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INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH IN BUSINESS
researchers generally less concerned with evolution but more concerned with the impact
that organizational system have on groups and individuals (Koys and DeCotiis, 1991).
Altman (2000) notes that organizational climate refers to employee perceptions of their
work environment. According to Glisson and James (2002) organizational culture
includes norms and expectations regarding how people behave and how things are done
in an organization, on the other hand, climate reflects workers‘ perception of and
emotional responses to their work environment (Glisson and James, 2002).
Generally speaking, organizational climate is perception of members about their work
environment and it is greatly influenced by individual attributes. Evans (2006) noted that
if the employees believe that their skills and competence as well as their individual
backgrounds are recognized, they feel motivated both to contribute and to learn from
their workplace environment. This can encourage continuous positive interactions
between employees and their workplace environments where employees‘ dispositions
and personal factors contribute to the shaping and reshaping of their workplace
environments. Furthermore, organizational climate is affected by many factors –
managerial style, mutual relations, organizational structure, demographic variables and it
is dimensioned by diver numbers of dimensions. A group of researchers analyzed and
suggested a significant relationship between demographic variables (age, education,
tenure) and climate dimensions (Forte & Hansvick, 1999; Sveiby & Simons, 2002;
Johnstone & Johnston, 2005; Hicks-Clarke & Iles, 2000; Karen, Clint & Sherry, 2002).
Therefore, the relationship between individual factors and organizational climate in
Pakistani industrial organizations is expected.
The remainder of this paper presents significance of the study and data which allow an
examination of the relationship discussed above.
2. Significance of The Study
As noted earlier, individual perceptions of organizational climate depend both upon
factors which influence the real nature of the climate and upon factors which affect the
individual's perceptions of it. When attention is focused on the individual level of
analysis individual differences in the perception of climate within organizations are likely
to be important in the understanding and prediction of individual behavior (Payne and
Mansfield, 1978), in terms of employees turnover. The consequences of high turnover are
both financial and non-financial. High turnover can be a serious hurdle to productivity,
quality, and profitability at firms of all sizes. For the smallest of companies, a high
turnover rate can mean that simply having enough staff to fulfill daily functions is a
challenge, even beyond the issue of how well the work is done when staff is available
(Iqbal, 2010).
Furthermore, there is a sufficient studies on organizational climate in the US or Western
contexts, rarely has this concept been examined in the context of developing countries
such as Pakistan. This study is an attempt to fill this gap in literature.
3. Purpose of the Study and Research Question
This study attempts to address the above mentioned gap in the current literature by
examining perceptions of organizational climate by the Pakistani industrial employees.
Therefore, the study assumed the following key research question:
COPY RIGHT © 2011 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research
JANUARY 2011
VOL 2, NO 9
513