Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Department

Psychology

Sub-Department

College of Arts and Sciences

First Advisor

Abraham Wandersman

Abstract

Organizational readiness is an essential factor for successful implementation of a particular innovation. Although there is general consensus within the research literature on the importance of organizational readiness, there has been significantly less agreement on the nature of readiness as a construct and how it should be operationalized. Previous research has focused on organizational readiness for change at both the individual and organizational levels, but measures based on these theories of readiness have typically lacked evidence of reliability and validity.

The R=MC2 heuristic and its associated measure, the Readiness Monitoring Tool (RMT), offer a compelling and comprehensive approach by which organizations can identify specific areas of readiness which could benefit from capacity-building efforts to strengthen implementation supports. Initial psychometric analysis of the RMT has included establishing internal reliability, content validity, criterion validity, and preliminary factor structure, but additional testing is required to establish the RMT as a theoretically-informed and psychometrically-sound measure. This study presents the results of a psychometric assessment of data from two project samples, including 1) a comparison of internal consistency measures to determine whether this property is maintained across project-specific adaptations and 2) calculation of interrater agreement and interrater reliability statistics to provide evidence for group-level aggregation of individual-level RMT data.

Individual-level data was collected from seven projects that had previously adapted the RMT; two projects were selected for analysis based on strong per-site participation. Internal consistency was assessed by calculating alpha coefficients for each RMT subscale. Interrater agreement and interrater reliability was assessed using rWG, ADM, ICC(1), and ICC(2) estimates. Internal reliability analysis showed very good internal consistency for the majority of subscales. Interrater reliability and interrater agreement statistics supported group-level aggregation of individual-level responses.

This study provides evidence in support of RMT as an adaptable measure capable of reliably and validly representing an organization’s readiness by surveying its members. Occasional variability in results between subscales, sites, and projects informs recommendations for future study and implications for practical RMT use. Although further development is required, the RMT shows promise as an adaptable measure of organizational readiness capable of informing targeted capacity-building support.

Rights

© 2018, Samantha N. Hartley

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