title: Organizational climate configurations: relationships to collective attitudes, customer satisfaction, and financial performance.
abstract: Research on organizational climate has tended to focus on independent dimensions of climate rather than studying the total social context as configurations of multiple climate dimensions. The authors examined relationships between configurations of unit-level climate dimensions and organizational outcomes. Three profile characteristics represented climate configurations: (1) elevation, or the mean score across climate dimensions; (2) variability, or the extent to which scores across dimensions vary; and (3) shape, or the pattern of the dimensions. Across 2 studies (1,120 employees in 120 bank branches and 4,317 employees in 86 food distribution stores), results indicated that elevation was related to collective employee attitudes and service perceptions, while shape was related to customer satisfaction and financial performance. With respect to profile variability, results were mixed. The discussion focuses on future directions for taking a configural approach to organizational climate.
authors.affiliation: Management Department, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. mschulte@wharton.upenn.edu
authors.forename: Mathis
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schulte
authors.forename: Cheri
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ostroff
authors.forename: Svetlana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shmulyian
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kinicki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D003258:Consumer Behavior / Q000191:economics*; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational / Q000191:economics*; D005260:Female; D019649:Food Industry / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration; D006608:Hierarchy, Social; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D015279:Organizational Culture; D009937:Organizational Objectives / Q000191:economics; D010558:Personnel Loyalty; D012925:Social Conformity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires