ORGANIZATION CLIMATE

Climate can be defined as the perceived attributes of an organization and its sub-systems as ref lected in the way an organization deals with its members, groups, and issues. One conceptual framework of climate (Litwin &Stringer) emphasizes motivational linkages. Motivation:- There are six motives for organizational climate. 1. Achievement:- This motive is characterized by concern for excellence, competition against standards set by others or by oneself. 2. Inf luence:- This motive is characterized by a concern for making an impact on others, a desire to make people de what one thinks is right, and an urge to change situations and develop people. 3. Control:- This is characterized by a concern for orderliness, a desire to be and stay informed, an urge to monitor events and to take corrective action when needed, a need to display personal power.

4.Extention:- This is characterized by a concern for others, interest in superordinate goals, and an urge to be relevant and useful to large groups, including society as whole. 5. Dependency:- This motive is characterized by a desire for the assistance of others in developing oneself, a need to check with significant others, a tendency to submit ideas or proposal for approval, and an urge to maintain a relationship based on the other persons approval. 6. Affiliation:- This is characterized by a concern for establishing and maintaining close personal relationship, and a tendency to express ones emotions.

Various studies and discussions with managers suggested the following 12 processes. 1. Orientation:- If the dominant or concern is to adhere to established rules, the climate will be characterized by emphasis on control; if the orientation is to excel, the climate will be characterized by achievement.
2.

Interpersonal Relationship:- An organizations interpersonal relations are reflected in the way informal groups are formed. If groups are formed for the purpose of protecting their own interest, cliques may develop and a climate of control may result. Supervision:- Supervision practices contribute significantly to climate. If supervisors are more concerned with maintaining good relations with their subordinates, a climate characterized by the affiliation motive may result.

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Problem Management:- Problems can be seen as challenges or irritants. They can either be solved by the supervisor alone or jointly by the supervisor. 5. Management of Mistakes:- A supervisors attitude towards subordinate's mistakes develops the organizational orientation towards shortcomings and errors, which is generally one of annoyance, concern, or tolerance. 6. Conflict Management:- Conflict may be seen as an embarrassing annoyance to be covered up or as problems to be solved. 7. Communication:- The process of communication is concerned with the flow of information, its direction, its disbursement , its mode, and its type . 8. Decision Making:- An organizations approach to decision making can be focused on maintaining good relations or on achieving results.
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9.

Trust:- The degree of trust or its absence among various members and group in the organization affects the organizational climate. The issue of who is trusted by the management and to what degree is also relevant.
Management of Rewards:- Rewards reinforce specific behaviors, thereby arousing and sustaining specific, motives. Consequently, what is rewarded in and organization influences the organizational climate.

10.

11. Risk Taking:- How people respond to risks and whose

help is sought in situations involving risk are important determinants of organizational climate.
12. Innovation and Change:- Who initiates change, how

change and innovations are perceived, and how change is implemented are all critical to establishing the organizational climate.

 There are six motives characterizing dominant Organizational

Climate

Motivation Achievements Expert power Control Dependency Extension Affiliation

Characteristic Organization Industrial and Business Organization University departments, scientific organizations Bureaucracy Traditional or one man organization Community service organizations Clubs

 Managers have to become capable of working with people from

different cultures. Because values differ across cultures , an understanding of these differences should be helpful in explaining and predicting behavior of employees from different countries. Hofstede gave a framework for Assessing Cultures:-

Power distance

The degree to which people in a country accept that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally. A high power distance ratings means that large inequalities of power and wealth exist and are tolerated in the culture.

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Individualism versus collectivism Masculinity versus feminity Uncertainty avoidance:- The degree to which people in a country

prefer structured over unstructured situations.

 Long term versus short term Orientation:- People

in cultures with long term orientations look to the future and value thrift, persistence, and tradition. In a short-term orientation, people value the here and now; change is accepted more readily, and commitments do not represent impediments to change.

 Begun in 1993, the Global Leadership and Organizational

Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) research program is an ongoing cross-cultural investigation of leadership and national culture. Using Data from 825 organizations in 63 countries, the GLOBE team identified nine dimensions on which national cultures differ, which are as following:
1.

2.

Assertiveness The extent to which a society encourages people to be tough, confrontational, assertive and competitive versus modest and tender. Future orientation The extent to which a society encourages and rewards future-oriented behaviors such as planning, investing in the future, and delaying gratification. This is essentially equivalent to Hofstedes long term/short-term orientation.

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Gender differentiation The extent to which a society maximizes gender role differences. Uncertainty avoidance As identified by Hofstede, the GLOBE team defined this term as a societys reliance on social norms and procedures to alleviate the unpredictability of future events. Power distance As did Hofstede, the GLOBE team defined this as the degree to which members of a society expect power to be unequally shared. Individualism/collectivism Again, this term was defined as was Hofstedes as the degree to which individual are encouraged by societal institutions to be integrated into groups within organization and society.

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In-group Collection In contrast to focusing on societal institutions, this dimension encompasses the extent to which members of a society take pride in membership in small groups within organizations and society. Performance orientation This refers to the degree to which a society encourage and rewards group members for performance improvement and excellence. Humane orientation This is defined as the degree to which a society encourages and rewards individuals for being fair, altruistic, generous, caring and kind to others.