Measuring organizational 'sense of urgency': A leadership challenge

This research was designed to develop and validate a scale to measure what Kotter and others have termed "Sense of Urgency." This scale was intended to fill a gap in leaders' ability to gauge the level of urgency for change within their organizations. A literature review of the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality along with how those factors were related to job performance and job satisfaction was necessary to separate personality influences from the concept of sense of urgency. A 23-item instrument named the Kahne Change Scale was developed and combined with 60 items from the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) and administered. The participants (N = 239) that completed the instrument were from a university (N = 143) and several for-profit businesses (N = 96). Factor and item analysis reduced the 23 items to five that appear to directly measure sense of urgency (Scale U) and four that may be assessing what is considered to be the polar opposite of urgency-complacency (Scale FS). Correlation and regression analysis indicated that the new scale U (alpha = .58) was not correlated with any of the FFM constructs which supports the hypothesis that sense of urgency is not the same as any of the factors of personality. Scale FS (alpha = .67) was weakly correlated with neuroticism (r = -.17 p < .05). With some additional investigation to extend the research, leaders will have an instrument that could aide them in successful change management.