Positive Organizational Culture Scale (POC-S)

Abstract

The Positive Organizational Culture Scale (POC-S), originally conceptualized and validated in Spanish as the Escala de Cultura Organizacional Positiva (E-COPo), is a psychometric instrument developed by Antonio Ortiz-Vázquez, Susana Llorens, and Marisa Salanova (2025) to assess the manifestations of organizational culture through the lens of positive psychology and positive organizational scholarship. Grounded in foundational corporate values translated into manageable psychological constructs, the instrument underwent rigorous scale development, paring an initial 48-item pool down to a refined 28-item measure across six latent dimensions: Open Communication and Support (OC&S), Strategic Knowledge (SK), Trust and Collaboration (T&C), Learning Orientation (LO), Recognition (REC), and Resilience (RES). The scale uses a 5-point Likert response format administered via electronic platforms. Psychometric evaluation across industrial cohorts—specifically blue-collar manufacturing workers within the automotive sector in Spain—demonstrated solid structural validity, with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) substantiating the superiority of a six-factor oblique model over a unidimensional alternative (CFI and IFI > .90, accompanied by elevated TLI/NNFI metrics and low RMSEA). Convergent validity was established via Average Variance Extracted (AVE) values ranging from .62 to .75, while concurrent validity was verified through statistically significant relationships with employee subjective well-being and organizational outcomes. Both Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega coefficients fell between .70 and .95 for all subscales, confirming strong internal consistency. The POC-S offers researchers and industrial-organizational practitioners a robust diagnostic tool for fostering healthy, resilient workplaces.

Keywords

Positive Organizational Culture, POC-S, E-COPo, Positive Organizational Scholarship, Employee Well-Being, Psychometrics, Organizational Health, Workplace Resilience, Job Demands-Resources, Industrial Psychology

Authors

The Positive Organizational Culture Scale (POC-S) was developed and psychometrically validated by members of the WANT Research Team (Work, Organization & New Technologies) at Universitat Jaume I in Castellón de la Plana, Spain:

• Antonio Ortiz-Vázquez: Universitat Jaume I, Department of Developmental, Educational and Social Psychology and Methodology, Castellón de la Plana, Spain.
• Susana Llorens: Universitat Jaume I, Department of Developmental, Educational and Social Psychology and Methodology, Castellón de la Plana, Spain. (Corresponding Author; Contact Email: [email protected]).
• Marisa Salanova: Full Professor of Positive Organizational Psychology, Universitat Jaume I, WANT Research Team, Castellón de la Plana, Spain.

Purpose

The core objective of the Positive Organizational Culture Scale (POC-S) is to operationalize, assess, and diagnose organizational culture from an affirmative, strengths-based perspective rather than an exclusively deficit-oriented paradigm. Historically, traditional measures of organizational climate and culture have heavily emphasized risk identification, operational friction, compliance, or structural barriers. While these diagnostic models provide actionable data regarding organizational pathologies, they often overlook the generative, human-centered resources that allow institutions to thrive under volatile, complex, and ambiguous conditions.

The theoretical rationale behind the POC-S aligns with the emergence of positive psychology applied to work contexts. Designed to capture how institutional practices foster employee health, intrinsic motivation, and operational excellence, the instrument operationalizes everyday shared organizational values into observable psychological indicators. Specifically, the scale originated from institutional aspirations—such as prioritizing human capital, ethical decision-making, epistemic curiosity, continuous adaptation, collective unity, and operational resilience—translating qualitative core values into validated psychometric factors.

In applied and research settings, the POC-S serves multiple critical functions:

• Diagnostic Benchmarking: It enables organizational development consultants and human resource departments to conduct baseline cultural audits that measure psychological resources alongside operational indicators.
• Intervention Design: By segmenting organizational culture into six distinct dimensions (e.g., recognition, strategic alignment, relational trust), interventions can be targeted toward specific cultural deficits rather than applying diffuse, generalized organizational transformation programs.
• Academic Research: It supplies organizational psychologists with a psychometrically sound, validated metric to examine structural equation models (SEM) linking culture to work engagement, psychological capital (PsyCap), burnout reduction, and performance metrics.
• Industrial and Blue-Collar Workplace Assessment: Because the scale was originally validated using manufacturing and blue-collar samples within the automotive industry, it provides an ecologically valid tool for high-stress, production-oriented environments where cultural measures are often under-tested.

Psychological Construct

The POC-S measures Positive Organizational Culture, conceptualized as a system of shared psychological values, normative assumptions, behavioral practices, and structural conditions that actively prioritize employee well-being, interpersonal synergy, dynamic learning, and collective adaptability. Unlike transient organizational climate—which captures momentary employee perceptions of the current environment—positive culture represents enduring, systemic features of the organizational collective.

The construct is comprised of six distinct, interrelated latent dimensions:

1. Open Communication and Support (OC&S)

This subscale evaluates the transparency, availability, and non-defensive nature of vertical and horizontal informational exchanges within the firm. It assesses the degree to which employees perceive leadership as approachable, feedback as constructive, and management as actively supportive of workers’ needs. In environments characterized by high OC&S, employees experience psychological safety, allowing them to express dissenting viewpoints, seek assistance without fear of sanction, and share authentic feedback.

2. Strategic Knowledge (SK)

Strategic Knowledge measures the cognitive clarity that workers possess regarding the organization’s overarching vision, trajectory, operational plan, and competitive identity. Rather than merely assessing formal knowledge of policy manuals, SK captures whether employees understand *how* their individual, everyday tasks contribute directly to corporate goals. High SK eliminates role ambiguity, aligns discretionary effort, and instills a collective sense of purpose.

3. Trust and Collaboration (T&C)

Rooted in interpersonal dynamics, T&C measures relational cohesion, mutual dependability, and cross-functional synergy among teams. It gauges the extent to which staff perceive colleagues as benevolent, competent, and honest, and whether the institutional climate rewards collective collaboration over hyper-individualistic competition. Under high T&C conditions, workers leverage social capital, resolve interpersonal friction cooperatively, and combine diverse skills to solve complex operational challenges.

4. Learning Orientation (LO)

Reflecting continuous improvement and an institutional growth mindset, Learning Orientation assesses whether the organizational environment embraces curiosity, creative experimentation, and skill acquisition. Crucially, this dimension evaluates whether operational mistakes are treated as learning opportunities rather than occasions for punitive blame. Organizations scoring high in LO allocate time and resources for training, encourage novel methodologies, and systematically analyze failures to refine workflows.

5. Recognition (REC)

The Recognition dimension examines the presence, fairness, and visibility of formal and informal appreciation systems within the company. It assesses whether employees feel their contributions, discretionary effort, and milestones are acknowledged by supervisors, peers, and executive leaders. In high-REC cultures, feedback is not solely negative or corrective; rather, effort and excellence are regularly validated, supporting self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation.

6. Resilience (RES)

Adapted from systemic and organizational resilience theory, this factor measures the enterprise’s perceived capacity to anticipate disruptions, absorb exogenous shocks, persevere during sustained crises, and proactively bounce back stronger from setbacks. It reflects collective optimism, cognitive flexibility, and structural adaptability when navigating organizational transformations, market downswings, or logistical crises.

Theoretical Framework

The development of the Positive Organizational Culture Scale is grounded in three converging theoretical perspectives within organizational psychology:

Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) and Cameron’s Framework

Grounded in the foundational work of Kim Cameron and colleagues at the University of Michigan, Positive Organizational Scholarship investigates the conditions that enable extraordinary organizational performance, virtuousness, flourishing, and resilience. Cameron’s (2008) affirmative paradigm postulates that positive culture is defined by positive climate, positive relationships, positive communication, and positive meaning. The POC-S directly reflects these theoretical pillars by treating institutional values not as passive declarations on corporate websites, but as dynamic, everyday psychological resources.

The Healthy & Resilient Organizations (HERO) Model

The scale was developed by the WANT Research Team, led by Marisa Salanova and Susana Llorens, the architects of the Healthy & Resilient Organizations (HERO) model (Salanova et al., 2012). The HERO heuristic posits that institutional health is sustained through the triadic reciprocal interaction of:

1. Healthy Organizational Resources and Practices: Structural policies including open communication, continuous learning, and equitable recognition.
2. Healthy Employees: Individuals possessing high psychological capital, emotional vigor, and dedicated work engagement.
3. Healthy Organizational Results: Exceptional operational performance, corporate social responsibility, and sustained crisis-resistant viability.

Within this framework, the POC-S directly operationalizes the cultural and practice-based resources that initiate positive gain spirals (Fredrickson’s Broaden-and-Build theory) across the workforce.

The Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Theory

The Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007) posits that workplace factors can be divided into demands (aspects requiring sustained physical or psychological effort) and resources (aspects functional in achieving goals, reducing demands, and stimulating personal growth). In JD-R terms, each POC-S dimension acts as a macro-level organizational resource. By providing structural support, psychological safety, and clear direction, these cultural resources buffer against job strain, prevent burnout, and foster employee engagement.

Validity

The psychometric validation of the POC-S by Ortiz-Vázquez et al. (2025) employed a multi-stage validation methodology to confirm structural, convergent, discriminant, and concurrent validity:

Content Validity

Content validity was evaluated using a panel of subject-matter experts in organizational psychology and human resource management. The initial pool of 48 items—derived from institutional core values—underwent qualitative content reviews and cognitive interviews. Items displaying conceptual ambiguity, semantic overlap, or cultural idiosyncrasies were systematically revised or eliminated, yielding a clear, content-valid set of candidate questions.

Construct and Structural Validity

Construct validity was established through sequential exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). EFA reduced the 48-item pool to a cleaner 28-item model by eliminating cross-loading items and items with weak communalities, isolating six distinct factors with high theoretical alignment.

Convergent and Discriminant Validity

To evaluate convergent validity, Ortiz-Vázquez et al. computed the Average Variance Extracted (AVE) for each latent factor. Empirical AVE metrics ranged from .62 to .75 across the six dimensions, comfortably exceeding the conventional .50 threshold (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). This confirms that each latent factor explains more than half of the variance observed among its operationalized items.

Regarding discriminant validity, the authors observed moderate-to-high latent factor intercorrelations. Although AVE values confirmed distinct constructs, the degree of shared variance suggests some conceptual overlap. Rather than detracting from construct validity, the authors noted that this inter-factor affinity reflects the interconnected nature of positive culture: an organization high in open communication naturally facilitates organizational learning and collaborative trust.

Concurrent and Criterion Validity

Concurrent validity was established through correlation and structural equation modeling against established psychological and performance markers. All six POC-S factors exhibited statistically significant, positive relationships with employee well-being measures (such as subjective vitality, job satisfaction, and work engagement) and organizational outcomes (perceived operational performance and lowered turnover intentions).

Reliability

Reliability testing for the POC-S included assessments of internal consistency using both traditional and modern psychometric indices:

• Cronbach’s Alpha (α): Across all six subscales, alpha coefficients satisfied the criteria outlined by Streiner (2003), registering values well above the minimum acceptable threshold of .70 and remaining below the .95 ceiling (which would indicate item redundancy).
• McDonald’s Omega (ω): Recognizing the well-documented limitations of Cronbach’s alpha regarding tau-equivalence assumptions, the authors calculated McDonald’s composite reliability (omega). Omega point estimates confirmed high internal consistency across all six latent factors (.70 < ω < .95).
• Absence of Item Redundancy: The adherence to the upper limit of .95 confirms that the 28 retained items each contribute unique informational variance to their respective dimensions rather than rephrasing identical sentiments.

Factor Analysis

The dimensional structure of the POC-S was evaluated via sequential factor analytic methodologies across independent industrial cohorts in Spain:

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)

The initial 48-item version was administered to workers in the automotive sector. EFA utilizing robust extraction techniques (such as Principal Axis Factoring / Robust Maximum Likelihood with oblique rotation) revealed six underlying latent factors. Items with factor loadings < .40 or cross-loadings > .30 were progressively removed, resulting in a refined 28-item instrument.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)

To confirm the scale’s latent dimensionality, CFA was conducted on an independent validation sample, testing two competing structural models:

• Model 1 (Unidimensional Model): Posited that all 28 items loaded onto a single, overarching latent factor of “Positive Organizational Culture.”
• Model 2 (Six-Factor Oblique Model): Modeled the 28 items onto their respective six distinct, correlated latent factors: Open Communication & Support, Strategic Knowledge, Trust & Collaboration, Learning Orientation, Recognition, and Resilience.

The comparative fit results showed clear support for Model 2. While Model 1 exhibited poor fit, Model 2 demonstrated good global fit to the empirical data:

• Comparative Fit Index (CFI): Surpassed the .90 benchmark, reflecting good relative fit.
• Incremental Fit Index (IFI): Surpassed the .90 threshold.
• Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) / Non-Normed Fit Index (NNFI): Displayed high values, indicating structural stability.
• Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA): Exhibited a marked reduction from Model 1 to Model 2, settling well within accepted guidelines for adequate model fit.

These findings substantiate the multidimensionality of the construct, demonstrating that positive organizational culture is best conceptualized as a multi-faceted construct rather than an undifferentiated, singular perception.

Instrument / Measurement Tool

The Positive Organizational Culture Scale (POC-S) is an organizational assessment instrument configured as follows:

• Instrument Type: Standardized diagnostic inventory / self-report questionnaire.
• Item Count: 28 items (condensed from an initial 48-item pool).
• Dimensional Structure: Six correlated subscales:
  • Open Communication and Support (OC&S)
  • Strategic Knowledge (SK)
  • Trust and Collaboration (T&C)
  • Learning Orientation (LO)
  • Recognition (REC)
  • Resilience (RES)
• Response Format: 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (“Strongly Disagree” / “Totalmente en desacuerdo”) to 5 (“Strongly Agree” / “Totalmente de acuerdo”).
• Administration Modality: Self-administered electronically via online psychometric survey engines; adaptable for paper-and-pencil formats where digital access is constrained.
• Target Population: Adult working populations (aged 18–65+) across manufacturing, industrial, technical, and service sectors.
• Administration Time: Approximately 8 to 12 minutes.
• Scoring Guidelines: Dimension-specific scores are obtained by calculating the arithmetic mean of items within each subscale. Higher scores denote a stronger presence of that cultural asset. An aggregate Positive Organizational Culture index can be computed by averaging across all 28 items.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Positive Organizational Culture Scale (POC-S / E-COPo) was developed and published in 2025 by Antonio Ortiz-Vázquez, Susana Llorens, and Marisa Salanova. The foundational empirical validation study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Psicothema.

• Commercial Status: Non-commercial instrument.
• Licensing and Fee: There are no user fees required for academic, non-commercial, educational, or pure research uses.
• Permissions Process: Researchers, human resource specialists, and practitioners wishing to use, translate, or administer the POC-S must request authorization from the corresponding author.
• Correspondence Contact: Dr. Susana Llorens, Universitat Jaume I, Department of Developmental, Educational and Social Psychology and Methodology, Castellón de la Plana, Spain. Email: [email protected].

References

• Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2007). The Job Demands-Resources model: State of the art. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 22(3), 309–328. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115
• Cameron, K. S. (2008). Practicing positive leadership: Tools and techniques that create extraordinary results. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
• Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378101800104
• Ortiz-Vázquez, A., Llorens, S., & Salanova, M. (2025). Development and validation of the Positive Organizational Culture Scale (POC-S). Psicothema, 37(1), 71–80. https://doi.org/10.7334/psicothema2024.123
• Salanova, M., Llorens, S., Cifre, E., & Martínez, I. M. (2012). We need a HERO! Toward a validation of Healthy and Resilient Organizations (HERO) model. Group & Organization Management, 37(6), 785–822. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601112470405
• Streiner, D. L. (2003). Starting at the beginning: An introduction to coefficient alpha and internal consistency. Journal of Personality Assessment, 80(1), 99–103. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327752JPA8001_18

Items of the Scale