Validity evidence of the learning climate survey

Abstract

Learning Climate in an organizational context is the shared perception among employees about organizational policies and practices that facilitate, reward and support learning behaviors. The present study aimed to translate and adapt a three-dimensional measure for learning climate and evaluate criteria of validity of this instrument through Exploratory Factor Analysis. After translation of the scale and validation by judges, the instrument, in electronic format, was published on social networks and obtained 293 valid responses. Factor analysis demonstrated a satisfactory three-factor structure, with good reliability indices: learning facilitation (Cronbach's alpha=0.83); valuing learning (Cronbach's alpha=0.90); and error avoidance (Cronbach's alpha=0.85). The factor loadings varied between 0.60 and 0.97. These results indicate that the Learning Climate scale has adequate psychometric characteristics for use in organizational diagnoses and academic research on learning at work. Thus, in the practical field, the use of this scale can contribute by providing inputs for interventions to provide organizational environments favorable to learning. In the academic field, the scale can help to understand the phenomenon of learning in work organizations through quantitative empirical studies.