Organizational Structure, Communication and Professional Relationships: Development and validation of measurement methods

Abstract

In developing organizations and in management of change we need to understand how organizations really work. Important issues include organizational structure, communication, contacts, and professional relationships. Methods developed in one working culture may not be directly applied in another one. Moreover, for repeated evaluations of change and for diagnosing purposes the reliability and validity of the measures are of great importance. This study deals with the development and validation of two measurement methods: the OSA (Organizational Structure Analysis) and the PRI (Professional Relationship Index) that originate from the UK and are being validated for the Finnish working culture. This paper considers mainly the validation of the PRI method. For the OSA, only preliminary results are described. The PRI was found in general a valid tool for analyzing professional interactions in work settings. Cross-cultural aspects were not influential in using the PRI. On the contrary, cultural differences in working life are an important issue for the OSA, especially when analyzing non-hierarchical organizational structures.