Organizational climate refers to employees' perceptions of the policies, practices and procedures in their workplace. It is shaped by both objective structural factors like rules and policies as well as subjective perceptual factors regarding how employees interpret and respond to their work environment. Organizational climate exists at multiple levels - the overall organization, individual work groups, and personal psychological experiences. It is measured through employee perceptions and influences important outcomes like job satisfaction, performance and retention. Managing organizational climate effectively requires understanding factors that create resistance to change as well as strategies to overcome resistance.

1. ANOOPA NARAYANAN

2. The shared perceptions, feelings and attitudes
organisational members have about the
fundamental elements of the organisation which
reflect the established norms, values and
attitudes of the organisation’s culture and
influence individuals’ behaviour either positively
or negatively.
(Castro, M., & Martins, N.,2010).
ORGANISATIONAL CLIMATE :DEFINITION

3. CLIMATE AND CULTURE
Organizational culture is defined as a set of shared values and
norms held by employees that guide their interactions with peers,
management, and clients.
Organizational climate represent employees’ perceptions of
organizational policies, practices, and procedures, and subsequent
patterns of interactions and behaviors that support the same.
Thus climate can be understood as a surface manifestation of
culture. It is more behaviorally oriented
(Schneider, B. ,1975)

4. •Schneider (2000) succinctly summarizes the differences between
these two concepts by highlighting that organisational climate
describes events and experiences and represents the patterns of
behaviour of employees whereas culture is explored when
individuals are asked why these patterns of shared values,
common assumptions and beliefs exist.

5. DIMENSIONS OF ORGANISATIONAL CLIMATE
Dimensions measuring organisational climate (Litwin and Stringer,
1968). They identified the dimensions based on organisations that
are mainly task orientated and that will describe a particular
situation.
According to Litwin and Stringer (1968), the nine dimensions of
organisational climate are as follows:
(1) Structure
(2) Responsibility
(3) Reward
(4) Risk
5) Warmth
(6) Support
(7) Standards
(9) Identity

6. (1) Structure
The aim of this dimension is to gauge how employees perceive the
organisation
(2) Responsibility.
This dimension is concerned with how employees feel about being
able to make their own decisions without having to constantly
“check in” with a boss. This involves knowing what one’s role
entails and making sure the work gets done.
(3) Reward.
This dimension focuses on how employees perceive being
rewarded for the work they do. The emphasis is on positive
reinforcement and the perception of fairness regarding payment
and promotion policies.
(4) Risk.
This dimension seeks to describe the risk or challenge associated
with a particular job as well as the organisation’s general approach
to taking risks or its inclination to adopt a more stable view.

7. 5) Warmth.
The focus of this dimension is on the group’s or organisation’s
general feeling of friendliness.
(6) Support.
The aim of this dimension is to gauge how employees perceive
their manager’s and colleagues’ willingness to help and provide
support.
(7) Standards.
This dimension refers to the emphasis that is placed on achieving
set goals and meeting the standard and doing outstanding work.
(8) Conflict.
This represents the extent to which managers and employees
wish to openly discuss issues or concerns rather than ignoring
them as well as wanting to explore varying views.
(9) Identity.
This dimension measures the extent to which employees feel
valued in the group and feel part of the organisation.

8. Campbell et al. (1970) reviewed the work of various authors. In
their review, they revealed four factors
(1) Individual autonomy.
The extent to which the employee has freedom to be his/her own
boss and has the power to make decisions without constantly
having to obtain managerial approval.
(2) The degree of structure imposed upon the position.
The key to this dimension lies in the extent to which managers
establish the job’s objectives and methods as well as how these are
communicated.
(3) Reward orientation.
it generally refers to reward associations that are evident in all of
the studies.
(4) warmth and support.
This dimension refers to the human relations evident between
organisational members.

9. LEVELS OF CLIMATE
According to Field and Abelson (1982), empirical evidence
supports the notion that three levels of climate can be identified
•Organisational Climate
•Group Climate
•Psychological Climate.

10. Group climate
Sub climates exist for different organisational groups because
of differences relating to task relationships and job functions.
climates differed across groups in the same organisation.
Climate responses can be seen as more of a group function
than being caused by personal characteristics.
Psychological climate
Psychological climate is studied at the individual level of
analysis, referring to individuals’ descriptions of the
organisation’s policies and processes.

11. MEASURES OF ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE
•One of the best-known general measures of organizational
climate is the Organizational Climate Questionnaire (OCQ) by
Litwin and Stringer (1968).
• It comprises 50 items that assess nine dimensions of climate.
Organisational climate is measured by means of the average
perceptions of organisational members, referring to a
collective description of the same environment

12. FOUR APPROACHES
1. The Structural Approach
2. The Perceptual Approach
3. The Interactive Approach
4. The Cultural Approach
Castro, M., & Martins, N.,2010).

13. THE STRUCTURAL APPROACH
•This approach views organisational climate as a characteristic or
attribute of the organisation. These attributes are considered to
be owned by the organisation and existing independently of The
perceptions of the individual members (Moran & Volkwein,
1992).
•organisational climate is the result of the objective aspects of
the work environment, namely the organisation’s size, a
centralised or decentralised authority structure, number of
hierarchical levels, advancement of technology as well as the
extent to which organisational rules and policies influence
members’ behaviour

14. THE PERCEPTUAL APPROACH
•According to this approach, the individual interprets and responds
to the situation in a way that is psychologically meaningful to
him/her.
•the individual perceives the organisational conditions and then
creates a psychological representation of the climate. The term
“organisational conditions” refers to the structural characteristics
highlighted in the previous approach but is more encompassing in
the sense that it includes organisational processes such as
communication, influence, leadership and decision-making
patterns

15. THE INTERACTIVE APPROACH
•This approach builds on the aforementioned approaches and
combines the objectivism of the structural approach and the
subjectivism of the perceptual approach
•The underlying assumption of the interactive approach is that
organisational climate is the result of the interaction of
individuals in response to their situation which results in the
shared agreement of organisational members.
•This approach identifies communication as a key contributor of
organisational climate.

16. THE CULTURAL APPROACH
• According to the cultural approach, organisational climate is
shaped by individuals in a group who interact and who share
the same abstract frame of reference, organisational culture,
as they learn to deal with the organisation’s demands .
•the cultural approach includes the role of organisational
culture as a key factor in the development of organisational
climate.

17. IMPORTANCE OF ORGANISATIONAL CLIMATE
•Organisational climate has a effect on an variety of important
outcomes at the individual, group, and organizational levels.
•managerial effectiveness (Umesh Kumar Bamel, 2013)
•Organisation performance and to individual job satisfaction
(R.D. Pritchard et.al,1973: Edward E. Lawler,1974)
•IBM recognizes the importance of workplace climate and the role it
plays in the success or failure of organisations.
•There is a relationship between climate and the attraction and
retention of employees, productivity and effectiveness which, when
translated into results.

19.  An alteration of an organization’s
environment, structure, culture, technology,
or people
 A constant force
 An organizational reality
 An opportunity or a threat

20. EXTERNAL FACTORS
 Technological changes
 Social changes
 Political changes
 Change in marketing condition
INTERNAL FACTORS
 Nature of the work force
 Change in managerial personnel
 Deficiencies in existing management structure

22. UNFREEZE MOVEMENT FREEZE
Kurt Lewin proposed a three stage theory of
change commonly referred to as Unfreeze,
Change( or Transition), Freeze.

23. Change efforts to overcome the pressures of both
individual resistance and group conformity.
 Arouse dissatisfaction with the current state.
 Activate and strengthen top management
support.
 Use participation in decision making.
 Build in rewards.

24. Efforts to get employees involved in the change
process.
 Establish goals.
 Institute smaller, acceptable changes that
reinforce and support change.
 Develop management structures for
change.
 Maintain open, two-way communication.

25. Stabilizing a change intervention by balancing driving
and restraining forces.
 Build success experiences.
 Reward desired behaviour.
 Develop structures to institutionalize the
change.
 Make change work.

26. Time
Driving
forces
Restraining
forces
Desired
state
Status
quo

27. • Step 1: Create a Sense of Urgency
• Step 2: Creating the Guiding Coalition
• Step 3: Developing a Change Vision
• Step 4: Communicating the Vision for Buy-in
• Step 5: Empowering Broad-Based Action
• Step 6: Generating Short-term Wins
• Step 7: maintain state of emergency
• Step 8: anchoring changes in corporate culture
(strengthen change)
(J. P. Kotter, 1996).

28.  50% of the companies that fail to make
needed change make their mistakes at the
very beginning.
 Leaders may underestimate how hard it is to
drive people out of their comfort zones, or
overestimate how successfully they have
already done so, or simply lack the patience
necessary to develop appropriate urgency

29.  Putting together a group with enough power
to lead the change
 The coalition must have the right composition,
a significant level of trust, and a shared
objective.

30.  Position Power: Enough key players should be on
board so that those left out cannot block progress.
 Expertise: All relevant points of view should be
represented so that informed intelligent decisions can
be made.
 Credibility: The group should be seen and respected by
those in the firm so that the group’s pronouncements
will be taken seriously by other employees.
 Leadership: The group should have enough proven
leaders to be able to drive the change process.

31.  Clarify how the future will be different from the
past
six key characteristics of effective visions have
 Imaginable: They convey a clear picture of what the future will
look like.
 Desirable: They appeal to the long-term interest of those who
have a stake in the enterprise.
 Feasible: They contain realistic and attainable goals.
 Focused: They are clear enough to provide guidance in decision
making.
 Flexible: They allow individual initiative and alternative
responses in light of changing conditions.
 Communicable: They are easy to communicate and can be
explained quickly.

32.  Ensuring that as many people as possible
understand and accept the vision
 A single memo announcing the transformation or
even a series of speeches by the CEO and the
executive team are never enough.
 To be effective, the vision must be communicated
in hour-by-hour activities.
 The vision will be referred to in emails, in
meetings, in presentations and will be
communicated anywhere and everywhere.

33.  Removing as many barriers as possible and
unleashing people to do their best work
 Structural Barriers
 Troublesome Supervisors

34.  Creating visible, unambiguous success as soon
as possible

35.  Consolidating gains and producing more
change
“Resistance is always waiting in the wings to re-
assert itself”

36.  Anchoring new approaches in the culture for
sustained change

38. Security
Economic
factors
Individual
Resistance
Fear of
the unknown
Selective
information
processing
Habit

39. Economic factors. Organizational changes sometimes can be seen
from the employee’s side simply as something that will decrease or
increase their salary or other economic privileges that some
workplace brings to them in the moment before implementation
of the change process.
Job’s security. Organizational change can eliminate some work places,
can produce technological excess, layoffs and so on.
Fear of unknown. When employees feel uncertainty in a process of
transformation, they think that changes are something dangerous.
Habits. Employees work in large part is based on habits, and work
tasks are performed in a certain way based on that
habits. Organizational changes require shifts of that habits and
because of that dissatisfaction from the proposals.

40. Selective information processing. Individuals usually doing
selective information processing, or hear only something that
they want to hear. They simply ignore information that is
opposite of the current situation, and with this, they are
preventing to accept important aspects of proposed changes,
and it affects appearing resistance to change;

41. Organizational
Resistance
Threat to established
resource allocations
Structural
inertia
Threat to established
power relationships
Limited focus
of change
Threat to
expertise
Group
inertia

42. Threat to power relationships
an individual level. It is more likely that managers will
resist changes that will decrease their power and transfers
it to their subordinates;
an organizational level. With the change process, some
groups, departments or sectors in the organization become
more powerful. Because of that some persons will be
opposed to such a proposal or processes where they will
lose their organizational power;
Reallocation of resources. With organizational changes, some
groups, departments or sectors in the organization can receive
more resources why other will lose. So, this will bring
resistance from the individuals, groups or departments who
will lose some of there currently available resources.

43.  Education and communication
 Participation and involvement
 Facilitation and support
 Negotiation and rewards
 Manipulation and cooperation
 Forcing and coercion
© PhotoDisc

44.  Education and communication
 This tactic assumes that the source of resistance lies in
misinformation or poor communication.
 Best used: Lack of information, or inaccurate information
 Participation and involvement
 Prior to making a change, those opposed can be brought
into the decision process.
 Best used: Where initiators lack information, and others
have power to resist
 Facilitation and support
 The provision of various efforts to facilitate adjustment.
 Best used: Where people resist because of adjustment
problems

45.  Negotiation and agreement
 Exchange something of value for a lessening of resistance.
 Best used: Where one group will lose, and has
considerable power to resist
 Manipulation and cooperation
 Twisting and distorting facts to make them appear more
attractive.
 Best used: Where other tactics won’t work or are too
expensive
 Explicit and implicit coercion
 The application of direct threats or force upon resisters.
 Best used: Speed is essential, and initiators have power

46. REFERENCES
Umesh Kumar Bamel, Santosh Rangnekar, Peter Stokes, Renu Rastogi, (2013)
"Organizational climate and managerial effectiveness: an Indian perspective",
International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 21 Iss: 2, pp.198 – 218
Robert D. Pritchard, Bernard W. Karasick ,1973, The effects of organizational climate on
managerial job performance and job satisfaction Original Research Article,
Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, Volume 9, Issue 1, February 1973,
Pages 126-146
Edward E. Lawler, Douglas T. Hall, Greg R. Oldham, 1974, Organizational climate:
Relationship to organizational structure, process and performance Original Research
Article, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, Volume 11, Issue 1, February
Pages 139-155
Schneider, B. (1975). Organizational climates: an essay. Personnel Psychology, 36, 19–36.
Jones, A.P., & James, L.R. (1979). Psychological climate: Dimensions and relationships of
individual and aggregated work environment perceptions. Organizational Behavior and
Human Performance, 23, 201−250.

47. Castro, M., & Martins, N. (2010). The relationship between organisational climate and
employee satisfaction in a South African information and technology organisation. SA
Journal of Industrial Psychology/SA Tydskrif vir Bedryfsielkunde, 36(1), Art. #800, 9
pages. DOI: 10.4102/sajip.v36i1.800
J. P. Kotter, Leading Change (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1996).