Instruments for organizational communication assessment for Japanese care facilities

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop the measures required to assess organizational communication for Japanese organizations, specifically focusing on Japanese care facilities. Design/methodology/approach The data collected from the two-wave panel research, using the question items generated from a literature survey and several interview and focus group interview research were statistically analyzed. For the first wave of the research, questionnaires were distributed to 850 workers in June 2014. In all, 356 completed questionnaires were returned directly to the researcher, a response rate of 41.9 percent. For the second wave of the research, the questionnaires were distributed to 719 workers in February 2015, and 386 completed questionnaires were returned, a response rate of 53.69 percent. Findings Some items were excluded as a result of the exploratory factor analysis using the first-wave data and the constructs of the questions of each dimension of communication were confirmed as a result of the confirmatory factor analysis using the second-wave data. Originality/value While significant research into communication audits has been conducted across a wide variety of organizations in the USA and Europe, very few studies have focused on the development of an appropriate communication audit instrument for Japan. The development of a Japanese communication audit questionnaire is critical. In addition, instruments specific to industries are also required. This is the first study that focused on developing a Japanese organizational communication audit.