Content area
Full text
Introduction
Although many U.S. businesses are experiencing increased demands for their products and services, it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to maintain an elevated status within their respective industries. For example, companies are being challenged to develop and maintain a competitive workforce. With unemployment rates at an all time low, some employees are taking advantage of the highly favourable and lucrative job market by seeking new positions that allow them to maximize their earning potential and employer-provided benefits. Other employees are experiencing rapid changes in technology.
As a result, their day-to-day activities are constantly fluctuating, making it difficult for them to consistently produce at their highest levels. To remain competitive and maintain a competent workforce, management teams are now focusing their attention on a key component of their company's success -- the organizational climate.
Measuring Organizational Climate
At its most basic level, organizational climate refers to employee perceptions of their work environment. Generally, these perceptions are descriptively based rather than value based. For example, the phrase "I have more work to do than I can possibly finish" is a description of a person's workload, while the phrase "I like my job" is a positive evaluation of one's job. Thus, organizational climate is more than simply a summary of employee likes and dislikes.
The assessment of organizational climate typically occurs via an off-the-shelf or customized survey containing questions about the work environment. Although administration procedures used when conducting a survey can vary, ideally employees are asked to report to a designated work-site at a scheduled time to complete the survey, and employee participation is voluntary.
Selecting A Survey
Once a decision is made to conduct an organizational survey, it can be difficult to identify the "right" survey to use. Although not a comprehensive list, the following factors may be helpful in reducing the number of survey choices.
Determine the scope of information included in the survey. As might be imagined, there are a large number of organizational climate areas that exist. Recent research has identified over 460 different types of work environment characteristics that have been measured. Many of these characteristics can be classified into the...