Like this:

For the last few years my organization has been talking about administering a climate survey. We first began discussing the need for administering a climate survey back in 2006 but had not taken any actions towards doing so. In 2006 I was gung ho about the survey but five years later not so much. I think my perspective has changed because deciphering organizational culture and assessing the climate is hard. So after years of discussions, we will finally be administering a survey in spring 2012 with the hope of gaining a better understanding our organizational health. Earlier this week, I attended a presentation about the survey instrument that will be used. I walked away from the presentation questioning my definition and understanding of the connection between organizational climate and organizational culture.

Until this class, I used to think that culture and climate were one in the same. I’ve actually used the terms interchangeably to mean the same thing when in fact they are very different concepts. Schein tells us that climate is better thought of as the product of some of the underlying assumptions and is therefore a manifestation of the culture.” In our text, Schein defines organizational culture as “a pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way you perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.” The survey instrument says that “organizational climate refers to the interpretative frameworks shared by employees regarding the priorities of their organization and it helps them understand what behavior is rewarded, supported, and expected in the organization. Employees develop these organizational perceptions as a result of their attempts to make “sense” of the policies, practices, and procedures endorsed and enacted in an organization.” Fortunately, this clarification will help me we move forward with assessing our climate. My only wish is that we were administering the survey now as it would enrich my understanding of the organization’s culture.   The feedback would probably help me to decipher the culture as well.

In preparing to administer the survey my organization has appointed a taskforce to lead the efforts in educating the staff on why we are doing the survey, the types of questions to expect on the survey, and the types of incentives that are being offered. One of the key tasks that the taskforce will take towards educating the staff is to meet with every department. My guess is that the real purpose of the meetings is to make a compelling case with the staff as to why they should carve out 40 minutes of their time to complete the 200 QUESTION survey. My knee jerk reaction is that no one will want to complete such a long survey especially since our experience with surveys in the past is that nothing ever happens with the data. So the departmental meetings are absolutely necessary because the staff will want assurance of the senior leadership’s commitment to do something with the data after the survey results have been analyzed. I’m also thinking that a secondary purpose of the meetings is to assure the staff that something will be done with the actionable items.

I think some of our staff, myself included, will be apprehensive about the survey for this very reason. It reminds of an exercise that we did two years ago to identify services and functions that we could stop doing as a result of the shrinking budgets. Part of this process was asking the staff to complete a questionnaire. The survey had a wonderful response rate and the staff had identified some wonderful suggestions for services and functions that we could stop but nothing ever happened with the information. I believe the fact that the senior leadership chose not to act on any of suggestions made the staff feel as if their opinions did not matter. Hopefully, we’ve learned something from that mistake.

The more I’ve learned about organizational culture and climate the more my excitement about the climate survey increases. The purpose of the survey is to capture staff perceptions concerning the organizations’ commitment to the principles of diversity, organizational policies and procedures, and staff attitudes. The survey addresses a number of climate issues, such as diversity, teamwork, learning, and fairness, as well as current managerial practices, and staff attitudes and beliefs. Overall it should help us identify our organizational weaknesses. As I mentioned about, the survey consists of 200 questions in nine climate dimensions, seven organizational attitude scales, and additional demographic questions. The core scales are:

 Organizational Climate

1. Organizational Climate for Justice
2. Climate for Leadership
3. Climate for Deep Diversity
4. Climate for Demographic Diversity
5. Climate for Innovation: Co-Workers
6. Climate for Continual Learning
7. Climate for Teamwork
8. Climate for Customer Service
9. Climate for Psychological Safety

Organizational Attitudes

1. Job Satisfaction
2. Organizational Commitment
3. Organizational Citizenship Behaviors
4. Organizational Withdrawal
5. Team Psychological Empowerment inf the Workplace
6. Task Engagement
7. Work Unit Conflict

After reviewing the survey’s core scales, I’m anxious to hear my department’s initial reaction to the survey.  I’m equally interested in seeing how the organization plans to use the information. The goal is to use this information to improve our organizational climate and diversity culture for delivering superior services. I hope the organization is ready for what it’s going to learn from the survey.

Advertisement