31 Organizational Climate

DR.Geeta Sachdev

1. Learning Objectives:

Basic objectives of this module are:

To understand the Concept &meaning of Organizational Climate To understand the difference between Culture & Climate

To know the factors, dimensions & importance of Organizational Climate. To know how to develop a sound Organizational Climate

2. Introduction

Concept of Organizational Climate

Before knowing the meaning of organizational climate, firstly understand the idea of climate.

“Climate in usual sense is stated as the consistent course or condition of the weather at a place over a time as exhibited by temperature, velocity rainfall and wind.”

The notion of organizational climate was originally adapted by the human religionists in the late 1940s. Today it has become an actual treasured metaphor for clarifying the social system. It is also described as the “situational determinants” or “Environmental determinants” which shake the human behaviour.

Basically, organizational climate replicates a human’s perception of the society to which he belongs. It is a set of selected features and structures that are recognised by the employees about their organizations which works as an important force in manipulating their behaviour. Hence, organizational climate in a wide sense can be expected as the social setting of the organization.

Climate of an organization is similar to the personality of a person. Like as each person has a personality that marks him special and varied from other persons. Each organization has an organizational climate that clearly distinguishes it from other organizations.

Meaning & Definition

According to Forehand and Gilmer, “Climate encompasses of a set of characteristics that define an organization, differentiate it from other organizations are comparatively lasting over time and influence the behaviour of people in it.”

According to Campbell, “Organizational climate can be demarcated as a set of attributes specific to a specific organization that may be induced from the mode that organization deals with its members and its environment. For the individual members within the organization, climate takes the form of a set of attitudes and experiences which label the organization in terms of both static characteristics (such as degree of autonomy) and behaviour outcome and outcome- outcome possibilities.”

Hellriegel and Slocum (1974) stated Organizational Climate as “a set of attributes which can be perceived about particular organisation and / or its subsystems, and that may be induced from the way that organisation and / or its subsystems deal with their members and environment”.

Though most of the authors have used it as an expressive concept, others have used it for categorising organizations into classes. For example, Burns and Stalker (1961) elucidate organic versus mechanical climates, while Likert (1967) proposes four types of climates: Exploitive, Benevolent, Consultative, and Participative. Such structures usually practice defined categories. Only one framework, suggested by Litwin and Stringer (1968), emphasizes the consequence of organizational climate on the motivation of its fellows.

Organizational climate can be delineated as employees’ shared perceptions or experiences of the policies, practices, and processes of their workplace and the behaviours that get rewarded, supported, and predictable. Climate happens at the group or organization level of analysis. While the perceptions exist in individuals, they state as to share contextual phenomena, such as organizational routines, and measured in the collective they specify group or organization phenomena. The worth of the concept has been due in part to its capability to capture the human experience in organizations – how organizations appear and feel to members – and also to the fact that such shared perceptions are found to be associated to significant unit outcomes, mainly when climate is operationalized in terms of strategic goals of the organization. Organizational climate research has its origins in Lewin, Lippitt, and White’s (1939) idea that leaders, by their behaviour, produce characteristic patterns of behaviour and attitudes on the part of followers.

Henceforth, organizational climate is a somewhat an on-going quality of the interior environment that is shared by its members, influences their deeds and can be considered in terms of the value of a specific set of features of the organization. It may be possible to have as numerous climates as there are persons in the organization when measured jointly, the activities of the persons become more significant for observing the whole influence upon the climate and defining the stability of the work environment. The climate should be observed from a whole system viewpoint. Though there may be differences in climates inside departments these will be integrated to a definite degree to signify overall organizational climate.

3. Difference between Culture and Climate

Some peoples have used organizational culture and organizational climate interchangeably. But there are some elementary variances amid these two terms.

According to Bowditch and Buono, “Organizational culture is associated with the nature of beliefs and expectations about organizational life, though climate is an indicator of whether these beliefs and expectations are being fulfilled.”

Trice and Beyer (1993) described culture in terms of what it is not. It is not climate that is measured with researcher-based data, while culture is measured by strong data collection of an emic (contrastive)nature.

Reflecting the concerns of both Schneider (1990) and Glick(1988). He described numerous varied variables have been involved under the climate notion by several researchers that it covers with most concepts in organisational behaviour as well as with structure, technology, formalization and effectiveness. Denison (1996) took what he deliberated to be a more debateable opinion in dissenting that it is not sure that culture and climate are distinct organizational aspects.

Culture researchers were more concerned with the development of social systems over the period of time, whereas climate researchers were mainly less concerned with development but more apprehensive with the effect that organizational systems have on groups and individual. Culture researchers debated for the importance of deep indispensable expectations.

Climate researchers in difference, usually placed larger emphasize on organisational member’s perceptions of obvious practices and techniques that are closer to the surface of organizational life and classification of these practices and perceptions into logical dimensions explained by the researcher (Denison 1996).

4. Climate Formation

Source: Adapted from Ashforth, 1985.

5. Nature of Organizational Climate

The nature of organizational climate will be obvious from the following points:

General Perception: Organisational climate is usually a manifestation of what the organisation is. It is the summary of perception which people carry about the organisation. It carries the impression that employees have of the organisational internal environment within which they work.

Abstract and Intangible Concept: Organisational climate is a qualitative concept. It is very hard to explain the mechanisms of organisational climate in measureable or quantifiable units.

Unique and Distinct Identity: Organisational climate provides a distinct uniqueness to the organisation. It clarifies how one organisation is dissimilar from other organisations.

Durable Quality: Organisational climate build up over a period of time. It specifies a comparatively continuing quality of the inside environment that is shared by the organisational members.

Multi-Dimensional Concept: Organisational climate is a multi- dimensional notion. Numerous aspects of the organisational climate are distinct autonomy, degree of conflicts and cooperation, authority structure, leadership style, pattern of communication, etc.

Climate is valuable to understand and measure because there are organisational and human benefits of a ‘good’ climate, and dominant disadvantages of ‘bad’ climate.

‘Bad’ Climate has been related to:

Turnover Stress

Sickness

Poor performance Error Rate

Wastage Accidents

‘Good’ Climate has been connected to:

Job Satisfaction

Confidence in Management Affective Commitment

Emotional Exhaustion Faith in Organisation Performance

7. Factors Affecting Organisational Climate

Lawrence James. R and Allan Jones (1974) have classified the factors affecting Climate and they grouped these factors under five heads:

Organisational Context: The first and main significant factor that affects the climate is the management attitude. If the organization is dedicated to such a policy that it can effectively uses its resources human as well as non-human, then it can be established that the climate is good.

Organisational Structure: Structure of the organisation is another variable that affects climate. It needs no relationships and describes authority and functional responsibility.

Process: In all organisations there are certain procedures are lively so that it runs. Communication, decision-making, motivation and leadership are some of the very imperative procedures though which the management carries outfits purposes.

Physical Environment: The external conditions of environment, the size and location of the building in which an employee works, the size of the city, weather or the place all interrupt the organisational climate.

System values and norms: Every organisation has apparent and justly tangible formal value system where definite classes of behaviours are remunerated and encouraged and certain types of behaviour forces an individual to proper sanctions. The formal value system is communicated to employees through rules, regulations and policies.

8. Dimensions of Organisational Climate

People in organisations encounter thousands of happenings, practices and procedures; they identify these events in related sets. Henceforth, as suggested by Schneider and Reichers (1983), work settings have several climates and these climates are for service, safety as a climate for attainment. As climate is a multi-dimensional concept, one should view organisational climate not as “It” but a set of “Its”, individually with a specific referent (Garett, Henry. E. 1866). What are the dimensions of organisational climate? It is certainly astonishing those two decades of substantial research effort there is yet no clearance about a shared set of dimensions of organisational climate. It is hard to ponder any one set as typical. All can be categorized into three broad groups as follows (Goyal, R.P. 1973):

• Leadership function
• Structural properties
• Employee satisfaction

Leadership Function:

Proper actions of the administrators that are projected to inspire employees, comprising formal systems of reward, punishment, incentive pay plans, communication programmes, the quality of leadership provided by the top management and the subsequent supervision implemented by the middle and lower levels of the managerial hierarchy, etc.

Structural Properties:

Features of the whole organisation or sub-organisational units in terms of size, span of management, degree of decentralization, line-staff structure, number of levels in the organisational hierarchy and shape of organisation etc.

Employee Satisfaction:

Attitudes, moods of fellow employee, job experience, organisation, etc. are justly comprehensive. A few researchers have taken all classes in reviewing organisational climate. Amongst those who have done so, has studied each and every part incorporated under the three heads. In practice, therefore, various writers have used different amalgamations and permutations with the outcome that everybody has ended up studying organisational climate somewhat inversely from others. In the absence of an settled upon list of dimensions of organisational climate, researchers in this field have acted in a pretty much ad hoc manner. Maybe it is also due to the absence of a definite organisational theory, that expresses which dimensions of organisational climate effect organisational behaviour.

Numerous authors have recommended various dimensions of organisational climate. Some of these are stated: Likert (1967), Leadership, motivation, communication, decisions, goal and control. Litwin and Stringer (1968), Conformity, responsibility, standard rewards, organisational clarity, warmth and support, leadership. Prakasam (1979),Conformity, sharing in decision-making, supervision (task orientation, people orientation, bureau crating orientation), responsibility, reward(financial, non-financial) promotion, team spirit, and standard. Sharma(1988) has stressed numerous dimension as supervisory-management relations, scope for advancement, grievance handling, monetary benefits, participative management, objectivity and rationality, recognition and appreciation, safety and security, training and education, welfare facilities. Schneider and Bartlett (1968) had projected four organisational climate dimensions, (i) Individual autonomy – centred on the factors of individual responsibility, agent independence, rules orientation and opportunities for exercising individual initiative. (ii) The degree of structure imposed upon the position – based on the factors of structure, managerial structure and the closeness of supervision. (iii) Reward Orientation – based upon the factors of reward, general satisfaction, promotional-achievement orientation, and being profit minded and sales oriented and (iv) Consideration, warmth and support – based upon the factors of managerial support, nurturing of subordinates and warmth and support.

Zammuto and Krackover (1991)stated the seven dimensions of climate into the challenging values framework and in that way created four diverse climate types which they labelled: 1- The Group Climate, 2-The Developmental Climate, 3-The Rational Goal Climate and 4-The Internal Process Climate. He also measured climate expending the following dimensions:

Trust: An organisation has a great level of trust when the persons are exposed, sharing and honest, where individuals show their confidence. An organisation has a trivial level of trust when the individuals are closed, secured, hard-hearted, deceitful, and creates an atmosphere of anxiety and vagueness.

Conflict: An organisation has a great level of conflict when there is a high level of divergence of forces, goals and thoughts, which are experienced in friction and dissimilarities amongst the individuals. An organisation has a little level of conflict when there is concurrence in objectives, beliefs, which yields a spirit of teamwork amongst the individuals.

Morale: An organisation has a high degree of employee morale when the individuals are self-assured and obsessive about the organisation–an Esprit de Corps. An organisation has a low degree of employee morale when the individuals lack self-confidence and keenness about the organisation and individuals lack a sense of drive and assurance about the future.

Rewards: An organisation is said to be neutral in its rewards when employees take rewards as fair and just lacking bias or feverish. An organisation is considered to be partial in its rewards when individuals see amorism, bias, and non-work related standards as the base for rewards.

Resistance to change: An organisation has a high confrontation to change when individuals trust the inertia is great and believe that “we will do things tomorrow as we did them today.”

An organisation has a low level of confrontation to change when individuals take change as the usual context and enjoy that “tomorrow will be dissimilar.”

Leader credibility: The leader reliability is high when individuals have self-reliance in its leadership; there is a sense of appreciation, motivation and welcome of decisions and actions. The leader trustworthiness is low when the individuals lack appreciation and do not admit the validity of authority.

Scapegoating: An organisation has a high level of condemning when individuals trust that the answerability for actions will be moved to others – top management, staff, employees, or outcasts. An organisation has a low level of scapegoating when individuals trust that the accountable individuals accept the responsibility for the failure of actions.

The organizational climate can move the human behaviour in the organization through an influence on their performance, satisfaction and attitudes. There are four mechanisms by which climate affect the behaviour of the employees.

Constraint System: It can act as a restraint system in both the positive and negative sense. It can be finished by providing information to the employees about what type of conduct will be remunerated, punished or mistreated. Therefore, behaviour can be influenced by varying degrees of rewards and punishments.

Evaluation of self and others: Organizational variables may affect behaviour through assessment of self and others. In this procedure both the physiological and psychological variables will be linked. Such evaluation will influence the human behaviour.

By acting as Stimuli: Organizational factors can affect human behaviour by acting as stimuli. As stimuli they affect individual’s stimulation level, which is motivational variable guiding human behaviour. The level of arousal will straight influence the level of activation and hence performance.

By helping the individual to form a perception: Organizational factors affect the behaviour by assisting the individual in creating a perception of the organizations. The perception then effects behaviour.

Therefore, good organizational climate is helpful to improve employee satisfaction, better human relations and higher productivity.

10. Developing a sound Organizational Climate

To build up thorough organizational climate is a long run scheme. Organizational climate trusts upon organizational behaviour. The following techniques are typically helpful in recuperating the climate of the organization.

Effective Communication System: There should be two way communications in the organization so that the employees recognize what is going on and answer to it.

Apprehension for people: the management should be involved in the human resource development. It should try for happiness of employees and the improvement in their working conditions.

Participative Decision Making: The management should involve the employees in decision making process, mostly those decisions which are related with goal setting and have an effect on them.

Change in policies, procedures and rules: the organizational climate can also be transformed by creating changes in policies, procedures and rules.

Technological changes: Generally, the workers and employees resist any creative changes. But where technological changes improve the working conditions of employees, the changes will simply be recognized. Better climate will be there if the management accepts inventive changes in discussion with employees.

11. Summary

Organisational Climate has a greatest significant influence in human performance through its effect on individual motivation and job satisfaction. It performs this by permitting certain kinds of expectations about what consequences will track from different actions. Individual in the organisation have certain viewpoints and execution of these viewpoints lies on their perceptions as to how the organisational climate outfits to the contentment of their prerequisites. These organisational climates provide a kind of working environment in which employees feels gratified or displeased. Since satisfaction of employee drives an extensive way in modelling his ability. Organisational Climate can also be supposed that it is directly associated with his performance in the organisation. There are four aspects through which organisational climate effect performance, satisfaction& attitudes of employees in the organisation. Khan et al. (1951) have recognised five features, which affect individual performance in organisation. There are procedures orientations, the nurturance of assistants, supervision diversity and promotion attainment orientation.

Numerous administrators comprehend that the richest possessions and the hardest difficulties of an organisation are its people. People give business with its larger strengths and, at the same time want management to do its greatest creative thinking. In an organisation, each section or work group might have special climate. The atmosphere of one, for example is anxious since of the existence of a demanding boss and a lot of restless employees. In another place, the pervading atmosphere is contented and greeting since the boss is a passionately ripe leader and the employees are serene and co-operative. The organisational climate in industry is so important that everybody should be vigilant of its consequences. Although intangible, organisational climate is a real occurrence. In each organisation there occur elements that workout the profound influence on the prevalent climate. In some organisation certain aspects like structure or process plays a key role, whereas in others the level of technology might be a foremost influential aspect in climate. Climate can influence motivation,performance, job satisfaction & quality of work life. It performs this by producing definite types of expectations about what consequences will follow from different actions. Employees presume certain rewards and satisfactions, on the base of their perception of the organisations climate. These expectations incline to lead to organisational climate. A sound climate is a long-run intention.

REFERENCES:-

• A handbook of Human Resource Management Practice by Michael Armstrong, 10th edition. Published by Kogan page.
• Human Resource Management, Text and Cases by V S P. Rao (2005), 2nd Edition, Published by Anurag Jain, New Delhi.
• Managing Human Resource by Wayne F. Cascio and Ranjeet Nambudiri, 8th edition. Published by Mcgraw Hill.
• Organisation Behaviour by Aswathappa. K (2005), , Text and Cases, 6th Edition, Himalaya Publishing House, New Delhi.
• Organizational Behaviour by Shashi K. Gupta and Rosy Joshi, published by Kalyani publishers.
• Organizational Behaviour-Managing People & Organizations by Griffin & Moorehead, 11th edition, Cengage Learning.
• Organizational Behaviour by Stephen P. Robbins, 13th edition, Pearson Education.
• http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/23217/7/07_chapter%202.pdf
• http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.2333-8504.1968.tb00998.x/pdf
• https://tsnghia.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/chap07.pdf
• http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/organization/organisational-climate-meaning-characteristics-and-factors/53226/