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Organisation is a function of People. It is clear that it is people (your employees) who drive your bottom line.
What type of organisational climate will ATTRACT, ENGAGE and RETAIN good employees (motivated, committed, diligent, dedicated) who bring results?
People (employees) want to work in an acceptable, conducive organisational climate. Organisational climate is the quality of the organisational environment subjectively perceived or experienced by the organisation’s members (e.g. employees in the case of the workplace). |
POD:StaffScan is the instrument to sense employee engagement and organisational climate |
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Dimensions
- to gauge organisation climate
The dimensions often used by organisations, worldwide, to gauge organisational climate are:
- Structure and constraint
- The warmth, support and encouragement that is experienced
- The emphasis on reward and punishment
- Perceived performance standards to meet
Provided with a conducive workplace climate, employees are motivated – achievement motivation, power motivation, affiliation motivation. It is the motivation that drives them towards goal achievement. It is not something done to them but something done by themselves. Employee motivation and behaviour is influenced by the organisational climate and its leadership style. The right climate will lead to significant, often dramatic, effects on employee motivation and, correspondingly on performance and job satisfaction. |
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Measuring OrganiSational Climate
The study of climate requires some method of assessment and measurement; an instrument that would collect members’ perceptions of and subjective responses to the organisational environment. POD:StaffScan is it – see box. The climate of an organisation could then be defined operationally as the sum of the perceptions of the individuals working in that organisation. The dimensions for an organisational climate survey include: |
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| 1. Objective |
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Determine if organisational climate is conducive to support and ensure the success of corporate or business objectives consistently. |
| 2. Responses To The Survey Of The Organisational Climate Are Measured Against |
- Compliance to Procedures
- Responsibility
- Standards of Excellence
- Rewards and Recognition
- Clearness
- Fellowship and Affiliation
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| 3. Definitions Of Factors |
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i) Compliance To Procedure (Or Conformity) |
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The feeling that there are many externally imposed constraints in the company; the degree to which employees feel that there are many rules, procedures, policies and practices to which they have to conform rather than being able to do their work as they see fit. |
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ii) Responsibility |
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Employees of the company are given personal responsibility to achieve their part of the company’s goals; the degree to which employees feel that they can make decisions and to solve problems without checking with superiors each step of the way. The feeling that employees have independence of personal action and a lot of responsibility delegated to them in carrying out their jobs; the degree to which they can run their jobs on their own and feel encouraged to take some risks than play it safe constantly. |
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iii) Standards Of Excellence |
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The emphasis the company places on quality performance and outstanding production including the degree to which the employee feels the company is setting challenging goals for itself and communicating these goal commitment to employees. Also, the degree of pressure felt for continued improvement of personal and group performance |
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iv) Rewards And Recognition |
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The degree to which employees feel that they are being recognised and rewarded for good work, and given support, rather than being criticised and punished when something goes wrong. |
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v) Clearness Of Company (i.e. Organisational Clarity) |
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The feeling among employees that things are well organised and goals are clearly defined rather than being disorderly, confused, or chaotic. Includes the degree to which management communicates its own goals and policies. |
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vi) Fellowship And Affiliation |
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The feeling that friendliness is a valued norm in the company; that employees trust one another and offer support to one another. The feeling that good relationships prevail in the work place. There is esprit de corps that an employee feels prevailing in the company as a whole. |
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Illustration 1 shows the consolidated responses, in a recent survey of near 600 employees, to the 6 Factors. It covered all levels of employees (corporate leaders and staff) expressing their feelings of the actual climate prevailing and their preferred climate; and thirdly the preferred climate of the corporate leaders only, which sets the norm. |
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- There is a very large gap between group “actual” and “preferred”.
- The gap between the “preferred” of the leaders and that of the rest is very often insignificant
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Conclusion:
Leaders, and the employees they lead, share the same goals but it is the prevailing unconducive climate that is causing employees to hold back as the motivation to deliver the shared vision is not there. |
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POD:StaffScan is the instrument you use to conduct a climate (or staff engagement; or staff satisfaction) survey |
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