Perceived Organisational Altruism Scale

What it measures

Measures the degree to which a consumer perceives an organisation as genuinely caring about others and helpful — capturing a positive, altruistic organisational identity. Developed in the context of CSR and service failure research, where perceptions of organisational warmth and concern were theorised to buffer negative consumer responses to service failures under communal relationship norms. The scale has a 4-item version and a shorter 2-item version (items 3 and 4 only), with adaptations for different hospitality contexts.

Response format

5-point; items 1-2 disagree/agree anchors; items 3-4 not at all/very anchors

Scale items

• This [organisation] is concerned for others.
• This [organisation] cares about its customers.
• Caring
• Helpful

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Source not stated by Bolton and Mattila (2015). Items were adapted to the specific business context (hotel in Studies 1 and 3; restaurant in Study 2). All four items used in Study 1; only items 3 and 4 used in Studies 2 and 3. Items 1-2 use a disagree/agree response scale; items 3-4 use a not at all/very scale — mixed anchors within the same scale. Validity not discussed. The word 'customers' in item 2 can be substituted with 'donors', 'citizens', 'students', etc. for non-commercial entities. Scale aligns conceptually with the warmth dimension of the Stereotype Content Model.

Citation

Bolton, L.E., & Mattila, A.S. (2015). How does corporate social responsibility affect consumer response to service failure in buyer-seller relationships? Journal of Retailing, 91(1), 140-153.

Keywords