Developing an Innovation Culture Measurement Construct for Healthcare Organizations

Objective: To develop an innovation culture measurement model specific to healthcare, by amending the original scale items of the Dobni innovation culture construct and model developed in 2008. Design: The project performed exploratory factor analysis from data collected on surveys, using redesigned scale items from the original Dobni innovation culture measurement. Setting: Managers and administrators from a Provincial Health Services Authority in Canada. Results: An exploratory factor analysis was performed on the 43 scale items used in the survey. The scale items were reduced to 31 and loaded on to new factors creating an Innovation Culture Measurement Model specific to healthcare. Conclusion: Although exploratory, the new model and scale items provide a foundation for researchers to advance innovation culture measurement in healthcare. Academically, measuring innovation culture has created a rich research stream, but to date has not exclusively focused on healthcare. Pragmatically, measuring innovation culture provides healthcare leaders and policy setters a benchmark to assess internally over a period of time or towards other entities.