Human Resource Development Climate in India: Examining the Psychometric Properties of HRD Climate Survey Instrument

The purpose of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of scores from human resource development (HRD) climate survey instrument by Rao and Abraham (1986). Data were obtained from 403 Indian business executives working in both public and private sector business organizations. Six interpretable factors were extracted as a result of exploratory factor analysis instead of three dimensional structure proposed by the authors of the scale. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) results provided support for the superiority of six factor model over alternative models. All the six factors were found to be internally consistent. Results indicated that Rao and Abraham’s scale with sound psychometric properties showed promise for HRD research. Establishing the psychometric properties of the instrument will further accelerate the HRD research in India. Importantly, the study has made an attempt to address the lack of research and practice on organizational climate, which is a matter of concern as expressed by several researchers, and revive the interest in climate studies to some extent.