Purpose: Evaluate the psychometric properties of the French version of the short 19-item Team Climate Inventory (TCI) and explore the contributions of individual and organizational characteristics to perceived team effectiveness.
Method: The TCI was completed by 471 of the 618 (76.2%) healthcare professionals and administrative staff working in a random sample of 37 primary care practices in the province of Quebec.
Results: Exploratory factor analysis confirmed the original four-factor model. Cronbach's alphas were excellent (from 0.88 to 0.93). Latent class analysis revealed three-class response structure. Respondents in practices with professional governance had a higher probability of belonging to the "High TCI" class than did practices with community governance (36.7% vs. 19.1%). Administrative staff tended to fall into the "Suboptimal TCI" class more frequently than did physicians (36.5% vs. 19.0%).
Conclusion: Results confirm the validity of our French version of the short TCI. The association between professional governance and better team climate merits further exploration.