title: The intragroup conflict scale: development and psychometric properties.
abstract: Managers in health care organizations spend an average of 20% of their time dealing with conflict. Hence, a well-developed measure of intragroup conflict is needed to assess work environments. The Intragroup Conflict Scale was developed to measure views of conflict, perceptions of behavior, and perceptions of affective states, that occur in the core process of conflict. The scale was pilot tested with a sample of 184 staff nurses and was later used in a study of antecedents and effects of intragroup conflict in the nursing unit (n = 141). Data from the two studies were merged (n = 325). Using PCA with varimax rotation in the analysis of merged data, three factors that explained 69.2% of variance were extracted. Factor 1 reflects opposition processes and negative emotion; factor 2 reflects trust and freedom of expression; and factor 3 reflects views of conflict. Factor loadings ranged from .60 to .88 on factor 1, from .62 to .79 on factor 2, and from .69 to .80 on factor 3. Coefficient alpha for the three factors were .89 for factor 1, .88 for factor 2, and .79 for factor 3. Correlations with existing scales provided support for construct validity. The scale has evidence for its reliability and validity, and may have the potential to contribute to the understanding of intragroup conflict in organizations. The new Intragroup Conflict Scale demonstrates sufficient construct validity to warrant its continued evaluation.
authors.affiliation: East Carolina University Greenville, NC, USA. coxk@mail.ecu.edu
authors.forename: Kathleen B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Cox
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires