Benjamin Schneider

Organizational Climate and Culture

Organizational climate and organizational culture theory and research are reviewed. The article is first framed with definitions of the constructs, and preliminary thoughts on their interrelationships are noted. Organizational climate is briefly defined as the meanings people attach to interrelated bundles of experiences they have at work. Organizational culture is briefly defined as the basic assumptions about the world and the values that guide life in organizations. A brief history of climate research is presented, followed by the major accomplishments in research on the topic with regard to levels issues, the foci of climate research, and studies of climate strength. A brief overview of the more recent study of organizational culture is then introduced, followed by samples of important thinking and research on the roles of leadership and national culture in understanding organizational culture and performance and culture as a moderator variable in research in organizational behavior. The final section of the article proposes an integration of climate and culture thinking and research and concludes with practical implications for the management of effective contemporary organizations. Throughout, recommendations are made for additional thinking and research.

Linking Service Climate and Customer Perceptions of Service Quality: Test of a Causal Model

A set of foundation issues that support employee work and service quality is conceptualized as a necessary but not sufficient cause of a climate for service, which in turn is proposed to be reflected in customer experiences. Climate for service rests on the foundation issues, but in addition it requires policies and practices that focus attention directly on service quality. Data were collected at multiple points in time from employees and customers of 134 branches of a bank and analyzed via structural equation modeling. Results indicated that the model in which the foundation issues yielded a climate for service, and climate for service in turn led to customer perceptions of service quality, fit the data well. However, subsequent cross-lagged analyses revealed the presence of a reciprocal effect for climate and customer perceptions. Implications of these results for theory and research are offered.

Employee and Customer Perceptions of Service in Banks.

This research was partially supported by the organizations in which the study was accomplished; we thank them for their financial and psychological assistance. Bruce Katcher and Hannah Hirsh helped with some of the analyses reported herein. Our colleagues Phil Bobko, Pete Dachler, Irv Goldstein, Nancy Jagmin, Janina Latack, and John Slocum helped us with their valuable comments on an earlier version of this article.

Climate strength: a new direction for climate research.

Climate strength was conceptualized within D. Chans (1998) discussion of compositional models and the concept of culture strength from the organizational culture literature. Climate strength was operationalized in terms of within-group variability in climate perceptions-the less within-group variability, the stronger the climate. The authors studied climate strength in the context of research linking employee service climate perceptions to customer satisfaction. The hypothesis was tested that climate strength moderates the relationship between employee perceptions of service climate and customer satisfaction experiences. Partial support for the hypothesis was reported in both a concurrent and predictive (3-year) test across 118 branches of a bank. In the predictive study only the interaction of climate and climate strength predicted customer satisfaction. Implications for future research on climate and climate strength are discussed.

Creating a climate and culture for sustainable organizational change

I t happens all too often. A company introduces changes with high expectations of improving performance. When the changes fail to take root and produce intended results, the unfulfilled hopes lead management to introduce other seemingly promising changes. These, too, ultimately fail. The sequence repeats—an unending cycle of high expectations followed by failure and, inevitably, frustration on the part of management and cynicism on the part of workers. There are several possible reasons for these dysfunctional spirals. Here, we concentrate on one key reason: that changes introduced fail to alter the fundamental psychology or ‘‘feel’’ of the organization to its members. As we detail below, it is this ‘‘feel’’ that directs and motivates employee efforts. Without changing this psychology, there can be no sustained change. Here is the central point: organizations as we know them are the people in them; if the people do not change, there is no organizational change. Changes in hierarchy, technology, communication networks, and so forth are effective only to the degree that these structural changes are associated with changes in the psychology of employees. When AT&T went through divestiture in the early 1980s, its greatest challenge was to change the psychology of its people, from the attitude ‘‘we are a monopoly and have time to do things the way we think best’’ to ‘‘we have to compete in the market and pay attention to our customers and the competition—and do so rapidly.’’ Divestiture provided the crisis necessary to

A passion for service : using content analysis to explicate service climate themes

Описывается исследование фирмы, оказывающей финансовые услуги. Организационный климат организации определяется как рабочие условия, являющиеся результатом восприятия работниками событий, инструкций и процедур, так же как и восприятие ими поведения, которое ожидается, поддерживается и вознаграждается. В исследовании использовалась комбинация полуструктурированного интервью со стандартизованным вопросником. Было опрошено около 350 работников. Их просили оценить восприятие услуг клиентами компании. В результате была описана практика, ориентированная на обслуживание клиентов, которая сильно коррелировала с практикой фирмы в области управления человеческими ресурсами (например, обучение, оценка исполнения). С помощью успешного совмещения качественных и количественных методов диагностики организационного климата авторы показали, что практика управления человеческими ресурсами может придавать определенный смысл и значение ориентации работников на клиента. Результаты исследования дают возможность предположить, что важными концептуальными элементами организационного климата, ориентированного на обслуживание клиентов, являются такие латентные переменные, как внимание и забота о работниках и внимание к клиентам. (С.А. Липатов)

Which Comes First: Employee Attitudes or Organizational Financial and Market Performance?

Employee attitude data from 35 companies over 8 years were analyzed at the organizational level of analysis against financial (return on assets; ROA) and market performance (earnings per share: EPS) data using lagged analyses permitting exploration of priority in likely causal ordering. Analyses revealed statistically significant and stable relationships across various time lags for 3 of 7 scales. Overall Job Satisfaction and Satisfaction With Security were predicted by ROA and EPS more strongly than the reverse (although some of the reverse relationships were also significant); Satisfaction With Pay suggested a more reciprocal relationship with ROA and EPS. The discussion of results provides a preliminary framework for understanding issues surrounding employee attitudes, high-performance work practices, and organizational financial and market performance.

Some Correlates of Experienced Job Stress: A Boundary Role Study

Bank branch employees and customers from 23 branches of a large commercial bank responded to questionnaires designed to assess issues regarding employee perceptions of managements orientation to s...

Serving multiple masters: role conflict experienced by service employees

Customer‐contact employees are a critical asset of service organizations due to the interactive nature of service delivery. Customer‐contact employees are boundary spanners who attempt to serve both internal and external constituents. Attempting to serve two masters can result in role conflict and the present effort presents and tests a framework for understanding possible antecedents and consequences of such role conflict. Survey data collected from 200 telephone service employees in an insurance company revealed at least partial support for the following hypotheses: role conflict emerges when there is a discrepancy between what employees think customers expect of them and what they report management rewards them for doing; role conflict, in turn, is related to employee attitudinal (e.g. job satisfaction) and behavioral (e.g. absenteeism) outcomes; and role conflict mediates the relationship between service orientation discrepancy and employee outcomes. Implications of the results for the management of service employees and service quality are presented.

HRM – A Service Perspective

First presents a brief overview of some research demonstrating a link between employee perceptions of the service firms for which they work and customer perceptions of the service quality they receive from those same firms. Followed by discussion of a framework that provides some insight into what customer‐focused HRM might look like. The framework focuses first on the kinds of strategic choices service firms must make (like whether to emphasize speed or tender loving care). Then some implications for HRM of these choices are outlined with research implications. Finally, it is argued that customer‐focused management in general (simultaneously of marketing, of HRM, of operations, etc.) might enhance competitiveness in the marketplace.