Validation of the Intervention Preparedness Tool: a short measure to assess important pre-conditions for successful implementation of organizational interventions

Research goals and background: Organizational interventions are complex (Nielsen & Noblet, 2018) and the intervention context may influence the extent to which interventions achieve their intended outcomes (Nielsen et al., 2021), therefore interventions need to be tailored to the organizational context in order for them to succeed (Nielsen et al., 2021). Limited knowledge exists about how to assess the context of the intervention pre-intervention. Such knowledge is crucial to develop supportive interventions that may help ensure the intervention achieve its intended outcomes. In the present study, we present the Intervention Preparedness Tool (IPT). Using theories of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991) and sensemaking theory (Weick, 2005), we developed and validated a 7-item short process evaluation questionnaire (IPT) that aims to evaluate the preparatory phases of the intervention and may be used to optimize the intervention process. The factors included were based on a review of the existing literature on the factors that may influence the intervention process (Schelvis et al., 2016). Methods: The study was conducted in two Italian hospitals participating in an organizational intervention (N = 1,654 healthcare workers). We conducted exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on one half of the sample and we cross-validated the best factor structure identified through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on the other half of the sample. To perform nomological validation, we correlated the IPT with seven psychosocial risk factors (demand, control, peer support, management support, roles, relationships, changes) and job satisfaction. Results: Results of the EFA and CFA showed that the IPT composed of 7-items has a threefactor structure (readiness for change, intervention-context fit, and communication). In test of the nomological validity, we found that the dimensions of the IPT were significantly related to psychosocial risk factors and job satisfaction. Conclusions: The main contributions of this study are that we developed and validated the IPT for evaluating key elements, readiness for change, communication and intervention-context fit, of the preparation phase of organizational interventions. It is our hope that the IPT can be used to develop supportive activities to ensure the subsequent phases of the organizational intervention run smoothly, thus increasing the chances that the intervention succeeds.