Development of the Competitive Work Environment Scale: A Multidimensional Climate Construct

Recent research suggests that competitive work environments may influence individual’s attitudes, behaviors, stress, and performance. Unfortunately, adequate measures of competitive environments are lacking. This article traces the development of a new multidimensional competitive work environment scale. An initial 59-item pool covering five dimensions of a competitive environment was generated and scrutinized. Then, using two independent data samples, the authors psychometrically analyzed, organized, and reduced the items using a combination of exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and item response theory. The final scale consists of 20 items across five distinct dimensions: competition for tangible rewards, nontangible rewards, recognition, status, and competition influenced by coworkers. Results indicate that the final multidimensional scale maintains strong psychometric properties and provides preliminary evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.