Caracterización De Empresarios

Climate is a generic term referring to a class of dimensions that many have argued is so broad and diverse as _to make the concept useless.

(Glick, 1985, p. 605)

The research reported on here investigated the service climate of English language centres. This section explores the origins, conceptualisation a nd application of climate, discusses problems, controversies and measurement issues, and examines the nature of service climate.

2.4.1 Origins of the climate concept

The word climate is derived from the Greek K":rw.a, meaning the slope or inclination of the earth, thus a region or zone of the earth. Over time, dimate came to mean the atmospheric conditions prevailing in a particular place and this led on to metaphorical usages such as political climate, climate of opinion, intellectual climate, social climate and so on (Tagiuri, 1968). Irrespective of the specific context, the metaphorical sense in which climate is used remains essentially the same (Tagiuri, 1968) because:

each time it refers to some feature or characteristic of the environment that has consequences for the behaviour of an individual or group and to which the person or persons are somehow sensitive . . . When everything else is held constant but the climate, behaviour differs. (p. 18)

The relationship between these two concepts, environment and behaviour provides the focus of the interest in the term dimate as it is used in this study.

At the very least since the work of Mayo (1933), Roethlisberger and Dickson (1939) led to the emergence of the Human Relations School of management thought, the environment that people work in has been regarded as a key influence on their behaviour, specifically in terms of explicating their motivation

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and performance in organisations. Managers and researchers, particularly in the areas of organisational behaviour and psychology, have been interested in investigating the inherent nature of organisations in order to capture those elements that may influence incumbent behaviour and thus the outputs of the firm, with a view to improving productivity. It was to this end that interest grew in the concept of climate as applied to the management of organisations.

The concept climate in its organisational-behavioural-psychological sense emerged from Gestalt psychology, a branch of psychology which argues that people perceive the world i n wholes and that h u man behaviour should therefore be studied wholistically rather than atomically (Malim & Birch, 1998) . However, over time, social psychology became a more important influence (Verbeke, Volgering, & Hessels, 1998) . Climate found initial expression in the early climate literature and the Lewinian field theory (Lewin, 1936, 1951). The first mention in an organisational setting is commonly taken to be Lewin et ai's (1939) study of how different leadership styles create social climates which go on to affect productivity (Schneider, 1990).

Subsequent work was carried out by: Lewin (1951), who described the need to consider the situational and contextual factors that influence behaviour and developed the equation B = f(P, E), that is, behaviour is a function of the

person and the environment; Fleishman (1953) in his study of leadership climate in a training context; Morse and Reimer (1956) in their study of participation and decision-making among employees; Argyris in his study on group dynamics (1958); Pace and Stern (1958) in their study of climates in colleges in the USA; McGregor (1960) who expounded the concept of ''Theory X" a nd 'Theory Y" managerial climates; Likert (1961) and Barker (1965) who made qualitative observations of natural organisational settings; and Halpin (1966) who examined the organisational climate of elementary schools in the USA.

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These efforts culminated in the appearance of Tagiuri and Utwin's (1968) work of collected articles which explored climate as a construct in an organisational context. Although the term climate as used in a psychological-behavioural sense had been extant for some 30 years, it was not until Tagiuri and Utwin's (1968) work that a commonly accepted conceptualisation of the term began to crystallise.

2.4.2 Conceptualisation of climate

The concept of climate has been subject to definitional confusion, pa rticularly in respect of its relation with the concept of (organisational) culture. The fact that 32 separate definitions of climate have been identified in the literature (Verbeke et al., 1998) are testimony to this. Some of the major issues are discussed below.

Early climate studies tended not to shed much light on a clear conceptualisation (Reichers & Schneider, 1990). Nevertheless, climate gradually acquired a meaning roughly along the lines of the quality of the internal environment of an organisation as experienced by its members. Forehand and Gilmer's (1964) definition focused on the features of the organisation as specifiable, measurable properties. They saw climate as a set of characteristics that:

-distinguish the organisation from other organisations, -are relatively enduring over time,

-influence the behaviour of the organisation's members.

Tagiuri and Utwin's (1968) collection of edited articles was the first attempt at a serious conceptualisation of the term climate, presenting a variety of views ranging from that of climate as representing the intrinsic characteristics of the organisation to that of climate as individual perceptions of these conditions.

Tagiuri (1968) took exception to Forehand and Gilmer's (1964) undue emphasis on the organisation as a whole and the lack of focus on member's sensitivity to

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different organisational attributes and therefore offered this definition of climate:

a relatively enduring quality of the internal environ ment of an organization that (a) is experienced by its members, (b) influences their behaviour, and (c) can be described in terms of the values of a particular set of characteristics (or attitudes) of the organization . (p. 27)

Tagiuri (1968, pp. 24-25) also provided a detailed taxonomy of the properties of climate as he saw them (Table 2.4) . Some of the enduring elements of climate are already identifiable from this list of attributes, principal a mong which are: the notion that climate is created by agencies external to the individual, that it can be subject to consensus and shared meaning, and that it can be a cause, leading potentially to various effects, for instance, individual or organisational performance.

Table 2.4

Tagiuri's (1968) Properties of Climate

CUMATE PROPERTY

A molar, synthetic concept

A particular configuration of situational variables Component elements may vary

The meaning of an enduring situational configuration

Has a connotation of continuity

Detennined by characteristics, conduct, attitudes, expectations of other persons Phenomenologically external to the actor

Phenomenologically distinct from the task

In the actor's/observer's head, though not necessarily in conscious fonn

Capable of being shared consensually and interpreted in tenns of shared meanings Not a common delusion but based on external reality

Has potential behavioural consequences

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Litwin and Stringer (1968) reinforced the notion of perception a s a key component of climate and they defined climate as "a set of measurable properties of the work environment, based on the collective perceptions of the people who live a nd work in the environment and demonstrated to influence their behaviour" (p. 1).

These two works (Utwin & Stringer, 1968; Tagiuri & Utwin, 1968) are regarded as marking the beginning of the contemporary history of the concept of climate (Reichers & Sch neider, 1990). Throughout the 1970s, a series of articles examined the links between climate and other behavioural-organisational constructs. These included: an individual's level in the hierarchy (Schneider & Bartlett, 1970), organisational structure (Payne & Pugh, 1976), needs (Downey, Hellriegel, & Slocum, 1975), groups and subgroups (Drexler, 1977; Howe, 1977), job satisfaction (Payne, Fineman, & Wall, 1 976) and performance (Guion, 1973; la follette & Sims, 1975; Lawler, Hall, & Oldham, 1974; Pritchard & Karasick, 1973).

At the same ti me, articles began to a ppear reviewing the concept and attempting to find a common approach to issues such as conceptualisation and measurement (Field & Abelson, 1982; Hellriegel & Slocum, 1974; James & Jones, 1974; Powell & Butterfield, 1978; Rousseau, 1988; Woodman & King, 1978). As an outcome of these activities, consensus began to form around a confirmation of Litwin and Stringer's (1968) original notion of climate a s a perception or a reflection of the way people in organisations perceive and come

to describe the characteristics of their environment (Verbeke et al., 1998) . • Current status of the climate concept

Climate is probably one of the best-researched constructs in recent ti mes within the area of organisational behaviour. Guion (1973) suggested that it could be one of the most i mportant constructs in many years to enter the area of industrial-organisational psychology.

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A key reason for this strong interest lies in the fact that climate has a functional character because it is both a basis for interpretation and a guide to action . Organisational members gain a perception of the kind of policies, practices and procedures that are rewarded, supported, and expected and that indicate the sort of goals that are important to the organisation and how they are to be achieved (Kopelman, Brief, & Guzzo, 1990). Thus, as is clear from some of the previous examples given of climate studies, climate researchers have been concerned to establish links between climate and organisational variables in an attempt to explicate behaviour - in particular, employee behaviour - within organisations.

Because climate is conceptualised as an intervening variable between organisational inputs and outputs, climate studies have tended to focus on the search for both the antecedents to an organisation's climate and outcomes of particular climate states. For instance, James and James (1989) showed that

climate was linked to antecedents such as structure, socialisation, and context variables including technology. Aspects of human resource practice such as

goal emphasis or reward orientation, as well as organisation deSign, have been linked to climate (Kopelman et a l ., 1990) and have been found to have a Significant, indirect effect on customer satisfaction (Rogg, Schmidt, Shull, & Schmitt, 2001). Management support has been shown to contribute directly to job satisfaction and work effort and indirectly to customer perceptions of employee service quality (Yoon et al., 2001).

Climate has also been linked to individual outcomes such as effort, citizenship behaviours, job satisfaction, staff turnover and productivity (Hackman & Oldham, 1976; James _& Tetrick, 1986; Reichers _& Schneider, 1990; Schneider & Bowen, 1985) and to organisation-level outcomes such as organisational effectiveness and effiCiency, technical performance, corporate performance and safety effectiveness (Kangis & Williams, 2000; Kopelman et al., 1 990; Kozlowski & Hults, 1987; Zohar, 1980). Of particular interest to the research

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presented here is the demonstration of a significant relationship between employee perceptions of climate on the one hand and customer satisfaction and customer reports of service quality on the other (Schneider et al., 2000; Wiley & Brooks, 2000). A major outcome of these studies, therefore, was that they appeared to demonstrate a causal link between climate and elements of organisational performance.

2.4.3 Climate and culture

As noted above, a fundamental controversy in the literature has been the confusion between climate and culture. The popular use of the term culture as applied in the management literature to organisations is linked to the symbolic interaction and social constructionist theories of cultural anthropologists and ethnographers such as Margaret Mead (1901-1978), but it was not until the early 1980s that "the cultural perspective burst onto the organizational studies scene" (Denison, 1996, p. 619) . Although previous writers such as Barnard (1938) had discussed the importance of norms and values in organisations, it was Pettigrew (1979) who initiated contemporary i nterest in the notion that organisations have cultures with his article tracing the development of an organisation's culture over time. Deal and Kennedy's (1982) classic was followed by a plethora of studies, both scholarly (e.g. Schein , 1985) and popular (e.g. Peters & Waterman, 1982).

In spite of the fact that the terms climate and culture have clearly different origins and are based on discrete intellectual traditions, Schneider's (1985) comment that they were "used interchangeably for years" (p. 595) points to the blurring that has existed between them. By the late 1980s, some consensus seems to have emerged that climate referred to. organisational members'

perceptions of a set of organisational dimensions (Reichers & Sch neider, 1990) whereas the ter m culture was applied to the inherent nature of a n organisation's values, beliefs and assumptions. "Culture exists at a higher level of abstraction than climate and climate is a manifestation of culture" (Reichers

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& Schneider, 1990, p. 29); organisational culture deals with beliefs, perceptions and behaviour whereas organisational climate has been built up from measures or qualitative assessments of individual perception (Pettigrew, 1990).

Differences also became apparent in the purposes of cli mate studies and culture studies. Climate studies commonly view organisations as rational entities with defined purposes and are concerned with explaining why some organisations are more effective than others, as well as focusing on the behaviour of organisational members with a view to managing and - possibly - changing that behaviour. Culture studies tend to focus on an understanding of behavioural motivators, language, or symbolism (Hoy, Tarter, & Kottkamp, 1991; Reichers & Schneider, 1990) using description and comparison, that is, looking at the dimensions of one culture and comparing them with another.

Despite perceived differences between climate and culture, it is indeed important to remind ourselves how closely related they a re, as Reichers and Schneider (1990) commented:

Both climate and culture deal with the ways by which organization members make sense of their environment. These sense-making attempts manifest themselves as shared meanings that form the basis for action. Both climate and culture are learned, largely through the socialization process and through symbolic interaction among group members. (p. 29)

Each of the two concepts should therefore be viewed as i mportant for an understa nding of the other. In particular, cli mate studies should be acknowledged for their key role in providing insight i nto a n organisation's culture. A number of writers (e.g. Turnipseed, 1988) have conceptualised climate as existing within culture and have acknowledged the possible mutual effects the two concepts have on each other. Climate is "the top layer on an organization's culture" and culture includes climate (Schneider & Bowen, 1995,

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p. 239). According to Verbeke et al . (1998), "organisational climate is created by a group of interacting individuals who share a common frame of reference, i .e., the organisation's culture, as they come to terms with situational contingencies" (p. 308).

Sparrow and Gaston (1996) likewise perceived "considerable overlap between the two, with climate resulting from an organization's cultu re" (p. 694). Increasingly, therefore, climate is being seen as a "window" into the culture of an organisation . While the two concepts are different, climate is a useful indicator of culture (Payne, 2000) . In Denison's (1996) view, culture and

dimate are merely different components or interpretations of the same phenomenon . Recent research (Glisson & James, 2002), however, provided some evidence in support of the view that dimate and culture are separate constructs.

2.4.4 Climate studies in services and education

Since the emerging popularity of the climate concept in the 1950s and 1960s, a conSiderable number of climate studies have been carried out in a wide range of industry and organisation types. Two areas of climate research that might be expected to be of interest for a study of service climate in ELCs are those of

dimate in educational contexts and climate in service contexts. Although the two research streams share some common ground and claim to be studying what is essentially the same concept, rather different approaches have been taken and different emphases laid by the researchers in each case.

Education climate researchers have focused on climate type classification and in particular on identifying "positive", "healthy" or "open", a s opposed to "negative", "unhealthy" or "closed" cli mates (Deer, 1980; Halpin & Croft, 1962, 1963; Hoy et al., 1991). Such an approach is not evident in the services climate literature. The main thrust there has been to link employee perceptions of key

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dimensions of a service organisation's climate with perceptions of effectiveness, such as customer satisfaction.

This fundamental difference in approaches may be a reflection of the respective commercial/non-commercial orientations of the types of organisations studied. However, it serves to underline the difficulties involved in attempting to apply lessons from these two - ostensibly similar but in fact rather diverse - research streams to a study of ELC service, which might seem to synthesise elements of both. While the two streams can offer valuable data, there are in fact problems that urge caution when attempting to apply their findings to a study of ELC service climate.

The small body of extant climate for service research has focused largely on banks, financial institutions, and retail outlets and the researchers were able to access sizeable respondent populations within large national organisations. Such organisations are likely to differ somewhat from ELC service operations in terms of size, the nature of the work, the status of the service providers, the structures, the reporting relationships, and the organisational cultures.

Similar problems exist in relation to educational climate research. Much of it has focused on US, British or Australian public or state school or college systems (Deer, 1980; Halpin & Croft, 1962, 1963; Hoy et al., 1991). Studies of school climate have tended to be generic, that is, studies of climate per se and not deconstructed into discrete climates (see below) . Furthermore, such studies have tended to focus on issues that are literally foreign to the type of educational institution which is the subject of this report, for example issues such as school diSCipline, parental involvement, or the widespread use and effectiveness of standardised national achievement tests. Intrinsic features of the schools studied differ so markedly from those of ELCs that it is difficult to establish any commonality. Differences include the range of subjects taught, the duration of the student's association with the institution, the relative

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institution sizes, the class sizes, age parameters, student characteristics and cultural backgrounds, as well as modes of assessment and teaching culture.

The large number of college and university climate studies similarly tend to be focused on institutions in the USA but, in contrast to the school climate research, are almost completely deconstructed, focusing on specific domains. These often refer to quasi-societal themes such as the treatment and integration of minorities or disciplinary issues (e.g. Heggins, 2001 ; Pewewardy

& Frey, 2002; pfeifer & Schneider, 1 974), topics that may have little relevance to ELC service. A search of the various databases could not locate any studies of service climate within an educational context.

For these reasons, the sizeable corpus of studies in educational climate have been discounted as pertinent to this study. The literature on service climate is dealt with below (Section 2.4.7).

2.4.5 Climate problems and controversies

Despite some consensus on a conceptualisation of climate by the early 1970's, the concept continued to be "ambiguous, nebulous and controversial (Fumham, 1997, p. 581) and the area of climate research "a conceptual morass" (Glick, 1 985, p. 60 1 ) . There perSisted " many conflicting definitions of cli mate, inconsistencies in operationalisation a nd little theoretical integration" (Rousseau, 1988, p. 140). A number of problems and controversies continue to surround the climate concept and some of these are discussed below .

• Climate - objective or subjective?

A controversy surrounds the issue of whether climate is subjective orobjective. The subjective view sees climate as the perception of the organisational environment held by its members. That is, climate represents a cognitive