Abstract
ObjectivesWorkplace social capital (WSC) has attracted increasing attention as an organizational and psychosocial factor related to worker health. This study aimed to assess the psychometric properties of a newly developed WSC scale for use in work environments, where bonding social capital is important.MethodsWe assessed the psychometric properties of a newly developed 6-item scale to measure bonding WSC using two data sources. Participants were 1,650 randomly selected workers who completed an online survey. Exploratory factor analyses were conducted. We examined the item–item and item–total correlations, internal consistency, and associations between scale scores and a previous 8-item measure of WSC. We evaluated test–retest reliability by repeating the survey with 900 of the respondents 2 weeks later. The overall scale reliability was quantified by an intraclass coefficient and the standard error of measurement. We evaluated convergent validity by examining the association with several relevant workplace psychosocial factors using a dataset from workers employed by an electrical components company (n = 2,975).ResultsThe scale was unidimensional. The item–item and item–total correlations ranged from 0.52 to 0.78 (p < 0.01) and from 0.79 to 0.89 (p < 0.01), respectively. Internal consistency was good (Cronbach’s α coefficient: 0.93). The correlation with the 8-item scale indicated high criterion validity (r = 0.81) and the scale showed high test–retest reliability (r = 0.74, p < 0.01). The intraclass coefficient and standard error of measurement were 0.74 (95% confidence intervals: 0.71–0.77) and 4.04 (95% confidence intervals: 1.86–6.20), respectively. Correlations with relevant workplace psychosocial factors showed convergent validity.ConclusionsThe results confirmed that the newly developed WSC scale has adequate psychometric properties.
Highlights
Workplace social capital (WSC) has attracted increasing attention as an organizational and psychosocial factor related to workers’ health
There were no significant differences between these groups in job demands, coworker support, effort–reward imbalance (ERI), penetration of management philosophy, work engagement, psychological distress, or education
We assessed the psychometric properties of our new WSC scale, which was developed to reflect the importance of bonding social capital in work environments in Japan
Summary
Workplace social capital (WSC) has attracted increasing attention as an organizational and psychosocial factor related to workers’ health. There are several aspects of WSC, such as the extent and intensity of associational links or activities, and perceptions of support, reciprocity, and trust in the workplace [1]. A growing body of research has identified WSC as a determinant of employee health [2]. Empirical studies have found associations between low WSC and depression [3, 4], hypertension [5, 6], poor self-rated health [4, 7], smoking [4, 8], and high mortality [9]. Further studies are necessary to explore the health effects of WSC
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