30 Culture and trust in technology-driven organizations
Upon completion of the screening process, both the POC and the
OCA survey instruments met the criteria. However, it was noted that the
OCA had not been extensively used to measure organizational culture.
Alimited pilot study was conducted using both the POC and the OCA
survey instruments. Detailed results of the pilot study are discussed later
in this chapter. The Cronbach Alpha reliability coefcient was calculated
for both culture instrument datasets. Reliability demonstrates the extent
to which a measurement can be repeated using the same measure of an
attribute. The Cronbach Alphas for the POC and OCA data were 0.91 and
0.80, respectively. The POC survey instrument was selected to measure
culture because it is widely recognized and well established and the
instrument demonstrated a higher reliability coefcient during the pilot
study for measuring culture.
3.6.2 Measuring organizational trust
Although the topic of trust has been widely researched during recent
years, there have not been many instruments developed that specically
measure trust within an organization. In order to determine the appro-
priate survey instrument to measure organizational trust, the instrument
selection process was based on four criteria. The criteria included: (1) an
instrument that measures trust on a continuum scale, (2) ease of comple-
tion with limited completion time (<10 min.), (3) availability of reliabil-
ity and validity data, and (4) the instrument’s ability to measure multiple
attributes of trust. The survey evaluation process consisted of survey
reviews, interviews with participants who completed the culture surveys
during the pilot study, and reviews of available reliability and valid-
ity data for each of the survey instruments evaluated. The discussions
provided validation that the questions posed by the survey instruments
for the most part were easily understood and the surveys could be com-
pleted in a short period of time. The instruments reviewed were evaluated
based on the aforementioned criteria. These instruments were initially
screened against the rst three of the four criteria. This initial evalua-
tion concluded that three of the instruments met the rst three criteria,
Table3.1 Culture Survey Instruments Description
Instrument
Organic–
mechanistic
Brief
completion
time
Easy to
read and
understand
No.
survey
questions
Usage
history
POC (Likert,
1967)
Yes Yes Yes 16 Extensive
OCA (Reigle,
2003)
Yes Yes Yes 20 Limited
31Chapter three: Research statement and methodology
as described in Table3.2. These three instruments were the Cornerstone
Trust Survey (CTS), the Intension to Trust Survey Instrument (ITSI), and
the Organizational Trust Index (OTI).
The fourth screening criterion was used to evaluate the instruments’
ability to measure the multiple attributes of trust identied through the
literature review. The attributes of trust most often used in dening trust
were selected for use in this research. These attributes are openness and
honesty, competence, concern for employees, identication, and reliability.
The ITSI did not measure any particular attribute of trust. The CTS survey
measures three attributes of trust and the OTI measures ve dimensions
of trust. The attributes/dimensions of trust measured by each nalist is
listed in Table3.3.
The OTI survey instrument measures the dimensions/attributes of
trust identied during the literature review. The OTI survey instrument
was developed by Shockley et al. (1999) during a study funded by the
International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Research
Foundation. The baselining process consisted of surveying approximately
4,000 employees encompassing 53 organizations across eight countries.
The OTI was designed to measure organizational trust, while address-
ing ve dimensions of trust on a continuous scale from 1 to 5. The survey
shows trust results ranging from little trust (1) to very great trust (5).
Table3.2 Trust Survey Instruments
Instrument
Brief
completion
time
Easy to
read and
understand
Valid
and
reliable
Conditions of Trust Inventory – CTI
(Butler, 1991)
No Yes Yes
Intention to Trust Survey Instrument–
ITSI (Clark and Payne, 1977)
Yes Yes Yes
Organizational Trust Index – OTI
(Shockley et al., 1999)
Yes Yes Yes
Organizational Trust Questionnaire–
OTQ (Chadwick, 2001)
No Yes Yes
Cornerstone Trust Survey – CTS (Birtel,
Nellen, and Wilkes, 2004)
Yes Yes Yes
Interpersonal Trust Scale – ITS (Rotter,
1967)
No No Yes
Organizational Trust Scale – OTS
(Garrity, 1991)
No Yes Yes
Management Behavior Climate
Assessment – MBCA (Saskin and
Levin, 2000)
No Yes Yes
32 Culture and trust in technology-driven organizations
The 29-question survey instrument was tested and validated for
domestic and international use using LISREL 8 software to conduct con-
rmatory factor analysis. The result of the conrmatory factor analysis
and structural equation modeling provided strong evidence that the OTI
survey instrument measures ve dimensions of trust that include concern
for employees, openness and honesty, identication, competence, and reli-
ability. The Cronbach Alpha reliability coefcient for the instrument is
0.95. The Alpha reliabilities for the ve subscales, each of which measures
one dimension of trust, ranged from 0.85 to 0.90. The OTI survey instru-
ment was selected for use in this study.
3.7 Demographic questionnaire
A demographic questionnaire was developed to collect pertinent infor-
mation needed to supplement the research initiatives. Each participant
was asked to complete the demographic questionnaire. These demo-
graphic properties are expected to contribute to the study of employee
trust within an organization by outlining whether the listed demographic
characteristics have an impact on trust. The demographic questionnaire
contained questions designed to answer the following:
• Organization name
• Work group name
• Individual job title
• Individual’s level within the organization
• Organization type
• Organization size
• Individual gender
• Individual ethnicity
• Levels of management within the organization
Table3.3 Survey Instrument Analysis
Instrument Attributes/dimension of trust measured
ITSI None
OTI Openness and honesty
Competence
Concern for employees
Identication
Reliability
CTS Competence
Credibility (honesty)
Care (concern)
33Chapter three: Research statement and methodology
• Age
• Time working for the organization
• Job tenure
3.8 Targeted population
The targeted sample population included knowledge- and technology-
oriented workers who were employed by technology-based organiza-
tions, rms that compete in elds such as electronics, computers, data
processing, information technology, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, com-
munication, and instrumentation. These organizations typically employ
a large number of technology-oriented workers. Technology-oriented
workers are dened as workers who have advanced knowledge in
the areas of science, engineering, and other technically related elds.
Knowledge in these disciplines is generally acquired through formal
education.
The survey instruments were administered to a sample of conve-
nience instead of a random sample. The convenience sampling methodol-
ogy has been extensively used and documented in various journals and
dissertations. According to Jobber and Horgan (1988) the convenience
sampling method is used extensively in research performed in the United
States and Britain.
Technology-based organizations located in the southeastern United
States were targeted for inclusion in the study due to accessibility. The
rms that were targeted for participation in the study were located within
a three-hour radius of each other for researcher travel feasibility and to
allow economic data collection.
3.9 Data collection process
The data collection process proceeded using the culture and trust sur-
vey instruments and the demographic questionnaire. The data-gathering
process for each organization consisted of meetings and presentations to
management or management teams. Survey instruments were delivered
to management for distribution. Upon completion, the participants placed
the completed surveys in the envelopes provided and sealed them. The
sealed envelopes containing the completed surveys were collected from
management in most cases. In one instance, the surveys were delivered
and returned through the postal mailing system due to the travel time to
and from the participating company.
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