Measuring social capital of healthcare organizations reported by employees for creating positive workplaces - validation of the SOCAPO-E instrument

Abstract

Background: In highly segmented and complex healthcare organizations social capital is assumed to be of high relevance for the coordination of tasks in healthcare. So far, comprehensively validated instruments on social capital in healthcare organizations are lacking. The aim of this work is to validate an instrument measuring social capital in healthcare organizations. Methods: This validation study is based on a cross-sectional survey of 1050 hospital employees from 49 German hospitals which specialize in breast cancer care. Social capital was assessed by a six-item scale. Reliability analyses and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to determine the content validity of items within the theorydriven one-dimensional scale structure. The scale's associations with measures of the social aspects of the work environment (identification, social support, open communication climate) were estimated to test convergent validity. Criterion-related validity was evaluated by conducting structural equation modelling to examine the predictive validity of the scale with measures of work engagement, well-being and burnout. Results: A one-dimensional structure of the instrument could be identified (CFI = .99; RMSEA = .06). Convergent validity was shown by hypothesis-consistent correlations with social support offered by supervisors and colleagues, a climate of open communication, and employee commitment to the organization. Criterion-related validity of the social capital scale was proved by its prediction of employee work engagement (R 2 = .10-.13 for the three subscales), well-being (R 2 = .13), and burnout (R 2 = .06-.11 for the three subscales). Conclusions: The confirmed associations between social capital and work engagement, burnout as well as wellbeing stress the importance of social capital as a vital resource for employee health and performance in healthcare organizations. In healthcare organizations this short instrument can be used as an efficient instrument to measure the organizations' social capital.

A Parsonian Approach to Patient Safety: Transformational Leadership and Social Capital as Preconditions for Clinical Risk Management—the GI Factor

“…[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][55][56][57] and the community concept [37,38,58], a communal social capital scale was constructed measuring six central aspects of this construct: common understanding, good working atmosphere, mutual trust, we-feeling, mutual help, and common values. This Social Capital of Organisations (SOCAPO) scale is a validated scale [59] and can be used to measure social capital of employees (SOCAPO-E) [59,60], social capital of hospital boards (SOCAPO-B) [61], and social capital of hospitals from the perspective of the CMO as shown in the present study (SOCAPO-CMO). Item examples are: "In our hospital, there is unity and agreement" and "In our hospital, we trust one another".…”

“…The sixth limitation lies in the measurement of social capital. The scale used for measuring social capital consisted of one item for each of the underlying dimensions of community based social capital [37,55,59,72]. The reliability of the social capital scale is good.…”

Social determinants of the impact of hospital management boards on quality management: a study of 109 European hospitals using a parsonian approach

“…To measure the second component of the GI index – the I factor – we used the scale “social capital within the hospital management board” [ 15 ] as a proxy for social integration of the board. It was derived from a validated scale called social capital of healthcare organizations from employees’ perspective (SOCAPO-E), which has been used in previous studies [ 16 , 17 ]. For this study, the six items of this scale were adapted in order to measure social capital among hospital management board members (SOCAPO-B).…”

“…The scale consists of six items (Cronbach’s alpha: 0.91) measuring the amount of unity and agreement, common values, mutual trust, mutual helpfulness, “we” feeling, and good social climate in the HMBs. The scale reflects central features of the communal aspects of social capital [ 17 – 19 ]. We used a 4-point Likert scale from “strongly disagree” (1) to “strongly agree” (4).…”

Measuring social capital of hospital management boards in European hospitals: A validation study on psychometric properties of a questionnaire for Chief Executive Officers

“…Although it has been used in several earlier studies, the social capital scale has not been intensively validated. An earlier study on employees’ social capital (SOCAPO-E) has recently been published [ 20 ]. In this study we focus on CEOs.…”