Organisational communication in higher educational institutions: scale development and validation

Abstract

Many researchers have generated instruments to assess communication at an organisational level. Although these scales are alluring, but still, there is a scarcity of valid and reliable constructs to measure organisational communication (OC) from all perspectives. Therefore, this study is trying to deduce the factors of OC scale and develop a construct to assess communication in higher educational institutions (HEI). Item generation and scale refinement for OC construct involve survey of faculty members working with various HEIs in Delhi - National Capital Region, followed by construct, divergent, convergent, nomological and cross-validation using 576 faculty members, resulting in an organisational communication scale for higher educational institutions (OCHE). The empirical results indicate that the OCHE scale consists of four dimensions namely communication structure, style, behaviour, and barriers. The proposed OCHE scale can serve as an indicative tool that enables the authorities of HEIs to monitor and manage the internal communication practices within their organisations.