Date of Award
2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Applied Experimental Psychology
Committee Chair
Kristin Weger
Committee Member
Nicholas Loyd
Committee Member
Lauren Meaux
Committee Member
Bryan Mesmer
Committee Member
Jodi Price
Research Advisor
Kristin Weger
Subject(s)
Corporate culture, Organizational behavior, Business enterprises--Cost control--Social aspects, Business enterprises--Cost control--Technology
Abstract
Affordability has been a key directive in engineering projects as organizations seek to develop larger and more complex systems on stable or reduced budgets. This dissertation proposes a socio-technical framework of affordability to evaluate current affordability practices in organizations. Socio-technical frameworks have been used in complex organizations due to the ability to examine both social aspects as well as technical aspects as interconnected organizational components, yet previous research is lacking when attempting to approach affordability from this perspective. This research aimed to bridge this gap by validating a survey that examines affordability from both social and technical perspectives to gain a deeper understanding of the dimensionality of affordability in organizations. Using survey data from NASA MSFC, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to examine the dimensionality of affordability, while measurement invariance testing was implemented using a separate set of data obtained through the online participant recruitment platform CloudResearch. Results from this dissertation indicated that while the dimensions of the survey were not socio-technical in nature, a unidimensional survey focusing on affordability culture was validated. This validation also held up during measurement invariance testing, indicating validation across differing group types. This dissertation provided a novel approach to affordability in addition to a validated affordability survey, allowing those in leadership and management positions to apply a similar approach to evaluate strengths and weaknesses related to their organization’s affordability practices.
Recommended Citation
Yeazitzis, Taylor, "Affordability culture in practice : survey validation through a socio-technical lens" (2025). Dissertations. 467.
https://louis.uah.edu/uah-dissertations/467