Organisational Culture and Climate

This report discusses the relationship between organisational culture and climate and their impact on employees. It includes an overview of the concepts, an integrative approach, and the role of organisational climate in change. Practical implications for managers and reflection on learning are also included.

Running head: ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE AND CLIMATE
Organizational behavior and management
Assessment Task 4
Name of Student:
Name of College:
Authors Note:
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ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE AND CLIMATE
Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
2. Overview......................................................................................................................................2
2.1 Heading 1: Organisational climate and organisational culture..............................................2
2.2 Heading 2: Integrative approach of organisational culture and climate................................3
2.3 Heading 3: Role of organisational climate on change...........................................................4
2.4 Summary of key points..........................................................................................................5
3. Practical implications for managers.............................................................................................5
4. Reflection on learning..................................................................................................................6
5. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................8
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ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE AND CLIMATE
1. Introduction
In this report discussion is made to understand different elements of organisational culture and
climate and their relationship as well as influences on employees of an organisation with help of
analysis of four different articles that is based on the topic. An overview is presented on these
concepts followed by understanding their similarities and need for integrative approach. Lastly,
role of culture and climate to implement change has been discussed followed by reflection of
learning from this study.
2. Overview
2.1 Heading 1: Organisational climate and organisational culture
Here (Schneider, Ehrhart and Macey 2013; Ali and Patnaik 2014) have made a discussion on
influences of organisational culture which reflects values and behaviour that contributes to work
environment and on climate which determines environment where employees are either satisfied
or unsatisfied. Both influence the experiences of people working in organisations thus shaping
their perceptions and behaviours. While in specific cases these even determine effectiveness of
reinstating managerial capabilities. According to arguments of Schneider, Ehrhart and Macey
(2013) organisational climate and culture is an assumption and their practical influences have not
been derived fully as these ideas have extensively focused on positive impacts. However
negative implications have been understated where employees do not agree with favourable
experiences. On other hand Ali and Patnaik (2014) have argued that these concepts have strong
impacts on people in selective environment thus shaping perceptions specifically driving
effectiveness in managerial contexts.
Schneider, Ehrhart and Macey (2013) have reviewed concepts of organisational climate and
culture and have discussed their relationships with people influences. They have stated that
organisational climate is used to tackle people through tangible strategies while organisational
culture determines influences of values and beliefs over people thus impacting their socialisation
at work. However influence of organisational climate has not been adequately studied in
understanding reasons behind perceptions when employees do not agree with tangible strategies.
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Ali and Patnaik (2014) have stated that organisational culture has reflected more on values,
efforts and interpretations. While their propensity of impact over managerial effectiveness in
both private and public sector firms generally dispose focus on climate and there has not been
adequate assessment on culture research. Further they have stated that in private enterprises there
is no stable influence of climate and culture on effectiveness of managers but in public sector
both has stable influences. However culture has negative implications on managerial
effectiveness in public sector enterprises.
2.2 Heading 2: Integrative approach of organisational culture and climate
According to Ng and Ng (2014) organisational culture research is core dimension of
organisational behaviour research and its significance has been derived from the fact that these
concepts are widespread in use in management approaches as media has reported its greater
influences on employee behaviour or organisational practices. Nonetheless, in organisational
reseach there exists another asepct of research focused on issues of organisational climate
research that is similar to organsiational culture. But this is less widespread and unknown to
people. The reason can be organsiational climate research is quite similar to organisational
culture reseach and hence confusing among researchers. These reasons could have been because
some culture researchers have stated that climate research is sub set of culture research and as
such a form of it. However, several climate researchers have argued that it was distinct from
culture research. As such in today’s context it is largely established that organisational climate
research and organisational culture research are two inter-dependent aspects. Due to their
correlations and overlay some reseachers have stated an integartive approach for both these
aspects. Ng and Ng (2014) have represented similarities between culture research, organisational
culture research and organisatioanl climate research and then an integrative approach is proposed
for future scope. They have stated further that organisational culture research is necessarily
culture research in organisational relation as both of them focus on values, beliefs and norms of
people. It is argued that when people get associated with a firm they bring their own set of native
values that combines with values of other workers and these together influences organisational
culture. As such although both focus on values and norms but are observed separately. While
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climate research focus on workers thinking on formal or informal organisational policies,
practices and process and hence is different from culture, however in deeper context these
overlaps. Ng and Ng (2014) stated that as focus on integrative approach towards all three
concepts are limited so further studies are needed based on similarities with an equal focus over
using their multi level modelling, as these would create new understanding on correlation
between these concepts and will open up new interdependent opportunties.
2.3 Heading 3: Role of organisational climate on change
Douglas, Muturi, Douglas and Ochieng (2017) have examined role of organisational climate in
readiness for change with specific focus over lean six sigma (LSS). It has been stated that as
climate impacts readiness for change so it is vital that firms can evaluate these to ensure whether
their environment is appropriate to implement change; specifically in context to six sigma.
Douglas, Muturi, Douglas and Ochieng (2017) have further defined change as actions that are
conducted to deal with improvement and have stated two change methods i.e. change
management and systematic change methods. In systematic method procedures that support
management to initiate decisions are involved and lean and six sigma both are systematic change
methods that consist of large scale changes. These cannot be successful until change occurs at
individual level and until each employee is prepared to accept change. Hence readiness to change
(RFC) means emotional lead to determine behaviour of either reluctance or support for change
which establishes successful implementations. To implement change in a firm a quality oriented
culture is vital specifically for six sigma implementation. While some change interventions fail
as they lack internal assessment of culture and climate before initiation of change initiatives. As
culture and climate are interrelated and as climate shapes perceptions of people in organisations
so it influences acceptable behaviour and response of people towards change. Douglas, Muturi,
Douglas and Ochieng (2017) have stated that employees are more receptive to climate and hence
it should be bettered to ensure barriers to acceptance of change are eliminated. Also as climate is
more evident than culture so a firm should focus on climate to communicate cultural change with
help of better practices and policies that influences beliefs and values that shapes employees
responses. Even organisational climate can be encouraging or discouraging to prompt change as
such the current condition of culture should be evaluated with RFC to support change
implementations or procedure of change elements.
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2.4 Summary of key points
Thus it can be summarised that Schneider, Ehrhart and Macey (2013) have focused on
conceptions of climate and organisational change and their correlations that influenced
employee’s experiences however they had limitation to find out reasons that determined negative
influences. While Ali and Patnaik (2014) have stated confirmed influences of these concepts in
driving employees behaviour and influence over managerial effectiveness though these may vary
with selective environments of private and public firms. Further Ng and Ng (2014) have stated
that similarities exists between culture research, organisational culture research and
organisational climate research so a more integrative approach needs to be studied to interpret
their multi-level pattern and interdependencies. Lastly Douglas, Muturi, Douglas and Ochieng
(2017) have stated that readiness for change is a vital concern and organisational climate is a
significant factor in determining that readiness. So to interpret climate it has to be assessed with
a feasible method and firms that neglect their climate often fail to implement change. This is
because climate evaluation allows identifying chances of success for initiating change in
organisation as well as supports management in identifying areas where organisational climate
can be developed further. Hence climate evaluation is good for management as well as
employees of a firm whose perceptions are primary for successful implementation of change.
3. Practical implications for managers
All the above literatures have studied the concept of organisational culture and climate and their
impact over employee’s experiences, perceptions and behaviours. While culture determines
values and beliefs but climate determines organisational practices and policies. Hence both these
can be used together by managers to drive day to day work effectiveness as positive practices
and process builds a culture where employees are more open and adaptive rather than being
reluctant due to influences of negative organisational climate. Hence, employees exhibit
optimistic thinking and attitude that drives desirable performances as well as fulfilment of
organisational goals. This combination of effective climate and culture makes employees
efficient and more productive which facilitate better management of employees by the managers
to attain objectives with predefined KPI and timescale set for attaining goals. Moreover these
even drives environment that supports better change implementation or management as
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employees are acceptable to change elements due to good components of climate. As such these
can be well executed by managers through effective decisions that are based on evaluation of
climate and culture within a firm to control regular operational effectiveness of work.
4. Reflection on learning
By analysing articles on topic of organisational climate and culture I have learnt aspects of these
concepts with a better understanding of various elements, which has improved my theoretical
knowledge. Moreover during the process of analysis I have also found limitations which have
given me scope to learn other research works based on organisational climate and culture that
addresses these limitations specifically to understand influences of climate and culture concepts
in negative context when employees disagree with practices that are deployed in organisation. In
order to improve my earlier analysis based on assessment 3 I have studied literature articles that
have focused on wider context of these concepts specifically in determining implementation of
change within organisations and focus on their integrated approach. Overall study of these
articles has elaborated my understanding of impacts of climate and culture in driving employee’s
behaviour.
5. Conclusion
From this report it is evident that both culture and organisational climate are important drivers
within an organisation as these have significant influences on perceptions of employees that
drive their behaviour, responses and actions. While positive culture and climate makes
employees acceptable and adaptive however negative elements of culture and climate makes
them reluctant. Both impact on performances either by encouraging or discouraging employees.
So understanding and improving climate helps to build adaptive culture and makes employees
more expecting to drive towards better outcomes and fulfilment of objectives.
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References
Ali, A. and Patnaik, B., 2014. Influence of organizational climate and organizational culture on
managerial effectiveness: An inquisitive study. The Carrington Rand Journal of Social Sciences,
[Online] 1(2), pp.1-20. Available:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/34555293/DR_AMJAD_ALI.pdf?
AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1540053067&Signature=oPH6tV
IuAgOvIIQ9UVomQ8dM3lo%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename
%3DInfluence_of_Organizational_Climate_and.pdf [Accessed on 20 Oct. 2018]
Douglas, J., Muturi, D., Douglas, A., and Ochieng, J. (2017). The role of organisational climate
in readiness for change to lean six sigma. TQM Journal, [Online] 29(5), 666-676. Available:
https://search.proquest.com/docview/1950076887?accountid=30552 [Accessed on 20 Oct. 2018]
Ng, J. C. Y., and Ng, K. Y. N. (2014). CULTURE, ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE AND
ORGANISATIONAL CLIMATE: AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH. Indian Journal of
Commerce and Management Studies, [Online] 5(2), 18-26. Available:
https://search.proquest.com/docview/1539798840?accountid=30552 [Accessed on 20 Oct. 2018]
Schneider, B., Ehrhart, M.G. and Macey, W.H., (2013). Organizational climate and culture.
Annual review of psychology,[Online]64, pp.361-388 Available:
https://articles.extension.org/sites/default/files/Organizational%20Climate%20and%20Culture
%20Review.pdf [Accessed on 20 Oct. 2018]
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