Assessing a measure of organizational environment among Indigenous child welfare agencies

Abstract

BackgroundOrganizational environment is an important construct for child welfare agencies striving to support agency workers and provide the best care possible for their clients. Many assessments of organizational environment present difficulties for child welfare agencies, as they are often proprietary, costly, and may not fully cover important dimensions of organizational functioning. The Comprehensive Organizational Health Assessment (COHA) is a freely available assessment of organizational health that has been used in child welfare settings, but has not yet been tested with Indigenous child welfare agencies in Canada. ObjectiveThe aim of this article is to discuss the development and testing of a modified version of the COHA, the Comprehensive Organizational Environment Assessment (COEA). MethodsThe COEA was developed based on an extensive literature review, input from child welfare researchers, and guidance from an anti-colonial practitioner and community liaison. The COEA was completed by workers from three Indigenous child welfare agencies in Canada ResultsThe COEA was further refined and internal consistency was examined using polychoric correlations and ordinal alpha. The COEA showed strong internal consistency and convergent validity across select scales. ConclusionsThis study highlights the use of polychoric correlations and ordinal alpha when examining the reliability and validity of ordinal-level items. Findings can be used to better understand the assessment of organizational environment for Indigenous child welfare agencies.