Conceptualization and Measurement of Structurational Divergence in the Healthcare Setting

Structurational divergence (SD) is a widespread organizational problem, manifesting as recurrent cycles of unresolved conflict rooted in incompatible meaning structures. Heretofore, the program of research investigating SD has been largely qualitative and descriptive. This study developed and tested a quantitative measurement scale of SD in the nursing context. Candidate scale items were constructed from previous interview data and administered to a sample of 281 nurses. A final scale of 17 items was obtained based on expert screening and both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The scale and its three subcomponents showed strong internal consistency and correlated as expected with several established measures of related concepts.