Determinants of organisational climate for academia

Abstract

Being aware of the factors that develop a positive organisational climate is especially important in universities, where the academic members of staff are, in large measure, self-motivated. To identify the determinants of organisational climate for university academia, the validity and reliability of the first-order constructs of autonomy, cohesion and pressure were examined. These three constructs were found to have inadequate validity in this environment. The remaining five valid constructs indicated a second-order organisational climate construct organisational climate was influenced by support, followed by trust and fairness, and then by recognition and innovation. The findings of our study will assist university managers to identify areas to focus upon when developing their academic staff in the pursuit of improving the organisational climate.

Keywords:

• academic staff
• management
• organisational climate driver
• university

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Carla Taines, Professor Barrow and the journal's anonymous reviewers for their valuable insights in the review and improvement of this paper.