The Toxic Climate of Organization: Conceptualization and Measurement

Sometimes the climate of organization, as an organism, is impregnated to toxicity. Since this kind of climate conveys dysfunctional consequences to organization members, it is requisite to explore the dimensions and components of such a climate and also to develop an instrument to measure it. Thus, the aim of this paper is to develop and validate a questionnaire for measuring organizational toxic climate. In this regard, after studying literature, dimensions and components of mentioned concept were explored. Then a primary questionnaire was developed and after confirming its internal consistency distributed among 600 employees of administrative organizations in Arsanjan, Saadt-Shahr, and Marvdasht based on disproportionate stratified sampling. In order to test the primary validity of measure and avoid the threat of common method variance, exploratory factor analysis and Harman single-factor test were deployed respectively. To validate the questionnaire, stability and equivalence reliability and convergent and divergent validity were assessed. SPSS, Smart PLS, and Amos Graphics, were also uesd. As a result, the toxic physical structure, toxic interpersonal communication, toxic reward,  reputation system, and toxic leadership were confirmed as the dimensions of toxic organizational climate. The final measure was a 5 point Likertquestionnaire with 57-items.