Spain, where confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) successfully confirmed the proposed six-factor structure and established strong reliability and validity.

Keywords

Learning Orientation, Open Communication and Support, Positive Organizational Culture, Positive Psychology, Recognition, Resilience, Strategic Knowledge, Trust and Collaboration, Organizational Climate, Employee Well-Being, Organizational Support, Workplace Health and Well-Being Measures.

Authors

Ortiz-Vázquez, Antonio; Llorens, Susana; Salanova, Marisa.

Purpose

The primary objective of the Positive Organizational Culture Scale (POC-S) is to quantify the presence and strength of organizational culture characteristics from a positive psychology perspective. It moves beyond traditional organizational assessments by focusing specifically on positive resources and strengths that promote employee flourishing and high operational performance.

The scale serves as a diagnostic tool for organizations seeking to understand how well their stated positive values—like putting people first and fostering collaboration—are translated into observable behaviors and perceived cultural dimensions by the workforce.

Construct

The core psychological construct measured is Positive Organizational Culture. This construct is operationalized through six empirically validated dimensions, each representing a key aspect of a thriving work environment:

• Open communication and support (OC&S)
• Strategic knowledge (SK)
• Trust and collaboration (T&C)
• Learning orientation (LO)
• Recognition (REC)
• Resilience (RES)

These dimensions were derived from a systematic analysis of core company values, ensuring that the measurement instrument is grounded both theoretically in psychology and practically in business values.

Validity

The POC-S demonstrates robust psychometric validity across multiple forms:

Content Validity: Content validity was established early in the development process through comprehensive expert item analysis, ensuring that the 28 final items accurately represent the theoretical domain of the positive organizational culture construct.

Construct Validity: Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to define the initial factor structure, confirming the appropriateness of the items. This structure was later confirmed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), lending strong support to the scale’s construct validity.

Convergent and Discriminant Validity: Convergent validity was supported by Average Variance Extracted (AVE) values, which ranged from 0.62 to 0.75, meeting acceptable criteria. While this range indicates good convergent validity, the shared variance among constructs suggests a possibility of intricate, overlapping relationships between the dimensions, requiring nuanced interpretation but not detracting from the overall validity.

Concurrent Validity: The scale exhibits strong concurrent validity, as evidenced by the statistically significant and positive correlations between the six POC-S factors and established indicators of employee well-being and desired organizational outcomes.

Reliability

The internal consistency of the POC-S subscales confirms its high reliability.

Internal Consistency: Consistent with Streiner’s (2003) criteria for acceptable reliability, both the alpha and omega coefficients for all six subscales registered values that were well within the excellent range (above the 0.70 threshold and below 0.95). This indicates that the items within each dimension consistently measure the same underlying trait.

Factor Analysis

The psychometric development of the POC-S relied heavily on factor analytic techniques to ensure structural integrity.

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA): Exploratory factor analysis was utilized during the item reduction phase to establish the content and construct validity, resulting in the final 28-item, six-dimensional structure.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA): The proposed six-factor model (Model 2) was tested via confirmatory factor analysis against a single-factor alternative (Model 1). Model 2 demonstrated superior fit, with the Comparative Fit Index (CFI) and Incremental Fit Index (IFI) surpassing the 0.90 benchmark, suggesting an excellent model fit. High TLI and NNFI values further reinforced the strength of Model 2, while a notable decrease in the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) confirmed its superiority over the single-factor structure.

Instrument

Test Type: Original

Format: The instrument is an Inventory/Questionnaire. Items are rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale. The administration method used in the validation study was Electronic.

Language Available: Spanish

Population Group: Human; Male; Female

Age Group: Adulthood (18 yrs & older); Young Adulthood (18-29 yrs); Thirties (30-39 yrs); Middle Age (40-64 yrs); Aged (65 yrs & older)

Population Details: The POC-S was validated using two samples of blue-collar workers employed within the automotive industry in Spain.

Test Methodology: The test methodology included assessment of Test Validity (Content, Construct, Concurrent, Convergent, Discriminant), Test Reliability (Internal Consistency), and advanced multivariate statistical techniques (Factor Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis, and Confirmatory Factor Analysis).

Keywords

Organizational Climate, Employee Well-Being, Workplace Health, Positive Psychology, Learning Orientation, Resilience, Organizational Support, Psychometric Scale.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: No data is Available

Affiliation Email addresses: Llorens, Susana: [email protected]

Correspondence Address: Llorens, Susana: [email protected]

Affiliations: All authors (Ortiz-Vázquez, Antonio; Llorens, Susana; and Salanova, Marisa) are affiliated with Universitat Jaume I.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions: Contact Corresponding Author (Susana Llorens).

Fee: No fee is required for the use of the scale.

Test Year: 2025.

Reference’s

Ortiz-Vázquez, A., Llorens, S., & Salanova, M. (2025). Development and validation of the Positive Organizational Culture Scale (POC-S). Psicothema, 37(1), 71–80.

Items of the Positive Organizational Culture Scale (POC-S)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

• Alternate Test Names: Positive Organizational Culture Scale

• Acronyms: E-COPo, POC-S

• Construct: Positive Organizational Culture

• Language Present: English

• Test Location: 2025-74731-008, Table 1, Page 74

• Test Items Available: No

• Number of items: This is a 28-item measure.

• Factors and Subscales: Dimensions: Open communication and support (OC&S); Strategic knowledge (SK); Trust and collaboration (T&C); Learning orientation (LO); Recognition (REC); Resilience (RES).

• Commercial: No