Creating a conducive climate

We go to Nuwaraeliya to enjoy its climate. What is the relevance of climate to organisations? How can we create a conducive climate in order to ensure high performance? Today’s column deals with climate in corporations. 

Overview

Culture is deeper. Climate is the surface. This is one crude way of differentiating the two. Climate refers to those aspects of the environment that are consciously perceived by organisational members. Perception is essentially an understanding based on the information obtained by senses such as eyes and ears. Hence, climate is something people see, hear and feel. That is why we see a difference when we enter a hospital, police station or a restaurant. In summary, climate is what we see and feel when we enter an organisation, whereas, culture is something much deeper as bedrock.

Hamel and Prahalad (1989) discuss a supportive organisational climate which includes creating a sense of urgency, developing a competitor focus at every level, providing employees with the skills they need to work effectively, gives the organisation time to digest one challenge before launching another, establishing milestones and reviewing mechanisms, etc. The researcher is of the view that even though the word climate is used, their real intention is to highlight organisational readiness in competing in a competitive environment.

Closer look at climate

As organisational researchers attempted to clarify, climate is a perception and is descriptive. Employees distinguish between the actual situation (culture) and the perception of it (climate). Reichers and Schneider (1990) define organisational climate as “the shared perception of the way things are done around here”.

Pareek (1997) describes it as “the perceived attributes of an organisation and its subsystems, as reflected in the way an organisation deals with its members, groups and issues.” As he points out, the emphasis is on perceived attributes and the working of subsystems. Subsystems are the components of a system called the organisation. It has inputs such as resources and outputs such as products and services. Thus, what the researcher attempts to emphasise is the need to understand an organisation in total as well as its components.

As Fink (1983) suggested, there are dimensions along which the organisational climate may vary. Table 1 contains the details.

The dimensions given in the table highlights a wide array of possibilities do determine the shape of climate. Let’s take the first one, conflicted vs. cooperative as an example. There can be a scene where internal politics play a role in creating regular conflicts. Obviously, then the employees perceive the climate as a conflicting one. The opposite of it is when team work is at its best, with people supporting one another. Then the perception is more of a cooperative climate.

Tendencies for a conducive climate

On a similar line, Rao (1990) prescribes the following tendencies for a conducive climate for people development. He uses the term Human Resource Development Climate to describe it.

• A tendency at all levels and specially the top management to treat people as the most important resource.
• A perception that developing competencies in the employee is the job of every manager/ supervisor.
• Faith in the capability of people of changing and acquiring new competencies at any stage of life.
• A tendency to open communication.
• A tendency to encourage risk-taking.
• A tendency to help employees recognise their strengths and weaknesses.
• A general climate of trust.
• A tendency for employees to be generally helpful to each other and collaborate.
• Team spirit.
• A tendency to discourage favouritism and biases.
• Supportive personnel policies.
• Development-oriented appraisals, training, rewards, job-rotation, career planning and potential appraisal.   

The details that Fink et al. (1983) presented and what Rao (1990) highlighted have many similarities. In fact, Pareek (1990) uses the term OCTAPACE to identify them in a nutshell. It is an acronym for openness, collaboration, trust, authenticity, pro-action, autonomy, confrontation and experimentation. Let’s look into them in detail, in the Sri Lankan context.

A glance at OCTAPACE

Assessing the OCTAPACE in the context of Sri Lankan organisations is an interesting endeavour.

Hence, we should assess the potential usages for every element in the grid.

Openness

Employees feel free to express their ideas, when the climate has openness as a key feature. There is hardly any risk of employees being punished for telling the truth or for constructively being critical. It is in fact a mature state of affairs with sound communication practices across the organisation.

Sri Lankan organisations in general have a long way to go with this respect. What we mostly have resembles a part of a nursery rhyme, “Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full”. Ability to say no to seniors even when it is the reality is sadly lacking in some cases.

Confrontation

The point here is to confront the issues without hiding them under the carpet.  It is a case of tackling bull by the horn. Highlighting the issues will pave way for solutions without stagnation.

We have a cultural disadvantage here.  Confronting issues may be perceived as asking for troubles. Delaying and delaying as much as possible has become the practice in resolving issues.  This escape route is not healthy for any progressive organisation. Perhaps, why people are not doing it enough could be deficits in communication, training and performance management.

Trust

How much the employees trust one another is the focus here, with specific reference to leader behaviour. Some seniors become micro-managers in checking each and every step of their subordinate movements. It indicates a low level of trust. In contrast, there can be a climate where people are encouraged to take own initiatives to achieve agreed targets.  We see both the above scenarios in Sri Lankan organisations. It again reflects the link between deep foundations of culture and what can be seen. A climate of trust has been the proven way forward.

Authenticity

It is the value underlying trust. It is the willingness of a person to acknowledge the feelings he/she has, and accept himself/herself as well as others who relate to him/her as persons. The call is to be genuine, without posing as what one is not. When employees demonstrate authenticity, relationship building becomes much easier.

Sri Lankan scenario is often a mixed one with this regard. A lot depends on the leadership style. There are model organisations where authenticity is fostered, with fullest support from the top.

Pro-activity

This is the call to be pro-active rather than re-active. Employees should be action – oriented, in making things happen. It is a case of anticipating issues and exploit opportunities appropriately.

Sri Lankan organisations can improve a lot in this respect. We are more reactive then pro-active. Waiting till the last moment to make key decisions has become a national habit. Prolonged union issues were seen in the past when proactive steps were not taken by the respective managers.

Autonomy

It is the willingness to use power without fear, and helping others to do the same. Employees should have some freedom to act independently within the boundaries imposed by their role. The essence is empowering the employees. We have a long way to go in the local context. The consolation is that HRM is increasingly taken more seriously by the corporate leaders, and degree of empowerment is also on the rise.  

Collaboration

Collaboration involves working together and using one another’s strength for a common cause. Individuals, instead of solving their problems by themselves, should share their concerns with one another and prepare strategies, work out plans of action, and implement them together. It essentially refers to teaming together.

We see a growing emphasis on team work and collaboration in Sri Lankan organisations. Specially in the private sector, the team concept is highly emphasised. However, in some cases the working as a team is just confined to wearing a T-shirt with team details (Team-X, Team – Y etc), which obviously limits collaboration.

Experimentation

Experimenting as a value emphasises the importance given to innovation. It involves risk taking and trying out new ways of dealing with problems in the organisation. Unless there is a tolerance of failures, experimentation will not foster. The encouragement should come from the organisation to encourage people to experiment within a reasonably accepted risk levels.

We can do more in this regard in Sri Lankan organisations. Whether we more creativity oriented or compliance oriented is the fundamental question. The challenge is to strike a balance between experimentation and expected results.

Way forward

We looked into what, why and how of a conducive climate. Sri Lankan organisations should pay more attention to this critical aspect that can make or break productive way of reaching goals. The subtleness of climate can be rather deceptive for decision makers to simply ignore, and to see the ugly consequences only late.  

The need is to broaden our understanding on the deeply rooted organisational culture and its manifestations as climate.  

The challenge is to convert this clarity into committed action, in moving beyond chaos to achieve concrete results.

(Dr. Ajantha Dharmasiri is a learner, teacher, trainer, researcher, writer and a thinker in the areas of Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour.  He can be reached on [email protected].)