Measuring Perceptions of Organizational Change1

This study measured the effects of organizational changes taking place over a six-year period on residents' perceptions of a maximum-security juvenile institution. Four of six scales measuring institutional impact were able to discriminate signifi cantly between three different organizational time periods and also between six different years of release of 426 residents. Staff perceptions of the institution's impact on the residents moved in the same direction as those of the residents, but not as strongly. Evidence suggests that the construction of impact scales to measure institutional climate may have a potentially significant input to the understanding of our institutions and their effects on their clients. The efficiency of such impact scales, however, would appear to depend on factors not now considered in their construction.