Design and Psychometrics of an Assessment Tool for University Characteristics as a Learning Organization from the perspective of Educational Leaders

Introduction: Universities as learning organizations are places for transcendence, teaching, research and offering knowledge. The aim of this study was to design and assess psychometric properties of an assessment tool for university characteristics as a learning organization from the perspective of educational leaders. Methods: This mixed methods research was performed on faculty members of Tehran and Iran Universities of Medical Sciences in 2013. Drawing on focus group discussions (24 subjects), a preliminary 63-item tool was designed, and then the items were reduced to 59 in three Delphi rounds (30 subjects). The validity of the tool was verified by item impact method and using 10 faculty members and content validity ratio and index was evaluated by the opinions of 12 experts. Exploratory factor analysis with a sample of 200 was used to verify construct validity, and internal consistency test (Cronbach’s alpha) with a sample of 20 was used to verify reliability. Results: Forty items out of 59 items were selected after calculating the scores of item impact, content validity ratio and content validity index with values higher than 1.5, 0.56 and 0.79 respectively. Drawing on the factors analysis of the mentioned items, 40 items were kept. Taking higher than 1 eigenvalue, they were grouped into seven factors: leadership, individual competency, knowledge management, team learning, information management, performance assessment, change facilitation. The proposed tool is able to predict 64.4% of the total changes in characteristics of the learning organization. Conclusion: The results of this study provide solid evidence for the robust factor structure and reliability of the assessment tool for university characteristics as a learning organization. These results could be used by other researchers to develop this tool in other scientific centers.