CREATING THE RIGHT ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE- THE WAY AHEAD
Prakash Londhe
INTRODUCTION
Organizational climate which manage to provoke adequately for articulated needs and sometimes surprise employees with unexpected delighters are likely to be perceived as benign. Delighters quickly become articulated needs and then basic expectations. This is one powerful way in which psychological contract changes and develops over time. There is necessity for understanding employee’s needs and this requires continuous communication and goodwill on both sides.
An organizational climate can directly account for 30 per cent of the variance in key business performance measures. The more present certain organizational or leadership practices are in a given work environment, the more energized and productive the work force. Many factors go to make up an employee’s perception of his or her organization’s HRM policies. Some of these factors are determined quite remotely from the individual. Although they may feel personal to the individual on the receiving end the interaction is with corporate entity. The influence of these factors on organizational climate is important. But the strongest factor is employee’s interaction with his or her immediate supervisor. Good managers create good climate while poor manager create poor climates. Both affect performance.
Climate studies tells you the current health of your organization – has it been weakened from late restructurings or management changes or is it fit for new challenges? What are the critical issues that influence your particular organization and what are the most relevant cures for improving its health conditions?
When doing climate studies we cooperate with The Great Place to Work Institute and they apply their Trust Index and Cultural Audit. The core of these tools is the measurement of Trust, Respect, Fairness, Pride and Camaraderie in the organization. A survey tool measures the current level of Trust, Respect, Fairness, Pride and Camaraderie and the results can be benchmarked against more than 4,000 organizations worldwide.
Present HR policies are evaluated as well and concluding the Climate studies examples of Best Practices in different areas of HR policies and programs can be supplied for inspiration and further discussion. A climate study concludes by a written report analyzing the strength and weaknesses of the organization and proposals for improving the workplace. Often presentations of the study are made for the management team and discussions of relevant cures for improving the health of the organization is facilitated
The correlations between climate and performance cannot be explained by their common dependence on HRM factors, and that the data are consistent with a mediation model in which the effects of HRM practices on business performance are partially mediated by work climate.
There are three levels of satisfaction which are necessary for organizational climate. First people’s basic expectations must meet otherwise they will inevitably be dissatisfied to some degree. If their dissatisfaction doesn’t already arise from some specific cause, they will likely to be focusing some aspects of workplace life which they might otherwise have taken in their stride. There will still be needs that people have from working life which are unmet. One real difficulty with meeting basic an expectation is that they are often unspoken or even unrecognized by the people themselves, it just doesn’t feel right if they are going unmet.
Second people have articulated needs. Things they know about and they can express. These are often on a kind of sliding scale of more the better. But without preset value which determines the point at which dissatisfaction changes to satisfaction. Lastly there are latent needs. These are things people aren’t really aware that they need so their absence is not really noticed. But whose presence is noticed and evokes a delighted reaction. In the commercial world of products and services features that address latent needs are sometimes called delighters.
In recent years there has been increasing emphasis on the importance of strategy implementation and execution. For instance, resource-based view theorists now recognize that “the ability to implement strategies is, by itself, a resource that can be a source of competitive advantage. Within the field of strategic human resources management, “the challenge is to operational the process of strategy implementation, so that it can provide a useful guide to empirical work”.
From the psychological, social and economic bases of organization, it has been derived a series of qualitatively testable propositions which lead to the identification of eight dimensions of organizational climate.
Free expression of ideas
Free expression of concerns
Freedom to questions especially decisions and policies determined more senior people
Participation: genuine participation in defining goals and objective
Intrinsic satisfaction
Innovation
Purposive threat
Environmental threat
These eight dimensions fall into two groups. The first six are positive factors and are largely associated with individual autonomy, responsibility and control. These are collectively known as voluntarism. In general terms the more voluntarism there is better the climate will feel to most people in workplace. However this is always likely to be a moving target. The six factors collectively called voluntarism are positive and likely to improve perception of climate.
The last two however are negative and are likely to depress the perception of climate as benign. Threat inn general sense means the anticipation of impending change to a state less favorable than the status quo. Threats come in two kinds environmental threats refer to natural events forces or change in society which are not being controlled by anyone. When we perceive our self as being subject to this kind of threat we are likely to feel insecure and worried about the future. In the workplace this can also lead to doubts about the continuous of the context. Purposive threats are those which are directed quite consciously at individuals or groups with the intension of making them do something specific. It is actually quite common in organizational life even in western liberal democracies for purposive threats to form a part standard repertoire of management technique.
1. Free expression of ideas
Action to improve this factor usually focuses on the removal of obstacles. If they have interest at all in what do for living, people can’t help having ideas about it. If those ideas aren’t reaching places where they can be developed and put to productive use. It is almost always because something is getting in the way. Formal suggestion schemes certainly are not only means by which ideas can be expresses in the workplace. In some ways formal mechanism like this are less than ideal, although they may be the only practical way to implement on organization wide policy. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question cause or movement may be explored. The most effective communication results when managers utilize the informal organization to supplement the communication channels of the formal organization.
It should be remembered that it is a part of the manager’s job to have a little control over this informal communication so that he can take the appropriate action to minimize the adverse effect of this channel. Organizational climate is very important in the context of communication.
Organizational climate is the summary perception which people have about an organization. It is thus a global expression of what the organization is. Both formal as well as informal communication channels are used to communicate with the employees. In addition to following written communication, oral and nonverbal communication should be relied upon. In addition to downward communication to communicate rules, procedures and programs of the organization to employees, employees should also be encouraged to communicate to their superiors. In order to make use of team work, all channels of communication or star communication pattern should be encouraged. Interpersonal communication should be encouraged with a view to develop interpersonal relations. Employees should also be encouraged to develop effective and active listening skills. Organizational climate refers to a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations. Ideas can and will be expresses, though; informally so long as someone is willing to listen and respond positively to then. Managers who show by their everyday behaviour that they welcome and value the contributions of their people will almost certainly find that the flow of ideas never dries up.
2. Free expression of concerns
A concern indicates that something is perceived to be wrong. On the whole people don’t like to tell their bosses that they think something isn’t right because it sounds negative. This gets even worse when the concern is about something which affects the individual because then it doesn’t sound good. All the same, if concerns can’t be expressed, and addressed, they don’t just go away. Instead they can simmer and ferment until they develop into serious issues. Because of this a competent manager makes a positive effort to let people let know that they can raise concerns whenever they feel uncomfortable about anything. And that such expression of concern will be treated as positive inputs to the proper functioning of the organization.
However for most types of concern formal mechanism like this aren’t relevant. If the main objective is to deal with small concerns before they become serious, then a willingness to listen and respond is by far the most effective approach. Like all management behaviour, this has to be sincere and consistent or it will fail. The certain amount of patience is needed to implement this policy; some people seem to have their faire share of concerns, but this is really the only cost to set against the considerable benefits.
3. Freedom to questions
In ancient Rome a victorious general who was awarded Triumph rode in his chariot through the city’s street, escorted by his soldiers, military bands, captive and loot and surrounded by cheering crowds. Riding at his side would be a slave who continually whispered in his ear. ‘Remember you are only a man’. This shows that the equivalent for senior people in the modern organization would be an executive toy which repeated at intervals: You make mistakes like everyone else and everyone you meet knows things you don’t know. Questioning serves two purposes. The first one is to clarify. If people understand clearly what their managers are trying to achieve. They can contribute much more effectively to successful outcomes. They can also work much more independently, without constant references back to check that they are doing what’s required and to ask what they should do next. The second value of questioning is to draw attention to risks and errors before they lead to serious consequences.
4. Participation in defining goals and objectives
There are plenty of good reasons why people should be encouraged to participate in defining the goals and objective that they are to be asked to achieve at work. One reason is quite simply that it produces better outcomes. Another reason why people should have a say in what they are asked to achieve is that it’s good for their health. The key demand on managers is that try continually the amount of participation by their people but respect individuals comfort levels. This requires observation and active listening and flexibility which is all quite hard work but the effort is well worthwhile.
5. Intrinsic satisfaction from the work itself
Everyone wants to enjoy their work. For most people enjoyment in this context is actually quite a complex mixture of involvement, challenges, feedback, usefulness, reward, continuity, variety and relationship. Organizations are not primarily designed to provide their employees with enjoyment or satisfaction but this doesn’t mean that there is any incompatibility between the organization’s primary task, whatever that may be, and the satisfaction employees may derive from their work. When people can’t derive satisfaction from their work they become frustrated denominated and sometimes resentful. They may also suffer from stress- related health problems.
Human beings can be proactive and engaged or, alternatively, passive and alienated, largely as a function of the social conditions in which they develop and function. Accordingly, research guided by self-determination theory has focused on the social-contextual conditions that facilitate versus forestall the natural processes of self-motivation and healthy psychological development. Specifically, factors have been examined that enhance versus undermine intrinsic motivation, self-regulation, and well-being. The findings have led to the postulate of three innate psychological needs--competence, autonomy, and relatedness, which when satisfied yield enhanced self-motivation and mental health and when thwarted lead to diminished motivation and well-being. Also considered is the significance of these psychological needs and processes within domains such as health care, education, work, sport, religion, and psychotherapy.
6. Innovation- the freedom to try new concepts and new approaches
One of the defining characteristic of our society is our ingenuity our ability to solve problems by applying new methods, new technology, new techniques and new concepts. As soon as we accept the human beings have a certain characteristics. Whatever it may be, we tactically acknowledge that deny that characteristic expression is likely to have adverse consequences for the individual concerned. People need to try new things and to rest out new ways of doing things. At the organization level no organization can survive without innovation for longer period. In recent years there has been increasing emphasis on the importance of strategy implementation and execution. For instance, resource-based view theorists now recognize that “the ability to implement strategies is, by itself, a resource that can be a source of competitive advantage. Within the field of strategic human resources management, “the challenge is to operational the process of strategy implementation, so that it can provide a useful guide to empirical work”.
There must be an adaptive process that allows the organization to take on board new ideas can translate them into practical results. Although it might be tempting to trace a direct link between individual freedom to innovate and the organizational need for innovation there are very important differences. At the organization level innovation can be a highly controlled process involving a series of steps from idea generation through validation and careful planning and on to implementation.
Coaching and mentoring interventions that include feedback focused on specific aspects of ethical conduct will further reduce ambiguity of ethical events, help increase ethical awareness among employees, and direct attention to appropriate ways to address ethical issues. Moreover, these interventions will communicate that the organization supports these behaviors and expects members to view them as the accepted way of doing business. The development and motivation of subordinates is an important aspect of the leadership process.
Leaders can provide coaching and mentoring support to members regarding their ethical conduct, then develop and motivate ethical conduct among members. As a coach, leaders provide front-end guidance and instruction on ethical values, then follow-up by providing feedback on the handling of assignments and specific aspect of performance. Coaching should also address how employees are handling ethical issues. A key feature of coaching is individualized instruction, which allows coaches to attend to specific areas of difficulty and provide the kinds of feedback that are most beneficial to subordinates. It has been found that feedback interventions were most effective when the focus of feedback was on task-specific events and less effective when the focused moved away from the task details and more toward self-related events.
Innovation by individual employees or groups of employees can often be a great deal less formal and in specific context of innovation as a climate factor it is this informal freedom to try things out which probably has the strongest influence on perception of climate. Innovation implies risk. When new things are tried they don’t always work. Freedom to innovate doesn’t imply total license to take wild uncontrolled risks and it doesn’t imply that management is absolved of responsibility for the consequences when things go wrong. The responsible approach to employee’s freedom to innovate is to set boundaries and exercise light touch control. It’s a compromise like most of life. When people are free to do things on their own way, which implies trying out new things, from time to time. They feel a greater sense of ownership of what they do. Denial of this freedom saps commitment and motivation.
7. Purposive threats
Purposive threats are directed at individuals to coerce them in to doing something, doing more of something, doing something better or, occasionally, to stop doing something. They come in to two kinds: those that are intended as threats and are perceived as such and those that are perceived as such, and those that are perceived as threats but were not actually intended that way. Since the perception of threat is a subjective function of the recipient, the effects of both kinds are much the same.
It has been established that purposive threats are very ineffective way of improving performance and they can extremely damaging to overall perception of climate. It follows then that where enquires- whether by means of observation, surveys or some other method- show that there is a perception by individual employees that they are subject to such threats. It is in the interest of managers to do what they can to change the perception.
All kinds of incentive schemes, formal or informal are subject to dual interpretation. It would be going too far to suggest that it is always a mistake to offer incentives, but it would be going too far to suggest that it’s always a mistake to offer incentives, but it does always carry risk. Perception can change over time, so that something that started out as genuine incentives come to regarded as a basic expectations. The possibility of incentive being withheld is almost sure to be seen as a form of threat. On the whole, I would advise that reward should be based on overall contribution and special incentives should be rare.
8. Environmental threat:
Of all the climate factors this is the one which managers are least likely to be able to control. Environmental threats are threats which are not explicitly directed at, and are not explicitly intended to coerce, the individual or individual who experience them or to procure any specific behaviour.
They may arise from natural events, from pressures in society which are not being directed by intelligence, or some form causes or policies determined remotely from the affected individuals so that for practical purpose they might just as well be undirected. All of which means that individual managers close to the people who are affected by the perception of the such threats are almost by definition remote from the resource of the threat. This may mean that they are powerless to influence the source of the threat, although this isn’t always the case. Sometimes it may be possible for the change agent to intercede with senior managers to point out effects on individuals of policy or decision and request some modification.
The most effective way to address this and mitigate its effect on organizational climate is to consult people and keep them informed. If the people feel that their voice is being heard and at the most basic level the people making decisions which may affect their well being are actually aware of there existence. What happens to them the fear which change generates can be reduced.
The Climate for Success
Today’s organizations are complex, quickly changing, financially pressured and typically facing more work with less people. Organizational climate shows a powerful link between feelings and performance. Assessing customer service, productivity, and retention, our most recent study finds 57.7% of the difference between low and high performance is predicted by five climate factors plus trust. In other words, climate is a bell-weather for financial and programmatic success.
When employees feel good about coming to work, they perform better. When they are disengaged, energy drops, quality suffers, communication is compromised, and good people start looking to leave the organization. These feelings are costly, both in immediate financial loss and in longer-term impact on the organization’s reputation that come with reduced quality and lost customer/client relationships. Fortunately, there are sophisticated, low cost, and creative methods to improve and maintain this essential area of organizational viability.
The first requirement is: organizational leaders ready to commit to the belief that a healthy and positive climate is a strategic priority. Today, the “people side” is not a “soft” area that gets attention when business is booming. Climate is one of the top, if not the highest priority, of the best leaders. Great leaders provide a “container” that incubates exceptional performance.
All too often, leaders become isolated from their teams – they don’t have close relationships with the people two or three layers down. This gap can easily become a source of distrust and organizational dysfunction that impinges on the organization’s ability to provide superior services. In two independent studies of multi-state behavioral health organizations, for example, there were significant gaps between the way executives and others experience the organization. After measuring the climate and finding a need for improved accountability and collaboration, we focused leaders on connecting and following through in an “emotionally intelligent” way. Walking through a facility and eating lunch with line staff is not enough – both intention and action are required. Thornton executed a simple strategy: Listen to people, identify their needs, commit to meeting the needs, and then deliver. At the same time as tactical needs are being met, attention to the underlying emotional needs is key. Employees who care about their jobs and their clients have good ideas, they are committed, they want to be part of the team, and they want you to hear them.
While each of the subsystems serves a different function, all functions play a role in the management of a climate regarding ethics. The importance of typical Human Resource functions such as entry, socialization/training, compensation/rewards, and effectiveness criteria, in the creation and maintenance of an organizational climate for service. While this is the essential point of their chapter, they also noted the interdependence of Human Resources and other organizational functions, including Strategic Planning, Marketing, and Operations Management. The Systems perspective for the creation of a service climate opposed to viewing customer service as the responsibility of solely the Marketing or Human Resource departments. Organizational members will only believe that the organization puts customers first when the organization's efforts as a whole are consistent with this principle.
The same logic can clearly be applied to a climate regarding ethics. The formal responsibilities for the establishment and implementation of ethical policies and practices will likely fall within the Legal and/or Human Resource functions. Yet, ethical practices will only become engrained across organizational members if collective organizational efforts are consistent with these principles. Training and socialization programs are important in the creation of climate regarding ethics; however such programs do not exist independently of other Human Resource functions or the rest of the organization. Therefore, only through focused, integrative organizational leadership endeavors across levels and across functions efforts to create consistency throughout the organization with regard to ethics will the organization be able to create and maintain a strong, unified climate regarding ethics.
Many organizations are beginning to make use of one or a few of these strategies, but few are approaching climate regarding ethics as something to develop to prevent subsequent difficulties, rather than as something to develop in the wake of ethical infractions. We obviously advocate the former. This influence of leaders occurs in several ways. First, leaders directly influence behavior by establishing quid pro quo relationships with followers, such that followers enter into contractual-type exchange relationships with leaders. Subordinates carry out the directives of the leader simply because of their expectation of . Second, leaders influence values (and thereby behavior) by establishing and maintaining the norms of the organization, including norms associated with ethics and ethical behavior. Third, leaders may be emulated by subordinates who admire them. Fourth, leaders can serve as role models for subordinates who see a leader behave in a certain way and recognize the rightness of that behavior.
The subordinates then adopt that standard as their own not because of admiration for the leader, but rather because they see the rightness of the behavior itself: Finally, leaders can produce short-run changes by influencing the working self-concept of followers, and can produce more enduring changes in values.
In other words, many of the normal everyday practices and events of organizational life serve to influence the values of the people within those organizations. Without attention to the organizational structures and processes, the types' of role modeling and other leader influences, and the socialization process in general, these effects will be haphazard, with unknown eventual organizational outcomes. With proper planning and attention, however, they can lead toward the creation of desired organizational climates, including the desired climate regarding ethics. Charismatic models of leadership encourage managers to actively work to change their employees subordinates' values systems, and asks "Do managers -have that right?” we reply that indeed they' do have that right, and further, I that obligation.
QUALITY HRM CLIMATE
Commitment in quality management program must include a recalibration of organization-wide thinking for high quality work methods combined with excellent results. Meanwhile, commitment to quality assurance is oriented towards the assurance of product and service quality based on quality techniques and guidelines for operational management to enhance internal processes. Quality management demands all organization members’ active commitment and participation in quality activities, and top management play a crucial role to attract their interest and motivate them to achieve a shared vision. Employees’ total commitment in quality management can only be achieved through the foundation of a quality culture of continuous improvement, cooperation and team working, and mutual respect between top management and other organizational members. Therefore, the literature finding suggests that employee commitment on quality performance would enhance organizational performance excellence.
The above literature demonstrates that the frequent methods used to measure employee commitment are those introduced by some of the common variables used to validate the employee commitment research construct are:
1. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
2. Employee quality attitude and perception or quality mindset.
3. Shared organizational quality goals values or mutual respect.
4. Performance feedback and recognition,
5. Clear and acceptable quality purpose (communication is the main tool recommended)
6. Participation and team working.
Employee commitment cannot be evaluated merely from a narrow dimension, but it also requires external perspectives such as management support, quality systems and procedures, and team cooperation. The analysis highlights the linkages between HR-related CSF and employee commitment as the right condition to ensure successful quality programmes. Clear quality vision, recognition and motivation, quality attitudes, congruent goals between management and employee, and effective communication were the familiar HR-related CSFs included and validated to describe employee commitment.
Employee commitment to quality and the dissemination of management vision and ideology that may reinforce the maxims of quality working culture, attitudinal change, continuous improvement, and customer orientation. As the origin of quality management lies within the operation and production fields, manufacturing firms may tend to place emphasis on the hard and quantifiable measurement aspects. In contrast, service-oriented organizations, which have a greater degree of employee-customer interaction, should concentrate on the more qualitative and softer aspects of working culture, customer care and personal interactions. However, the managerial approach towards various aspects of ‘soft’ issues in quality management must continue to search for more quantifiable measurement of performance outcomes.
Top management commitment to quality, employee deployment and staffing, training and education, effective communication to develop quality attitude and commitment, and people management to promote quality of working life or motivation were viewed and validated as the fundamental success factors in quality initiatives, either in service or in other organizational contexts. The significance of the findings provides the evidence that HR-related CSFs are very closely related to the construction of research in employee involvement and employee commitment in relation to quality implementation. On the other hand, the employee involvement and commitment construct was also directly related to performance.
Relationship between Employee Involvement and Commitment
Most factors included in the HR aspect of this research have significant relationships that cause employees to be involved and/or committed in quality activities. Leadership roles have a significant part in creating a quality working environment and encouraging people involvement and commitment. Employees with customer-focus orientation certainly have the understanding that their involvement and also commitment to ensure customer satisfaction are important in quality management. Furthermore, the congruent objectives, and recognition and motivation aspects would make the employees willing to participate with full commitment, and also understand that their involvement is important to ensure successful quality initiatives for the benefit of the employee and also the organization.
Another example of quality initiative for the HE context, usually the staff member who has the skills and competence to perform a quality job, which directly stipulates his/her involvement, will be committed to prove that the team is able to achieve successful quality implementation.
Therefore, in relation to HR-related CSFs in quality HRM, it is suggested that when people are involved in the quality initiatives, they would be committed as well to ensure the quality objectives are achieved. This condition creates a quality working climate that would lead to successful TQM implementation. It provides sound justification that quality working climate is the mediating factor for the research framework of this study. Moreover, this study intends to investigate the nature of relationship between employee involvement and commitment in the HRM context.
The overall scope is focusing on providing empirical evidence that quality HRM practices would encourage quality working climate, and further on, lead to successful quality initiatives in HE institutions. The ten HR-related CSFs in quality initiatives are the factors identified, soundly based on the theoretical concepts and literature review, to be the important factors used in quality HRM practices and approaches relevant to the HE context. These factors are believed to create a quality HR climate and congenial working environment to expedite excellent performance. Moreover, the employees’ involvement and commitment are the appearance of a quality HR working climate where their quality and efforts would result in excellent outcomes. The expected result of those quality HRM practices and working climate is the successful quality initiatives, and in achieving organizational performance excellence.
Organizational climate has a major effect on performance, and that different groups have different needs. A tool like OVS (the Organizational Vital Signs climate index) helps measure the climate and provides data – but how do you improve it? First, it helps to recognize that organizational climate arises from a web of individual relationships and feelings. Traditional leadership and management skills become less significant and effective in dealing with climate factors. Studies, as well as leading leadership authorities, agree that Emotional Intelligence is the one leadership ability that has a measurable difference in strengthening relationships and improving organizational climate. As Harvard Business Review reported in 2003: “It's a basic tool that, deployed with finesse, is the key to professional success.”
Everyone has Emotional Intelligence – but we don’t all use it. Emotions are data that can help us make better decisions, but most of us have been conditioned to “leave emotions at the door” (which no one can actually do anyway). To get the benefit of Emotional Intelligence, we need to let feelings in – to actually feel – and to recognize that emotions are valuable sources of information and energy. Leaders who learn to notice and manage emotions immediately gain the benefit of “looking beneath the surface” at the emotional drivers. They gain insight, they make better decisions, and they influence others more persuasively. The relationship of organizational climate and marketing units are:
The outsourcing marketing units with the open organizational climate type have higher organizational learning and better knowledge management activity than those with the close organizational climate type. Hence, a firm must possess some particular organizational climate to favor organizational learning and knowledge management activity.
Organizational learning in outsourcing marketing units has a positive impact on organizational performance. Hence, a firm should constantly promote absorbing new information and integrating the old and new information, and provides its members incentives and opportunities for learning in order to elevate its organizational performance.
Knowledge management activity in outsourcing marketing units has a positive impact on organizational performance. Therefore, in order to elevate its organizational performance, a firm has to promote the acquisition, transformation, sharing, and applying of knowledge and forge an appropriate knowledge management mechanism to raise its knowledge management activity
Creating an organizational climate that values employees from all backgrounds and provides an energizing environment for them. Also includes the leader’s responsibility to understand his or her impact on others and to improve his or her capabilities, as well as the capabilities of others. These include:
Human Resources Management: The ability to implement staff development and other management practices that represent contemporary best practices, comply with legal and regulatory requirements, and optimize the performance of the workforce, including performance assessments, alternative compensation and benefit methods, and the alignment of human resource practices and processes to meet the strategic goals of the organization.
Self-Confidence: A belief and conviction in one’s own ability, success, and decisions or opinions when executing plans and addressing challenges.
Self-Development: The ability to see an accurate view of one’s own strengths and development needs, including one’s impact on others. A willingness to address needs through reflective, self-directed learning and trying new leadership approaches.
Other Development: The drive to build the breadth and depth of the organization’s human capability, including supporting top-performing people and taking a personal interest in coaching and mentoring high-potential leaders.
Team Leadership: The ability to see oneself as a leader of others, from forming a top team that possesses balanced capabilities to setting the mission, values, and norms, as well as holding the team members accountable individually and as a group for results
Interpersonal Relationship: The ability to accurately hear and understand the unspoken or partly expressed thoughts, feelings, and concerns of others.
Professionalism: The demonstration of ethics and professional practices, as well as stimulating social accountability and community stewardship. The desire to act in a way that is consistent with one’s values and what one says is important...
Relationship Building: The ability to establish, build, and sustain professional contacts for the purpose of building networks of people with similar goals and that support similar interests
Diversity in organizational climate
Today’s workforce is becoming increasingly diverse. Women are entering the workforce and are pursuing more active careers than ever before. The average age of our workforce has increased as workers wait longer to retire. Finally, the ethnic diversity of our workforce has been increasing for some time. Before 1965, 76% of immigrants came from Europe. Since that time, the majority now come from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Latin America. The Latino community is the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States.
It is therefore not surprising that the composition of the workforce in the United States has changed. What are the organizational consequences of this increasingly diverse workforce? Clearly, diversity can have several positive influences on organizations. For example, applicant diversity provides organizations with an opportunity to hire employees with a diverse set of competencies, perspectives, and problem-solving skills. The increased diversity of employee skill sets is believed to increase organizational flexibility to enable it to be more responsive to a dynamic and ever changing environment. Workers from diverse backgrounds should be able to more accurately anticipate and meet the demands of a changing and equally diverse clientele.
Unfortunately, workforce diversity does not automatically result in positive outcomes. The reality is that increased diversity can lead to increased conflict among organizational employees. Differential expectations and unspoken assumptions can cause conflicts and misunderstandings. Further, human resources practices that have not been changed to reflect increased workforce diversity may also have unintended negative outcomes for minority subgroups and for the organization as a whole.
What can organizations do to minimize the negative effects and maximize the positive benefits of workforce diversity? We address this question in the present paper. Specifically, we discuss the concepts of organizational climate and culture and the role that they play in effectively managing workforce diversity. We discuss how workforce diversity is actually an organizational imperative in our rapidly changing environment. Finally, we show how diversity, organizational climate, organizational culture can combine to create what we call the “healthy organization.” We hypothesize that healthy organizations can manage and empower its diverse human resources to enable the organization to achieve such important goals, such as excellence in customer service. We finally show how we are starting to test our healthy organization hypotheses in a library context. However, before we can meaningfully discuss what a healthy organization is or how workforce diversity can be effectively managed.
Leadership plays a vital role in organizations. Leaders provide direction and facilitate the processes that enable organizations to achieve their goals and objectives. While productivity and financial objectives are often given the greatest emphasis, leaders also have responsibility for instituting standards of ethical conduct and moral values that guide the behavior of followers. Recently, the corporate world has been shaken by several scandals in which CEOs and other top leaders demonstrated a severe lack of ethical conduct in business operations that eventually led to the demise of some of the world's largest and seemingly most successful companies. These scandals have also demonstrated the enormous impact of leaders on their organizations, through their direct actions as well as creating a climate that sanctioned ethically questionable practices. Leaders not only directly influence the behavior of members, but their actions also influence the perceptions of members which lead to norms and expectations of appropriate conduct that become ingrained in the organization's climate.
Leaders' actions both directly and indirectly establish the ethical tone of an organization by the actions that are encouraged, rewarded, and demonstrated. Organizational climate refers to perceptions of organizational practices and procedures that are shared among members and which provide an indication of the institutionalized normative systems that guides behavior. An organization's climate regarding ethics forms the ethical character of the organization, by providing the environmental cues that guides ethical behavior.
An organization's climate regarding ethics is a unique type of climate as it is based on values, and the organization's leaders have the primary role in communicating and demonstrating the true importance of ethical values to the organization's members. Decisions of founders and other top leaders in the early stages of the organization's lifecycle have a profound impact on the development of an organization, and lead to the creation of strategies, structures, climates, and culture. Additionally, leaders throughout all stages of the organization's life cycle and all organizational levels continuously shape the organization's climate by providing meaning to policies and practices through the manner in which they enact the organization's goals and strategies. The actions of direct leaders provide an immediate indicator of appropriate behavior. This paper examines the critical role of organizational leaders in establishing a climate regarding ethics. Seven mechanisms by which leaders convey the importance of ethical values to members, and establish the expectations regarding ethical conduct that become engrained in the organization's climate.
Leaders at different organizational levels rely on different mechanisms to transmit values and expectations. These mechanisms then influence members' practices and expectations, further increase the salience of ethical values and result in the shared perceptions that form the organization's climate. We begin with a brief discussion of climates regarding ethics, and the critical role of values. Then we discuss the mechanisms by which leaders and members transmit values and create climates related to ethics. While numerous factors influence climate emergence and change, the actions of the organization's leaders are likely to have the greatest influence over ethical behavior and climate regarding ethics. Leaders convey the importance of the organization's ethical values to members, thereby influencing expectations and shared perceptions.
Organizational Climate’s Impact on Worker Productivity
Most of us intuitively understand that the climate of one’s workplace has an impact on how people feel and on how they perform. In using the term climate, we refer to the collective atmosphere of a workplace: the attitudes, perceptions, and dynamics that affect how people perform on a daily basis. Climate, like the weather, is not static and unchanging. Nevertheless, as with any locale, certain climate patterns are unique to each organization. More important, unlike the weather, we all are involved in creating our organizational climate on a daily basis.
A healthy organizational climate is proven to boost productivity. The elements of this include supportive management, contribution, self expression, recognition, clarity, and challenge. For almost a century researchers have explored the causes of work related injuries, a major cost to any organization and one of the earliest measures of organizational incoherence. At first, it was believed certain employees were more “accident prone” than others, but studies failed to support this contention as a definitive personality trait. Research then shifted to uncovering the personality traits that differentiated workers who were hurt from those who avoided injury. Looking into the psychology of safety became essential as organizations such as OSHA and the National Safety Board in the United States determined that 90% of all accidents are caused by unsafe acts, while only 10% are caused by unsafe working conditions.
The vast majority of workers today are employed in non manufacturing jobs, where workplace safety concerns focus more around issues such as ergonomics, workload, and mental and emotional processes, as opposed to the heavy labor of our forefathers.
Yet workers’ compensation claims are soaring in many non-manufacturing sectors of the economy. And health, safety, and environmental issues are growing in importance, especially in industries such as technology, petroleum, and aviation, where disregard for these issues can be catastrophic.
The three facets of burnout – emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and diminished personal accomplishment – emotional exhaustion is most sensitive to factors which negatively influence workplace climate, and is the strongest predictor of attachment to the organization. Interestingly, job stressors such as role stress, workload and role conflict have a disproportionate impact on emotional exhaustion, not equaled by the relief provided by resources such as social support, job enhancement and reward structure. This implies that attempts to compensate for the effects of stressful work environments by the provision of additional resources may not be successful. “While a good emotional climate is not by itself sufficient to ensure success, a bad climate is certain to prevent success.”
An organization is much like an organism. It requires a wide variety of nutrients and resources to be healthy; it can get sick in response to external stressors or internal imbalance and, unless it learns to heal itself, eventually becomes sick and dies.
Typically, today, when an organization recognizes something’s not right, the solutions are to focus on cost cutting, process re-engineering, product improvements, or improving customer service. While these well-intentioned initiatives are usually necessary, they are not sufficient. They focus on the symptoms, not the cause. In many organizations, this classic Band-Aid approach actually creates more frustration, anger, and anxiety whiles the organization, or organism, becomes even sicker. Once people are drained emotionally, the creative energy needed to develop new innovations is sapped.
Additional energy is then expended in inefficient ways that put added strain on the people, and the downward spiral accelerates. Acrimony, mistrust, antagonism, and blame are just a few of the emotional reactions that take up residence in the workplace.
Finger pointing becomes the preferred exercise program, and left unchecked, the very creative source for the organization is drained. Work environments characterized by excess stress, contention, and anxiety breed insecurity and non productivity and inhibit creativity. People do not want to come to work in these rigid, inflexible environments.
The negative attitudes compound the pressure on an already strained organization.
When people are valued, appreciated and cared for, they produce more, have greater loyalty to their employer, and have higher levels of creativity. Attitudes like appreciation, care and compassion are not just sweet; they are powerful medicine for this organizational virus. In addition, employees must be given tools to manage their perceptions and emotional reactions so they become active creators of a healthier climate, not just victims of management whims. Analyzing organizational incoherence - while giving employees practical tools for managing and leveraging their emotional and intellectual processes - represents a powerful parallel approach to regaining organizational vitality.
CASE STUDY
In any organized set up, specific functions are assigned to each member in order to realize the basic goals and objectives of such an organization. Among other factors that facilitate the smooth realization of such organizational goals, is a Conducive climate. It can ensure the realization of the needs and interests of the individuals who make-up the organization. Organizational climate encompasses all those behaviors that permit cordial interpersonal relationships among staff of an organization or institution. It permits cooperative human activities in which members of staff both academic and non-academic, interact for the purpose of realizing set goals and objectives. Hence, the perception of academic staff in universities may depend on some external and internal factors. Some of the external factors include location, size, student population, educational policies and socio-economic changes, while some of the internal factors include interactive behaviour between the School Head and the staff, amongst the staff themselves and between staff and students. In this regard, the school can be regarded as a social system in which the School Head, staff and students interact to accomplish common goals.
In an organization like the university, the climate as perceived by those who work in it determines to a large extent their level of contribution and the degree of attainment of its set goals and objectives. This opinion is predicated on the understanding that whatever is the output of an individual in an organization depends on those factors that encourage him/her to put in his/her best. Therefore, positive interactive behaviour, reinforced by effective leadership, motivation and communication could further accelerate the accomplishment of goals.
Studies have shown that administrative organizational climate is an important factor that influences perception and performance of staff. They further stated that a healthy organizational climate is crucial for a good school. Consequently, the way the School Head shapes such climate and its resultant effect on the entire organization and its goals have become issues of concern. The leadership style of the School Head, therefore, invariably affects his administrative pattern, which consequently influences the staff in the way they perceive the organization.
As stated earlier, motivation contributes to the perception of staff. It is a vital component of the operative functions of performance. Motivation as an internal state that arouses directs and maintains behaviour. Organizational climate can arouse employees’ natural motivations. Some climates could lead to frustration of staff, while others can energize the work environment. Those organizations with conducive work environment usually have a warm and friendlier climate than organizations with non conducive environment. This presupposes that staffs who are satisfied with their job are more productive. Hence a teacher who is properly motivated is considerate, dependable, committed to work, induces trust and caring disposition in the organization.
Another component of organizational climate is the subordinate level of participation in the organization’s decision- making process. The role of a worker in decision-making in an organization depends on the size of such organization and the management system adopted. A participative management system for example, would create a great deal of interaction between the School Head and his/her subordinates. The employees who perceived the organization as participative had greater increases in their performance than employees who perceived it as autocratic. Organizational climate has several critical dimensions. Most important of these dimensions in an educational setting are intimacy, morale, consideration, and thrust. Intimacy and morale are traits displayed by staff while consideration and thrust are traits exhibited by the School Head. Based on the interplay of these dimensions, organizational climate can be classified into open and closed climate typologies. The openness or closeness of any university depends on whether the dimensions of organizational climate are positively or negatively demonstrated by the
School Head and the subordinates.
Certain objective criteria constitute the foci of both the organizational climate types and dimensions. They are namely: positive work motivation, enhanced performance, increased productivity and job satisfaction. What this means is that if the organizational climate of any institution is open and the dimensions are positively demonstrated, there is bound to be positive motivation, enhanced performance, increased productivity and job satisfaction. On the contrary, if the organizational climate is closed and the dimensions are negatively demonstrated, there is bound to be negative motivation, poor performance, low productivity and job dissatisfaction.
Statement of the Problem
Education is important for national development. This is because skilled manpower is very vital to the process of national planning and implementation. For any educational plan to succeed, the teacher is required to be there to see to the full implementation of the programmed. This is so because no educational system can rise above its teachers. Also, if education is to survive and continue to play a vital role in the promotion of cognitive, affective and practical competence in individuals and ensure the preservation of our cultural values, it is important that the teachers who are responsible for helping the students acquire the knowledge, skills and practical orientations essential for self as well as for national development, be effectively motivated. In spite of their importance, they are not accorded the recognition they deserve. The climate in an organization reflects the type of people who compose the organization, the work processes, means of communication and the exercise of authority within the individual organization. Further, they recognize that it is easy to detect differences in the climate of organizations but it is difficult to name the dimensions of these differences.
The investigation became necessary in view of the fact that the problem of lack of motivation and the negative effect it has on the perception of academic staff of organizational climate in universities in Edo State seems to be growing. The relatively high attrition rate of academic staff from universities to other countries or to the Private sector is an indicator of low motivation. The lack of sponsorship or the long duration of time that lapses before it gets to the turn of a lecturer in the case of universities, to attend a conference or seminar may be another problem that could affect academic staff perception of their organizational climate. There are also allegations of ill preparedness among some academic staff for scholarly work and lack of commitment to work. The result is that these universities that ought to be centers of academic and social activities have remained dull and uninteresting.
Among the academic staff, there is also low level of mutual interaction leading to disharmony, suspicion and distrust, which have led to the formation of different camps and in fighting. Members of academic staff have also accused School Heads of aloofness while School Heads have complained of the uncooperative attitude of academic staff. There is also, the problem of inadequate working materials, which include reference journals, books, stationeries and office accommodation. Under such administrative and social climate, staffs are bound to have feelings of self-pity, insecurity, uncertainty, frustration, withdrawal and low morale. The resultant effect of the above mentioned problems in universities are so grave that there exists the need to articulate the consequences. That is why it has become very pertinent that studies should be carried out on academic staff perception of organizational climate in universities with a view to recommending strategies to be adopted to create a Conducive climate.
Thus, the purpose of this study was to answer the following questions:
1. How do academic staffs in universities in Edo State, Nigeria perceive their institutions’ organizational climate?
2. Is there any difference in the perception of organizational climate among academic staff of universities in Edo State?
3. Is there any difference between the perception of male and female academic staff of organizational climate in universities in Edo State?
4. Is there any difference between the perception of old and young academic staff of organizational climate in universities in Edo State?
5. Is there any difference between the perception of senior and junior academic staff on organizational climate in universities in Edo State?
Significance/Delimitation
The findings of this study would serve as a basis for fostering improved working relationships between Heads of universities and academic staff, amongst academic staff and between academic staff and students. It would also help Heads of universities to regulate their relationship towards their subordinates by providing job security, adequate working materials, training prospects and promotion opportunities. Although the study covers all academic staff of the four universities in Edo State, it was however, delimited to three because the fourth university was used for the pilot study. Of the various subsets of organizational climate, only four, - intimacy, morale, consideration and thrust were selected for the study. The study also focused on academic staff perception of Organizational climate based on sex, age and status.
METHOD OF STUDY
The study was a descriptive survey, which involved the collection of information in a structured questionnaire. The population of this study comprised all academic staff in universities in Edo State, Nigeria. The sample of the study was one thousand and twenty-five. This was attained through the purposive sampling technique.
Data for this study were obtained through the Academic Staff of Universities Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire (ASUOCDQ).
The researcher designed it after an exhaustive review of related literature and other scales that have been used in similar situations. The questionnaire was made up of two sections: section A sought personal information about the respondents such as Name of Institution, Sex, Age and Status. While section B had 24 items grouped into different sub-scales: namely, intimacy, morale, consideration and thrust. The first two sub-scales measured staff and students’ behaviour while the other two sub-scales measured the School Head’s behaviour. Each sub-scale contained six questions, which were designed to elicit responses. All the items in section B had a five point Likert scale, with responses ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The data were analyzed by Two-Way ANOVA. Fisher’s LSD was run on ANOVA where it was significant. To establish whether academic staff perceived the organizational climate of their institutions as favorable, the respondent mean scores for the four dimensions on the ASUOCDQ were computed and compared with the arbitrarily set minimum point for favorable perception.
RESULTS
1. How do academic staffs in universities in Edo State, Nigeria perceive their Institutions
Organizational Climate?
This was tested by comparing respondents’ mean score, on each of the four dimensions of Organizational climate with the minimum point for favorable perception. Based on the present survey, academic staff of universities in Edo State considered all the four dimensions of organizational climate investigated in this study as favorable.
2. Is there any difference in the perception of organizational climate among academic staff in universities in Edo State?
The result of the Two-way ANOVA of academic staff perception of organizational climate indicated that a significant difference exist among academic staff of universities in Edo State in their perception of organizational climate.
3. Is there any difference between the perception of male and female academic staff on Organizational climate in universities in Edo State?
The result of the two-way ANOVA indicated that male and female academic staff of universities in Edo State, do not differ in their perception of organizational climate. However, a difference existed in the interaction between organizational climate and sex of academic staff.
4. Is there any difference between the perception of old and young academic staff on organizational climate in universities in Edo State?
The result of the two-way ANOVA indicated that no difference exist between young and older academic staff in their perception of organizational climate. Also, no difference existed in the interaction between organizational climate and age of academic staff.
5. Is there any difference between the perception of senior and junior academic staff on organizational climate in universities in Edo State?
The result of the two-way ANOVA indicated that there is no difference between junior and senior academic staff in their perception of organizational climate. However, there is a difference in terms of interaction between academic staff and organizational climate.
DISCUSSION
The study revealed that academic staff of universities in Edo State considered all the four
Dimensions of organizational climate investigated in this study as favorable. It was evident from this result that academic staff of universities in Edo State value creativity, innovation, flexible, supportive and nurturing organizational climate. Their values and aspirations in general are highly reflected in their perception. This meant that School Heads and their academic staff were running their institutions along democratic and Humane lines. Another implication of the result was that despite the seemingly observable behaviour of disenchantment in academic staff, there was nevertheless harmony between them and their School Heads and that staff cherished the merits of maintaining an open and stable climate in their institutions. Hence consideration had the highest mean score among the subsets followed by intimacy, thrust and morale.
The result showed that under a considerate leader academic staff evidenced greater commitment to their institutions. In other words leaders who manifest consideration are seen as supportive. This result further demonstrates that there is close interaction and interpersonal relationship between academic staff and School Heads, among academic staff and between academic staff and students. Another implication of this favorable disposition by academic staff of universities to all the dimensions of organizational climate clearly indicated that inter-group conflict within the system is at a minimum level. It showed also that there is a sense of collegiality, open communication, professional growth and relative stability in universities in Edo State. A healthy organizational climate influences the staff in the way they perceive the organization. The result of question two showed that despite the varied institutional status and the difference in their perception, academic staff of the three universities still perceived all the dimensions of organizational climate as favorable.
The overall implication of the result showed that all the academic staff in universities in Edo State though differed in their perception had a humanistic orientation. Employees who perceived the organization as participative had greater increases in their performance and that a participative management system would create a great deal of interaction between the School Head and his/her subordinates. The finding of question three showed that both male and female academic staff of universities did not differ in their perception of the organizational climate in universities in Edo State. This portrays that they are working in environments that are stimulating, high in morale, caring and cooperative, with supportive coworkers and management that allow individuals to exercise responsibility and listen to ideas.
The result of question four showed that academic staff of universities in Edo State perceived the organizational climate of their institutions as favorable despite the difference in age. This implied that both groups are given adequate opportunities to carry out scholarly works, encouraged to participate in team-building activities and any other such activities that would enhance growth. The finding of question five indicated that despite the status of academic staff of universities, they all have the same perception of the organizational climate of their institutions. This implied that both groups appreciate the degree of autonomy and respect they have in the discharge of their jobs. When a teacher is properly motivated, such a teacher is considerate, dependable, committed to work, induces trust and caring disposition in the organization.
IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
Since academic staff of universities perceived the organizational climate in their institutions to be open, stable and healthy, School Heads should endeavor to continue to adopt the participative system of administration which guarantees open organizational climate.
To facilitate the adoption of the participative system of administration, School Heads should be exposed more to research findings on the working of organizational conditions of schools. This would be made possible by setting up a Research unit in each faculty or college with the responsibility of collating such research findings for School Heads.
School Heads and all Principal Officers should be made to undergo basic management training before being deployed to their respective positions in their universities. This is to equip them with the basic tools that are required for both human and material resource management. The essence of this is to reduce areas of friction between academic staff and management.
Seminars, symposia and workshops should be organized periodically for serving Principal Officers in universities in areas of human relations, leadership, motivation, communication and other relevant areas of management. This would help them keep abreast with current management techniques.
Conditions of service should be improved by the owners of universities to encourage; academic staff male and female, old and young, experienced and inexperienced exerts a considerable effort in their job towards achieving a better outcome. Such conditions of service should include better remuneration, staff training and development, job security, adequate welfare services like good transport system, provision of medical care, housing and provision of recreational facilities.
School Heads should continue to pay attention to the climate dimension of intimacy which is very strong among staff. To encourage this, symposia, workshops and seminars should be organized at least twice in a month in the different faculties where staff could meet to interact and exchange ideas with one another.
The Federal Government, State Government and other Proprietors of universities should make more fund available to the universities for the purchase of materials that would make the job more challenging and satisfactory. Also, university authorities should develop diversified sources of funding so as to remove the total dependence on governments and private individuals for funding. This would enable them provide necessary facilities and materials to staff.
Informal avenues like end-of-year parties which could bring the School Head, academic staff and students together should be created and sustained for the effective promotion of cordial relationships and interactions.
In addition to promoting good human relations and interactions, another factor of organizational climate – communication, should also be promoted with equal zest. A smooth network of communication should be thoroughly built into the administration of universities so as to remove all areas of tension and bottlenecks. This is because information withheld or unclear communication can stimulate conflict.
Academic staff should be sent on in-service training for them to update their knowledge and skills for effective teaching. This would further enhance their roles as academics which include: scholarship of discovery (research), including the writing of textbooks; scholarship of service, including the practical application of knowledge and scholarship of teaching.
THE WAY AHEAD
It is in the economic interest of organizations and of managers at all levels within them, to work towards the kind of climate which will perceived as benign by most of people who work here. Not only people feel better about their work, their organization, their colleagues and their managers they will also, and usually and over a sensible timescale become more valuable employees in purely economic terms as well.
If the principle is taken as established, it seems reasonable to suppose the managers will want to do what they can to improve the climate of their own organization. At least those part of the organization for which they have some responsibility and control. Because an employee’s perception of climate is influenced very strongly by the behaviour of managers and especially by the behaviour of his or her immediate supervisor. It is possible for individual managers to bring about improvements simply by making changes in their own behaviour.
Of course, changing our behaviour is not really simply at all. There is a long and arduous process involved which means that, like losing weight or giving up smoking, changing our workplace behavior needs willpower, determination and constant self observation to avoid slipping back in to the old habits. How difficult is this will depends, fairly obviously, on how big a change is needed and issue of credibility and trust may arise if someone’s habitual behaviour appears to undergo a sudden major change. But the change certainly is possible and the change at is needed may be fairly minor, especially if warning signs are noticed and acted upon early stage.
To know where we are now, where we want to be and what out strengths and weaknesses are provide us with the base from which rational decisions can be made. In an organizational context the emphasis is often on the ‘where we want to be’ element of this, which leads to the development of vision and mission statements , strategic plans and other very worthy and valuable corporate artifacts. None of this is of much use, however without realistic assessment of current state of organizational climate. And this is hard for an insider to achieve. If we are members of organizational systems we want to assess, it is most impossible to arrive at meaningful conclusions based solely on our own observations or feelings. Any improvement process is the realization that something could be better than currently is. All too often this realization comes rather late when problem has become serious enough to trust to trust itself in to the consciousness of the people concerned. Because we are intimately involved in the system’s functioning we get used to its characteristics. And not notice the subtle changes which are take place all the time. Of course there is a big or sudden change we will probably aware of it, but its cumulative effect of small, incremental changes we will probably aware of it. But incremental changes that build up to produce negative alternations in the climate which adversely affect the people involved without their necessarily being aware of anything is happening.
So far in this chapter a process of improvement based on first, identifying the current state of an organization or department’s climate, then focusing on specific climate factors which may need special attention. Because of the systematic nature of organizational climate, every factor is likely to have some impact on all others, so the aim must always be to take a board view; attention to detail is simply a means to an end. What we are trying to achieve is an organization which provides its members with security from external threats and doesn’t encourage or permit purposive or coercive threats.
The ideal organization has a senior management team who work out their differences without involving their subordinates except to consult and profit from people’s knowledge and experience. They have or develop, clear objectives and support and they take a constructive interest in the work that’s going on. A climate of free and open discussion is facilitated where policy can be questioned; ideas put foreword and views expressed in safety. Employees participate fully in the definition of their goals and targets, which are sufficiently demanding to provide challenge and stimulation but are seen by all as realizable and desirable.
Working in this ideal organization is found to be intrinsically satisfying and financial and other extrinsic rewards are seen to be fair and liberal, within the constraints of sound organizational governance. This is not just a utopian dream. Such organizations exist and others aspire to be like them. Organizational climate is very susceptible to aspirations; the will to change things for the better is powerful source of energy which is contagious. Every manager in every organization has to take the first step towards a better, more productive climate.
By Prakash Londhe
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