ORGANISASJONSKLIMA—ET FRYNSETE BEGREP I ORGANISASJONSPSYKOLOGIEN

Abstract

Artikkelen omhandler begrepet organisasjons- klima, særlig med henblikk på en mer entydig operasjonalisering. Forfatteren foreslår en operasjonalisering som klarere skjelner begrepet fra arbeidstrivsel og jobbinnhold ut ira to dimen-sjoner: variabelnivå og itembeskrivelse, dvs. om utsagnene i klimaindeksen utformes deskriptivt eller affektivt/evaluativt. Artikkelen bygger på en empirisk undersakelse som forfattaren utførte i åtte organisasjoner i Tanzania.

SUMMARY

The paper deals with the concept of organizational climate, particularly problems related to operationalization and measurement of the construct. The author discusses tautological confusions as regards the related concepts of job satisfaction and job characteristics. It is argued that the operationalization procedure should take into account two major dimensions: the level of the construct, that is, climate as an organizational vs. an individual variable, and the item formulation, that is, climate items as descriptive vs. affective/evaluative of organizational conditions. This analysis concludes that the construct should be operationalized as an organizational variable in a descriptive manner, while job satisfaction should be operationalized at the individual level in an affective/evaluative manner, and job characteristics as an individual variable in a descriptive manner in order to avoid further tautological confusions.

The author also discusses work group climate in contrast to organizational climate, and suggests that the former may be measured in a more reliable and valid way than the more molar concept of organizational climate. It is also argued that a climate for “something”, that is, leadership climate, climate for conflict resolution, etc., may be more meaningful than the omnibus concept of organizational climate if the investigation is aimed at finding relationships with other variables of the work context and environment. Furthermore, ratings of organizational climate by external change agents (OD-experts), who have longstanding hermeneutical relationships with the investigated organizations, are discussed. Finally, intraorganizational vs. interorganizational climate differences are discussed. Some of the problems are highlighted and statements supported by data from an investigation by the author of a sample of 336 individuals in eight production firms and higher educational institutions in Tanzania.