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Organizational Climate

Organizational Climate – An Analogy


Organizational climate is a measure of the feel of the internal environment of an organization which is perceived by an outsider and/or an employee according to their business with the organization.

Organizational climate has a great effect on employees’ behavior. If the climate of an organization is open and friendly, employees feel relaxed and if it is very formal, then such a comfort level may not be felt.

Climate for an organization is somewhat like personality for a person.

“Just as every individual has a personality that makes him/her unique, an organization has a climate that clearly distinguishes its personality from other organizations.

Human religionists introduced the concept of organizational climate in the late 1940’s. Now this has become a very useful metaphor for thinking about and describing the social aspects of a firm.

Some definitions:

“A set of characteristics that describe an organization and that

i. Distinguish one organization from another

ii. Are relatively enduring over a period of time and

iii. Influence the behavior of people in the organization.” – Forehand and Gilmber

“A mutually agreed internal (or molar) environmental description of an organization’s practices and procedures.” – Benjamin Schneider (1975)

“A relatively ending quality of the internal environment that is experienced by the members, which influences their behavior and can describe in terms of values of a particular set of characteristics of the organization.” – Renato Tagiuri (1968)

organizational climate

Features:

  1. It is an abstract and intangible concept. But it exercises a significant impact on the behavior and performance of organization members.
  2. It is the perceived aspect of organization’s internal environment.
  3. It refers to the relatively enduring characteristics which remain stable over a period of time.
  4. It gives a distinct identity to organization and differentiates it from others.
  5. It is a total expression of what the organization is. It is the summary perception which people have about organizations.
  6. It is a multi-dimensional concept. It consists of all organizational factors – authority pattern, leadership pattern, communication pattern, control etc.

 Elements of Organizational Climate:

Individual Autonomy: The extent to which employees are entrusted with to make decisions, the degree to which they are free to manage themselves and have the freedom to exercise their responsibility come under the purview of individual autonomy.

Position Structure: It means the extent of direct supervision, formalization and centralization in an organization.

Reward Orientation: The degree to which an organization rewards individuals for hard work or achievement. It will be high when an organization orients people to perform better and rewards them for doing so.

Task Orientation: If the outlook of the top management is task oriented, the employees will have to speed up the pace of work to please their bosses.

Relations Orientation or Consideration: Here the climate is conducive and supportive where the managers are relations-oriented while dealing with their sub-ordinates.

The needs and aspirations of the workers will be given due importance resulting in enhanced team spirit.

How organizational climate influences employee behavior

Organizational Climate

Job Satisfaction: The workers feel happy if the jobs are designed to allow the worker to use their innovative skills.

Morale: Morale represents a composite of feelings, attitude and sentiments of organizational members towards the organization, superiors and fellow workers.

If it is high, there will be an atmosphere of co-operation and if it is low, there will be conflicts and poor co-operation among the workers. They will also feel dis-oriented in their work.

Control: The control systems may be either rigid or flexible. An impersonal or bureaucratic atmosphere is seen in the former situation where the scope of self-regulation will be minimum.

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