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A short 14-item version of the Team Climate Inventory (TCI; Anderson & West, 1994) was developed and tested by using two Finnish samples of social and health care personnel (N= 1494 and N= 771). The results of LISREL and other analyses provided evidence of the four-factor structure of the short form, as well as of the internal homogeneity, reliability and normality of its scales across the two samples. Compared to the original TCI, an acceptable item coverage and predictive validity of the shortened version was demonstrated.
The four-factor theory of innovation (West, 1990) argues that group innovations often result from team activities which are characterized by (1) focusing on clear and realistic objectives in which the team members are committed (called vision), (2) interaction between team members in a participative and interpersonally non-threatening climate (called participative safety), (3) commitment to high standards of performance and, thus, preparedness for basic questions and appraisal of weaknesses (called task orientation), and (4) enacted support for innovation attempts including, e.g. cooperation to develop and apply new ideas (called support for innovation). These factors can be assessed with a survey instrument, the Team Climate Inventory (TCI; Anderson & West, 1994), which has demonstrated robust psychometric properties with acceptable levels of reliability and validity across different occupational samples and countries, such as the United Kingdom, Sweden and Finland (Agrell & Gustafson, 1994; Anderson & West, in press; Kivimaki, Kuk, Elovainio, Thomson, Kalliomaki-Levanto & Heikkila, 1997). However, the length of the TCI may, in certain circumstances, create problems for researchers. The measure includes 38 items which are all quite wordy and consume precious space in a survey. Thus, the aim of the present study was to develop a short version of the TCI to indicate the team activities of the four-factor theory in studies in which the original version is considered to be too long.
Method
Participants
The participants were from two different Finnish samples, studied at different times. In the first sample, respondents of a survey comprised 3015 employees of 13 local government bodies, representing 65% of the entire workforce of the local health care and social service departments. Of the whole sample, only those who reported participating in a work team at least once a week were selected. The...