Assessing the Climate for Creativity (KEYS):
Confirmatory factor analysis and
psychometric examination of a
Taiwan version
Hsu-Min Tseng* and Feng-Chuan Liu**
*Department of Healthcare Management, Chang Gung University, No 259 Wen Hwa 1st Road, Kweishan,
Taoyuan County, Taiwan. tsenghm@mail.cgu.edu.tw
**Graduate Institute of Business Administration, Chang Gung University, Taiwan
Understanding the feasibility of using KEYS to assess the organizational climate for creat-
ivity in non-Western societies is essential for researchers studying cultural influences on
workers’ perceptions of workplace climates. This study reports on the effectiveness of
translating KEYS, using data from 401 employees of 13 different companies in Taiwan. A
confirmatory factor analysis was performed and its results indicated a satisfactory fit for a
10-factor model. However, six items tackling environmental obstacles had low factor load-
ings (<0.3) and should either be eliminated or amended.The results raise questions regard-
ing the role of cultural influences in international studies that assess creativity climates.
Further research into the conceptualization of organizational creativity in Chinese soci-
eties is warranted.
1. Introduction
A
growing interest in research regarding creativity or
innovation climates has led to the development of
diverse measurement tools to be used at different levels
within organizations.Among these diverse instruments is
KEYS:Assessing the Climate for Creativity, developed by
Amabile (1995) and specifically focused on measuring the
extent to which the work environment stimulates or
inhibits creativity. As the inevitability of globalization
becomes clearer, those researching innovation climates
have begun to evaluate whether common, standardized
innovation climate measures are technically and concep-
tually equivalent for various sociocultural groups (Tseng,
Liu, & West, 2009). This study attempts to establish the
feasibility of the KEYSTaiwan version.The main contribu-
tion of this work is the development of a translated
measurement tool suitable for use by researchers and
innovation managers in organizations based in Chinese
societies.
2. Method
2.1. Participants
The sample for this study comprised 401 employees from
13 companies inTaiwan, representing a response rate of
67%.The data represents a diverse sample that included
employees with different job functions in areas such as
administration, human resources, marketing, and research
and development (R&D). Among the participants, 232
(57.8%) were male and 169 (42.2%) were female. The
mean age was 38 years old with a range from 20 to
65 years.The mean tenure was 3 years with a range from
less than 1 year to more than 15 years. Participants were
highly educated, and over two thirds (69.5%) had
graduate-level degrees. In terms of job level, 70 (17.7%)
were senior-level managers, 112 (28.1%) were mid-level
managers, and 219 (55.2%) were entry-level or adminis-
trative staff members.
The KEYS Taiwan version was first developed in
accordance with translation standards set by the original
International Journal of Selection and Assessment Volume 19 Number 4 December 2011
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