Organization Climate versus Organizational Culture

Organization Climate versus Organizational Culture. Which do you need to watch out for.

Simply put, organizational culture is what the employee sees, and in turn what forms their beliefs, expectations and values about the organization. These underlying aspects of a firm may not even be consciously realized, but are apparent in the day to day functionality of the firm.  In a firm transitioning its culture if they follow certain plans they can be more successful.   It can be better demonstrated with the HOME model.  The organization must have a sense of history, create a sense of oneness/uniformity, promote a sense of membership and facilitate exchange of ideas among members. These tasks help make a more cohesive culture where a more positive outcome may arise.

Organizational climate is the physical nature of the organization.  For example it would be hard to have a high self image if the business was in dilapidated offices or if the CEO was dressed like a bum.  This is true of employees as well as customers.  A customer can feel the climate of a business just by walking in.  Some retail stores are stand offish or very friendly.  A great example is n Apple retail store.  It’s designed to be light, airy and open.  The people are generally friendly and helpful and promote a positive climate.  It makes the customer feel like they want to stay longer and learn and ultimately buy.

Some employers have tenets of behavior, sometimes called leader behaviors or leader attributes.  These are the underlying tenets of what the CEO envisions the corporate culture to be.  These seven behaviors are well stated and nearly every aspect of our training and performance reviews are tied to them.  But the organizational climate is one of recent performance gains and productivity.  This creates some bad behaviors.  On one hand we have these great ideals that we should strive for in the work place, yet the underlying climate is to follow those is to be weak and you will be left behind and marked as a non performer.  As a new employee its very confusing.  It also means few people follow the stated culture but tend to adopt the climate which is far from healthy. 

I think the change would have been more effective had the leadership provided the rationale and reasons for the change and had the tenacity to eliminate those that failed to get on board. 

In my case, the differences between climate and culture do make an impact.  I must state my goals around the culture yet work to achieve them within the climate which puts the two at odds and leads to frustration and low morale.