Features Of Organisational Climate Business Essay

The concept of organisational climate was introduced by the human relationists in the late 1940s. now it has become a very useful metaphor for thinking about and describing the social system.

Organisation climate is a relatively enduring quality of the internal environment that is experienced by its members, influences their behaviour, and can be described in terms of the values of a particular set of characteristics of the organisation. It is the manifestation of the attitudes of organisational member towards the organisation itself.

An organisation tends to attract and keep who fit its climate, so that its patterns are perpetuated at least to some extent.

FEATURES OF ORGANISATIONAL CLIMATE

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Organizational climate is an abstract and intangible concept. But it exercise a significant impact on the behavior and performance of organizational members.

It is perceived aspect of organisation’s internal environment.

Organizational climate refers to the relatively enduring characteristics which remain stable over a period of time.

It gives a distinct identity to organisation and differentiates it from other organisation.

It is a total expression of what the organisation is. It is the summary percepyion which people have about the organisation.

It is a multi-dimensional concept. It consists of all organizational factors, e.g., authority pattern, leadership pattern, communication pattern, control, etc.

ELEMENTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE

The important components that collectively represent the climate of an organisation are discussed below:

INDIVIDUAL AUTONOMY:

It implies the degree to which employees are free to manage themselves, have considerable decision-making power and are not continuously accountable to higher management. Thus, it means the individual’s freedom to exercise responsibility.

POSITION STRUCTURE:

it refers to the degree to which objectives of the job and methods for accomplishing it are established and communicated to the employees. In other words, it means the extent of direct supervision, formalization and centralization in an organisation.

REWARD ORIENTATION:

It means the degree to which an organisation rewards individuals for hard work or achievement. Reward orientation is high when an organisation orients people to perform better and rewards them for doing so.

TASK ORIENTATION:

if the management is task oriented, the leadership style will be autocratic. The employees will have to speed up the pace of work to please their bosses.

RELATIONS ORIENTATION:

The organizational climate will be considerate and supportive if the managers are relations-oriented while dealing with the workers. The needs and aspirations of the workers will be given due importance. This will produce team spirit in the organisation.

JOB SATISFACTION:

The satisfaction the workers get on their jobs is also an important component of organisational climate. The workers feel happy if the jobs are designed to allow the workers to use their innovative skills.

MORALE:

It represents a composite of feelings, attitudes, and sentiments of organisational members towards the organisation, superiors and fellow members. If it is high, there will be an atmosphere of cooperation in the organisation. But if the morale is low, there will be conflicts and poor cooperation among the workers. They will also feel disinterested in their work.

CONTROL:

The control systems may be either rigid or flexible. If the control is rigidly followed, there will be impersonal or bureaucratic in the organisation. The scope for self-regulation will be the minimum.

Organisational Climate and Effectiveness

Managerial Policies

Employees’ characteristics, perception, goals, abilities etc

Employee performance, satisfaction commitment

Organisation structure

ORGANISATIONAL CLIMATE

Technology

External environment

Organisational climate influences satisfaction and performance through change in behavior in different four ways:

It defines the stimuli for an individual through its various elements.

It places constraints upon individual freedom of choice and decision-making. The behavior is influenced by attaching different rewards and punishments to varying patterns of behavior.

It influences behavior through employee perception of the whole organisation and of his own ability. Perceived ability is influenced by the nature and clarity of job, degree of freedom, extent of authority, scope of responsibility, supervisory support, training, safety, physical working conditions, previous experience, and so on.

It influences behavior through evolution of the self and others; such evaluations are based on different physiological variables.

LOW PRODUVTIVITY http://www.3pvantage.com/images/Pain1.gif

When we work in an organizations, employees feel that they want to perform well, but internal and external factors destract from their working and they are not able to work according to their potential , the output which they are able to get is not achieved this is termed as low productivity.

The reasons for low performance and productivity:

NO BREAKS:

It means working for long hours without any break will lead to tiredness. The employees have to work for long hours hence it will result in low productivity. As they don’t get any break they will feel restless and are not able to perform to their capacity.

CYBER SLACKING:

It is becoming an important reason for reduced productivity in the organisation. In every organisation there is a internet access these days.many of the people instead of doing their regular work becomes bore and use internet for chating, facebook, playing games. Those few minutes can lead to twenty or thirty-minute, which can put a serious dent in worker work time.

MOBILE PHONES AND LATEST GADEGTS:

mobile phones are extremely hazardous to effective time management on the job. They are dangerous as they divert’s persons attention from work.nowdays people bring modern gadgets to their office as they are easy to use and most of the time remain indulge in that only.

CONSEQUENCES OF LOW PRODUCTIVITY

Stress:

Low productivity and stress are very commonly seen in a work environment. When employee is not able to perform well it can make the employee feel stressed and pressured.this feeling can further distract him from performing well and it will again result in low productivity.

Disorganization:

Low productivity in the workplace leads to general disorganization among the staff, as the workers fail to complete routine tasks. Communication between the employees is delayed, and deadlines or requests for assistance end up lost. Meetings can start late, run over the scheduled time or fail to address the true purpose for the discussion.

Conflict among employees:

Employees in an unproductive organisation typically start to fight among themselves, especially those employees who are “picking up the slack” for the lagging staff members by performing duties outside of their normal jobs. Management might have a difficult time solving interpersonal problems among the staff, because the frustration the situation causes can hamper reconciliation efforts.

Decline of profits:

When employees donot work to the level needed to achieve the organisation objective it cause the overall business profit to suffer.when work is not done in relation to time it will result in loss of customers, problem with suppliers and will hamper the goodwill of the firm.as supply will not be made according to demand it will result in lower profits.

ASENTEEISM

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Voluntary non attendance at work, without valid reason.

Absenteeism means either habitual evasion of work, or willful absence as in a strike action.

It does not include involuntary or occasional absence due to valid causes, or reasons beyond one’s control, such as accidents or sickness.

Each employer or any organisation expects employees to be on time as per the timings or scheduled fixed for the purpose.

Any deviation from the fixed time reporting results in loss to organisation.

When an employer fail to report at the exact time without any prior apporval he or she is termed as absent.

CAUSES OF ABSENTEISM

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Maladjustment with job demands.

Industrial fatigue

Unhealthy working condition

Social and religious ceremonials

Indebtness

Alcoholism

Unsound personnel policies

Maladjustment with working conditions

Unsatisfactory housing( conditions at the workplace)

Poor welfir facilities

Inadequate leave facilities

Low level of wages

Strict producers and policies of organisation

No source of relaxation

SOME IMPORTANT POINTS RELATED TO ABSENTEEISM

Organizations handle unscheduled absences in a number of ways. In some cases employees are simply not replaced, resulting in lost productivity. In other cases, organizations maintain excess staff, utilize overtime, or substitute with agency workers.

In any case, unscheduled absences are very disruptive to the business and result in increased indirect costs of absenteeism

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High-cost replacement of workers, the organization has to replace missing workers with other employees or contractors, and pay overtime or higher rates. Overtime levels are 28% higher in facilities with high absenteeism than in facilities with low absenteeism:

The manager should accurately and efficiently tracking absenteeism rates and patterns on a regular basis. The majority of organizations does not have an automated means to track every instance of absence in one system and therefore lack the visibility necessary to address this business problem.

Once the magnitude, patterns, and root causes of the problem are known, the manager can consider what steps need to be taken.

These may include using sophisticated rules engines and process automation to consistently enforce absence policies, ensuring compliance with union, state, and federal rules, improving absence management technology, and increasing employee satisfaction with the workplace.

Clearly the opportunity to reduce absence exists within all companies.

When workplaces begin to show symptoms of low productivity, managers need to make immediate changes. It is important to remember that humans feed on incentive and respond well to positive energy. To turn low productivity around and start motivating staff employers should take the following steps.

Review the company goals and objectives and share them with the entire team. Reward high performers through verbal recognition and additional recognition if possible.

Reduce meeting times and frequency to allow employees more time to achieve their goals.

Create guidelines for office environment (whether offices or open plan) that everyone respects and understands.

Reduce internal communications and provide guidelines for frequency i.e. email.

Enforcing vacation/holidays is another good way to inspire team members. It encourages them to make a good effort during their work hours and allows them to enjoy their time away from work. Asking staff for their involvement in developing procedures and increased efficiencies to be implemented is also a fantastic way to support employees, making them feel like they are part of the process.

Sharing good news stories and reporting positive customer feedback can also contribute toward’s an employee’s feeling of importance. Implementing stress management guidelines and healthy workplaces (exercise and eating with healthy food choices) to ensure employees have maximum energy to complete their daily work as well as providing training for those who feel they need additional help in certain areas will provide employees with supported.

Low productivity in the workplace can have a dramatic effect on the company but the moment managers see the signs there are immediate changes they make to help turn the situation around. Incentives such as improved training, holiday time and rewards can help increase an employee’s sense of job satisfaction. This will in turn make the workforce happier, healthier and more productive

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