CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY. NORTHRIDGE
A CASE STUDY OF ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE
IN A MAJOR INSURANCE COMPANY
A project submitted in partial satisfaction of the
requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts
in
Speech Communication
by
Elizabeth Ann Addington
January 1988
The Graduate Project of Elizabeth Ann Addington
is approved:
r.
Fe
r !YJarston
California State University, Northridge
ii
To Sam. Pat, Darcy, Leslie, Preston, Ricky,
Mildred, Kenneth, Betty and Paul.
iii
Table of Contents
DEDICATION
iii
LIST OF TABLES
ABSTRACT
v
.
vi
CHAPTER 1 -- REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE AND
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM .
1
..
CHAPTER 2
METHOD
CHAPTER 3
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
42
CHAPTER 4
CONCLUSIONS
63
REFERENCES
APPENDIX A:
.
.
31
86
.
CLIMATE MANAGEMENT INTERVIEW
91
APPENDIX B:
CLIMATE EMPLOYEE INTERVIEW
96
APPENDIX C:
CONTRA COSTA CLIMATE PROFILE
APPENDIX D:
RESPONSES FROM INTERVIEWS
iv
.
.
.
99
110
A
1
ABSTRACT
A CASE STUDY OF ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE
IN A MAJOR INSURANCE COMPANY
by
Elizabeth Ann Addington
Master of Arts in Speech Communication
The purpose of this applied case study was to
determine if the climate assessment measure employed by
a major insurance company was a useful tool for effectively assessing their communication.
The second pur-
pose of the study was to apply Deetz's methodology of
interpretative research to the companv's use of the
climate measure in order to determine if this application strengthened the value of the climate assessment
tool for organizational communication researchers and
practitioners.
Data were obtained through interviews with clerical
workers in a branch office in a national insurance company.
The questionnaires used in the interviews were
developed by the Human Resource Department of the
insurance company for their specific use.
A 0-sort
technique was conducted on the data collected in order
to determine the communication themes which emerged in
'
!)
vi
this office.
The themes which emerged in this office were:
information giving;
(b) positive reinforcement;
Cal
(c)
office rapport; and (d) lack of company support.
These
themes correspond with other themes that have been
developed in the theoretical literature and research
studies.
The second area addressed was whether the application of Deetz's methodology of interpretive research
strengthened the value of the climate assessment tool
for organizational communication research and practitioners.
While Deetz's interpretive goals may be too
idealistic for this or any organization, in pragmatic
terms they do illustrate the importance for practitioners to fully understand what the employees perceptions are of communication issues before trying to
solve problems of communication.
In this particular case study the Climate
Assessment Measure was found to be a useful tool for
exposing employees perceptions of their work environments for reflection, critical evaluation and action.
'
i)
vii
CHAPTER 1
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
AND
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In the past thirty years the construct of organizational climate has been the subject of considerable
research.
Organizational climate is an important vari-
able because it provides a valuable conceptual link
between analysis at the organizational level and analysis at the individual level (Litwin and Stringer, 1968;
Payne and Mansfield, 1973; Field and Abelson, 1982).
This link. the idea that an individual perception of
the work environment can be combined with other similar
individual perceptions of the work environment at the
organizational or group level, should provide interesting insight into understanding human behavior in the
work setting.
Because of the complexity of understanding organizational human behavior it is important for researchers
to establish what aspect of human behavior they wish to
study.
The aspect of human behavior
tha~
this project
focused on was the internal communication practices in
a major insurance company, more specifically, communi-
1
2
cation patterns within an organization between superiors and subordinates, and among the subordinates
themselves were examined.
The specific tool used to
examine the internal communication practices in this
insurance company was the communication climate measure.
The communication climate measure was studied
within the wider context of organizational climate.
Briefly defined, communication climate within the
organization is the measurement of employees perceptions and attitudes of communication events (Dennis.
1975). A more thorough discussion and definition of
communication climate and organizational climate will
occur later in this paper.
Numerous studies have supported the notion that
communication climate can have a profound effect on the
attitudes and behaviors of individuals in the organization (Kaczka, 1968; Litman 1963; Prichard 1973). Individual perceptions allow a person to build expectations
about her or his working environment and in turn these
perceptions can affect such behaviors as motivation,
job performance, and satisfaction (Lawler et al., 1974;
Litwin and Stringer, 1968).
The climate assessment measure has also been the
subject of considerable controversy. Thus, it is important to gain an understanding of the tool in order to
3
assess its value for future research. This project is
primarilv concerned with learning about the communication climate measure as an interpretive tool and an
examination of its use in an organizational setting.
When linked to the field of interpretive research,
the use of the organizational communication climate
tool as a qualitative measure may yield significant
contributions to the field of organizational communication.
For instance, a review of Deetz's (1973) general
theoretical goals of interpretive research provides
valuable insights into the possibilities of qualitative
data to the field of organizational communication.
According to Deetz (1973) interpretative processes are
a valuable means of analyzing the importance of the
climate measure to organizational research. There are
three major goals which define the interpretative process:
(1) richer understanding of how humans develop
their meaning systems;
(2) critical evaluation of the
meaning systems that have been developed; and (3) organizational educational programs for new concept formation when there is evidence of poor meaning development
(Deetz, 1973). The climate assessment is a measure
that, when used properly, can provide information about
how a person perceives a situation and more importantly, why they perceive the situation the way that
4
they do.
If one believes the premise that people construct
their own social realitv, then it becomes important to
understand not only how they construct their realities,
but what realities they have previously constructed. In
the first goal of interpretive research. Deetz C1973)
states that researchers are trying to understand in
depth the meaning systems people have developed. Deetz
believes it is important to uncover the structure of
how social. political and economic systems have
impacted individual meaning systems.
In more practical
terms for the company, understanding the social, political, and economic influences on an individuals' construction of reality can aid managers in determining
strategies for training and motivation of employees.
For example, if a manager is trying to build team
spirit, he or she would need to understand what types
of motivators are important to the individuals on that
team, whether it is money, prestige, challenging work,
work group or something else that is necessary to motivate these different individuals into working together
as a team. Through exposure to and understanding of the
social, political, and economic influences to individual construction of reality, researchers will be able
to understand the general processes bv which meaning
5
(and perception) is produced (Deetz, 1973). Richer
understanding of employees meaning systems can not onlv
aid the researcher in understanding human communication
but can also benefit the manager in supervising the
staff more effectively.
However. Deetz (1973) does not believe that understanding is enough.
Critical interpretation (the sec-
ond goal of interpretive research) of the meaning systems which have developed is necessary in order to
direct the actions of organizational members so they
have more freedom of choice.
By direction, Deetz is
referring to the education of organizational members so
that they may understand more fully how they have
developed their meaning systems and how certain social.
political or economic influences mav have prevented
them from reaching their highest potential.
An example
from American history in the sixties and seventies may
prove useful in illustrating how social, political and
economic influences affected people's perceptions of the
world around them.
When these perceptions were criti-
cally evaluated and challenged, people became more
aware of why they perceived the world as they did, and
changes began to take place.
In the sixties and seventies many Americans witnessed a time of social, political and economic
6
upheaval.
One of the major issues that evolved in this
era was the civil rights movement. Until this time
frame many white Americans believed that minorities
particularly blacks were inferior to whites. that
blacks shouldn't be allowed to vote, attend the same
schools, live in the same neighborhoods as white
people.
Not many people questioned these perceptions
of the world.
However, with the arrival of such great
leaders as Martin Luther King and others who began to
critically evaluate and challenge the way people perceived their world, many Americans, both black and
white began to understand why they perceived the world
as they did, and what they needed to do to free themselves and their world from the restraints that were
inhibiting them from reaching their highest potential.
When the social and political rhetoric began to change,
many Americans began to believe that blacks were equal
to whites and segregation was no longer a viable means
of social construction. We have seen how such social
and political systems can distort the meaning systems
that have developed in an individual and in turn.
repress or block communication that is occurring at a
individual and national level.
Blocking or repressing communication can also happen within an organization. Perhaps you have individu-
'
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7
als who have developed meaning systems which are in
conflict with the goals of the organization. For
dxample, one male salesperson is abusive to the staff
who are predominantly women. Three of the women staff
members speak up for themselves and ban together
against the male salesperson, the other two women staff
members silently take the abuse from the male salesperson.
Critical interpretation of why each person
behaves the way that they do is necessary in order to
effectively handle the situation. Assessing that the
male salesperson is prejudiced against women and trying
to teach him to respect women may not work as a solution if the problem is he feels that the staff has been
negligent at processing his paperwork and their negligence has caused him to lose some of his commission.
Exposing meaning systems for reflection can help
remove conditions which may be impeding the communication process (Deetz, 1973). Furthermore, critical evaluation of meaning systems is important not only for the
researcher and the manager but for all people.
Finally, the third goal of interpretive research
is to help the organization form new concepts (elements such as better communication skills for reconstruction of meaning systems in the form of educational
programs) which will enhance the quality of organiza-
8
tional life and allow communication to be undistorted.
Deetz (1987) believes that organizations focus only on
bettering the managers communication skills. Deetz
believes that ongoing communication programs ought to
be offered to the employees in order to insure that all
members of an organization understand how they perceive
their working environment and how they can communicate
their needs more effectively to their managers.
It is
important to understand that meaning systems and perceptions are constantly changing. Categorizing systems
of meanings is not as important as understanding the
meaning system in a given time and situation (Deetz,
1973) .
Climate assessments can help researchers under-
stand the meaning systems at a given time but in order
to enhance the climate assessments value, constant
critical evaluation and education programs should be
set up in order to help the organization form new concepts.
Part of the goal of this project is to explicate
how the climate measure can be used as an important
tool for interpretive research and to suggest how the
climate tool can be applied to the organization and be
of value to managers and employees. TQ £lace the
climate measure in perspective, its history and various
definitions will be discussed and controversies sur-
9
rounding the climate construct will be examined.
Background and Definitions of Communication Climate
Because this project will focus on communication
climate within the context of an organization it is
important to understand and briefly define what is
meant by each of these terms (organization, communication and climate) before their relationships to
one another can be fully appreciated. It is also
necessary to define and differentiate what
i~
meant by
organizational climate and communication climate.
Generally, when we define an organization, we use
the characteristics Ci.e. division of labor, power
hierarchy, standardized procedures, which all revolve
around some sort of goal oriented process) which comprise it as a basis for definition.
Schein (1965)
stated that an organization is:
. . . the rational coordination of the activities
of a number of people for the achievement
of some common explicit purpose or goal,
through division of labor and function, and
through a hierarchy of authority and responsibility (p. 8).
Schein (1965) further suggested that the term
"coordination" is included in most of the writings on
10
organizations, therefore, it can be assumed that this
is the primary function of an organization.
Redding
(1972) suggested that if coordination is the main function of an organization then communication must serve
as the primary way in which coordination is achieved.
Similar to the organizational concept, communication is also a very broadly defined concept. Its
working definition in this project will refer to ''those
behaviors of human beings, or those artifacts created
by human beings, which result in 'messages' being
received by one or more persons" (Redding, 1972, p.
25).
A message is any kind of stimulus (publications,
instructions, reports, electronic systems) that cause
any member of an organization to derive meaning from
his or her perception of the stimulus (Redding, 1972).
Climate is a more difficult term to define.
As
early as the 1930's, Lewin recognized the importance of studying organizational communication.
He
describes a "psychological field" which is very similar
to the present day definitions of climate. Lewin
(1951) explained the psychological field as:
.. particular goals, stimuli, needs, social
relations, as well as more general characteristics of the field atmosphere for instance,
the friendly, tense, or hostile atmosphere or
11
amount of freedom (p. 241).
In the early 1960's McGregor C1960l introduced the
term managerial climate. Managerial climate refers to
how the day-to-day activities of the supervisors can
communicate many variables to employees and affect the
relationships in the office environment.
Both Lewin
and McGregor recognized that there was something more
to effective organizational communication than individual communication skills or techniques.
This "some-
thing more" is similar to the present conception of
climate.
Field and Abelson (1982) explained that three definitions of organizational climate have evolved over
the years.
Climate literature had initially focused on
studying organizational climate, however, subsystem or
group climate and individual or psychological climate
have been presented as aspects of climate (Hellriegel
and Slocum, 1974; James and Jones, 1974).
The three
aspects of climate have been determined through an evolutionary process (Field and Abelson, 1982).
The first
and most basic of the definitions for organizational
climate was provided by Forehand and Gilmer (1964).
They defined organizational climate as a set of characteristics that:
describe an organization and that (a) distinguish
12
the organization from other organizations,
(b) are
relatively enduring over time, and (c) influence
the behavior of the people in the organization
( p.
362) .
Tanguri (1968) expanded Forehand and Gilmer's definition by defining organizational climate as:
a relatively enduring quality of the internal
environment of an organization that (a) is
experienced by its members,
(b) influences their
behavior and (c) can be described in terms of the
value of a particular set of characteristics (or
attributes) of the organization (p. 27).
Hellriegel and Slocum (1974) also defined organizational climate, but they included the idea that subsystems exist in organizations when they stated that:
organizational climate refers to a set of attributes which can be perceived about a particular
organization and/or its subsystems, and that may
be induced from the way an organization and/or
its subsystems deal with their members and environment (p. 256).
James and Jones (1974) proposed that the third
direction of climate research should focus on individual
climate as defined by Schneider and his associates.
Schneider stated that:
13
the concept of climate in the present research
may best be described as personalistic; climate
is an individual perception.
Through these three definitions of organizational
climate we see that the concept of climate evolved from
an organizational attribute to an attribute that is
specific to a small group of people or an individual.
It is also important to realize in all three of thb
definitions discussed, three common characteristics of
organizational climate have emerged: first,
organiza-
tional climate is believed to have enduring qualities;
second, these qualities can be measured; third, these
perceptions of climate influence the behavior of the
organizational members (Field and Abelson, 1982).
Schein (1965) helps distinguish between organizational climate and communication climate when he succinctly states that an organization is ''a pattern of
rules and a blueprint for their coordination," emphasizing that by organizational climate the activities of
the organization are the focus rather than the people
(pp. 8-9).
The parts of an organization (role behav-
iors. not people) are interdependent or interlocked and
operate as a system (Kelly, 1970; Levinson, 1970; Redding, 1972). Organizational climate is the perception
of the activities of an organization rather than the
.
,,
14
perception of human behavior.
Communication is the
prime means whereby coordination or interdependent functions are achieved (Redding, 1972).
In an extensive review of the literature concerning organizational climate Dennis (1974) concluded that
communication seems to contribute substantiallY to
organizational climate. Communication climate makes up
the largest portion of the organizational climate construct. According to Dennis (1974) the Pearson r computed between the summated scores for organizational
and communication climate was .77 (p
<
.001) indicating
that communication and organizational climate share
59% common variance (r2). Communication climate within
organizations is the measurement of employees' perceptions and attitudes of particular communication related
events.
Communication related events include such
things as communication initiation, channels of information, content, media, intent of message, and so
forth.
These communication related events are than
interpreted for an overall climate measure and the
relationship to organizational functions (Jablin,
1980) .
Thayer (1968) proposed that whenever a person
takes ''something into account, whether that something
is spoken or not spoken"
occurred (p. 26).
than communication has
Thus, communication climate in this
15
project was defined as any event, process, or behavior
that causes any member of the organization to experience meaning from his or her perception of that phenomena. Organizational climate perceptions such as the
descriptions of the physical setting of the work environment (i.e. temperature, noise, supplies, etc.)
descriptions of the compensation program (i.e. pay,
vacation, investment plan) descriptions of the work
load will not be included in this evaluation unless they
specifically affect the communication that occurs in
the office.
In addition to an understanding of the definitions which comprise organizational and communication
climate an awareness of the controversies which surround this construct is necessary in order to properly
evaluate the usefulness of this tool for organizational
communication. The four major controversies that will
be discussed below are 1. climate as a perceptual measure; 2. individual versus organizational climate; 3.
dimensions of climate; and 4. climate as a unique and
useful measure.
Climate as a Perceptual Measure
The first major controversy identified above
related to the role perceptions play in measures of
16
climate.
Jablin (1980) introduces the issue of objec-
tive (actual or physical) climate versus subjective
(conceptual or perceived) climate and the equivalencies
and differences between the two measures.
If we wish
the construct to remain completely objective then we
should rely only on observable Cor empirical) events in
the work place to measure climate.
For instance, if we
were looking at communication climate in such a way,
then we could look at such things as memos, telephone
calls, whether or not a communication event actually
occurred, time of day of interaction, how long the
interaction lasted, the formal position of interactants
and how long each interactant talked.
However, as soon
as we attempt to measure contextual and intentional
aspects of the communicative transaction we no longer
have an objective measure.
Subjective measures allow
us to find out the how and why of a communication
transaction and can provide valuable insights into the
interactants' perceptions of organizational communication patterns such as are supervisors instructions
clear and easily understood, is the supervisor perceived as aggressive or passive, how does this affect
the messages and so on.
Jablin (1980) believed that we should include both
objective and subjective measures in climate assess-
17
ment. If we include only objective measures we are limiting our understanding of communication and its relationship to organizational effectiveness.
Jablin
believed that the characteristics viewed by a subjective measure are those that directly affect peoples'
behavior within the organization.
Jablin (1980) fur-
ther explained that objective measures tend to "tap
only those measures which indirectly affect organizational behavior" ( p. 331) .
Sathe (1978) also dealt with the idea that there
is a lack of convergence between the objective and subjective measures of climate.
Sathe maintained that
both measures should be used but if a company can only
afford one, then a subjective measure is preferred.
Sathe explained that the difference between the objective and subjective measures of climate are differences
in degree rather than differences in kind. Objective or
institutional measures such as charts and documents
measure the formal structure of the work place. Subjective measures or questionnaire measures ''tend to
reflect degree of structure experienced by members in
work-related activities day-to-day and to the extent
the information is not biased, describe the emergent
structure" (Sathe, 1978, p. 234).
If a researcher
wanted to look at how many times a manager initiated
18
communication with her or his subordinates and the
researcher used both objective and subjective measures of investigation, the results would likely be
dissimilar. A brief example mav better explain whv dissimilar results can occur.
Joe. the manager may send several memos to his
staff a week. He may also meet once a week with them
for a staff meeting.
An objective measure would be
able to count how many written messages and formal
meetings that Joe had with his staff. An objective measure may indicate that Joe had initiated communication
with his staff twelve times during the week.
A subjec-
tive measure filled out by Joe and his staff may indicate that Joe initiates communication more than twelve
times a week.
The reason may be that Joe tends to be
out on the floor with his staff a great deal and that
both Joe and his staff perceive that he initiates more
communication than the formal measures indicated.
Both
measures are looking at the same "kind" of information:
in this case the researcher was looking at communication initiation. But the results differ because the
objective measure can only measure the formal structure
of the work, whereas the subjective measure goes beyond
the formal structure and measures what people perceive
to be true.
In the example above the manager and his
19
staff perceive that he is initiating communication more
than twelve times during the week. This perception by
Joe and his staff more clearly reflects the climate of
the organization.
The two tvpes of measures relate to
one another but operate on two different levels of
explanation (Jablin 1980). One level explains what
actually occurs numerically in the organization while
another level explains what is perceived to be happening in the organization.
Throughout this discussion we have looked at the
necessity of relying on perceptual measures to assess
the climate in the organization. Objective measures
alone do not provide enough insight into worker attitudes which researchers need to understand in order to
predict future behavior.
d~velop
Therefore, if we wish to
the capacity to more accurately predict future
behavior we must accept the validity of using a tool
which is based on participant perception of environment.
Because of the necessity of relying on a tool which
is based on participant perception of environment it is
important to understand the concept of perception.
Joyce and Slocum (1979) provided some important insights
about perception formation which may be useful in
assessing whether the climate construct is useful at
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t)
20
all.
Joyce and Slocum (1979) believed that perceptions
are combinations of stimuli which a person observes
within her or his life space.
By life space, Joyce and
Slocum meant the psychological interpretation of four
elements:
(1) physical facts (psychological interpreta-
tion of physical features);
(2) quasi-social facts
(psychological interpretation of social facts);
(3)
quasi-conceptual facts (conceptual representation of
problem solving and goal attainment); and (4) alien
facts (changes which occur that don't seem to have an
explainable reference to other elements in the lifespace). Phenomenological intersubjectivity (self interpretation of environment through awareness and consideration of others in assessment of environment) also
effects individual perceptions.
Therefore, individual
climate is a perception of the environment which is
determined by the first three aspects of the life space
plus intersubjectivitv.
Climate differs from life
space because the fourth aspect of life space, alien
facts or nonpsychological facts, is not included (Joyce
and Slocum 1979).
Thus, although a perception is individualistic, it
can not be considered independently from the environment and the people in that environment. Therefore,
•
t)
21
because perceptions are reality based, they have the
potential of being shared.
Given that perceptions are
reality based and can be shared, it is believed that
individual perceptions can be combined into one "organizational" climate. Some researchers feel that individual climates could not be combined into one organization climate; therefore, controversy exists in the
literature surrounding this topic (Field and Abelson,
1982; Howe, 1977; Jones and James, 1979).
Joyce and
Slocum (1979) believe that the reason researchers
believe that individual climates cannot be combined
into one organizational climate is because researchers
have used artificial communication boundaries determined by administrative assignments of staff in the
past as a guideline for combining individual climates
into group or organizational climates.
Instead, Joyce
and Slocum (1979) suggest that climates should be functions of those individuals in groups or organizations
which perceive environment to a similar degree.
The
controversy of combining individual perceptions of climate into one organizational climate will be further
elaborated on in the next section in order to clarify
this issue.
1D9iYi9~~1_Y~£§~§_Q£E~Di~~!i2D~1_g1im~!~
22
Climates are perceptions of people within organizations, but it is important to remember that there are
multiple climates within organizations. Two other levels of climate, besides individual climate, must be
considered: group climate and organizational climate
(Field and Abelson, 1982).
There is evidence in the literature which supports
the validity of a group climate construct.
When work-
ers are separated into subgroups by such organizational
characteristics as hierarchical level, department, or
work group, or by personal characteristics such as age,
education, and sex, different perceived working environments were reported (Field and Abelson, 1982).
In
a study done by Jones and James (1979), U.S. Navy ship
divisions had climates different from the larger
departments within the ship and the ships entire staff.
There is also evidence in the literature which
supports the validity of an organizational climate construct.
These studies indicate that there is a consen-
sus on climate perceptions of an organization by members in the organization (Field and Abelson, 1982).
one study an Organization Pattern Questionnaire was
given to members from two different schools which had
different climates.
Most of the faculty members were
able to pick the factor patterns of their own school
In
23
(Offenberg and Cernius, 1978).
Forehand and Gilmer (1964) warned that both the
organizational and group climate constructs are based
on the fact that people within a given subsystem or
organization and at the same hierarchial level should
have similar perceptions.
They believed that because
people are very different it would not be wise to
assume that just because they are a member of the same
work group or organization that their perceptions of
the environment are going to be similar.
However, studies such as the ones discussed earlier indicated that while perceptions are not identical, it is possible to determine organizational and
group climates (Redding, 1972; James and Jones, 1979;
Offenberg and Cernius, 1978). Field and Abelson (1982)
further supported the idea that group and organizational climates exist because researchers have been
able to accurately analyze within group or between
group variance when trying to ascertain the climate.
The less variance among people's perceptions, the more
researchers will be able to determine the climate.
Field and Abelson further explained that they believed
analysis at each of the levels of perception (individual, group or organizational) is valid but it is important for climate studies to state and defend the level
24
of climate they wish to examine.
Along with studies which are trying to determine
the definition of organizational climate, and what
level of perception climate occurs on, there are
studies which are trying to determine what exactly the
components are which comprise the organizational climate construct. The components of organizational climate which have emerged in the research thusfar, will
be discussed in the next section.
Dimensions of Climate
There are numerous dimensions which have emerged
in the literature concerning organizational climate,
however, Campbell (1970) posited that there are four
common dimensions in all organizational climates. These
are (1) autonomy/control (amount of freedom and autonomy experienced by individuals);
(2) degree of struc-
ture (the degree and clarity of structure imposed upon
workers and positions);
(3) rewards (recognition and
reward for good work vs. disapproval for poor performance); and (4) consideration, warmth and support (good
fellowship, trust among workers and supervisors).
Most
conceptions of organizational climate contain these
four dimensions and organizational climate is typically
based on an analysis of participants' perceptions of
25
these dimensions (Litwin and Stringer, 1968; Hemphill,
1956; Sims and LaFollette, 1975).
Because organizational climate constructs are
based on an analysis of participants perceptions of
campbell's four common dimensions, many researchers
believe predictions about communicative behavior can be
made.
Summarizing such research, Goldhaber (1986)
stated that ''communication climate consists largely of
the perceptions employees have of the quality of relationships and communication in the organization and of
the degree of involvement and influence'' (p. 74).
In
other words, it would seem that the quality of the communication climate will in turn, affect a persons' perception of the organizational climate.
For example, if
you have a very positive communication climate in an
office in addition to having a low pay scale, the positive communication climate in the office may override
or lessen the effect of the organizational attribute of
low pay.
Redding (1972) proposed that the ideal managerial communication climate as a subset of organizational climate consists of five factors:
(1) suppor-
tiveness (subordinates perception that superiors communication practices enable subordinate to maintain feelings of personal worth and importance);
(2) participa-
26
tive decision-making (employees generally feel free to
communicate upwards with a true sense of influence);
(3) trust, confidence, and credibility (extent that
message sources are judged believable);
(4) openness
and candor (freedom of expression between peers and
peers and superiors); and (5) high performance goals
(clear communication of organizational goals to all
organizational members).
Dennis (1975), building on the theoretical work of
Redding, tested for the existence of Redding's five
communication climate factors in a study of 353 supervisory personnel from a large automobile manufacturing
company and a major insurance company.
He found that
four out of the five factors of communication climate
that Redding proposed were supported.
Dennis did not
find evidence that "trust" was a major fact.or in communication climate.
Goldhaber (1986) explained that an individual's
behavior in an organization is influenced by her or his
cognitive and affective perceptions of that organization. Goldhaber's explanation is accepted as a basic
tenet of communication climate. The importance of supportive climates in organizational communication is
underscored by Redding (1972) who stated that "the climate of an organization is more crucial than are commu-
'
~
27
nication skills or techniques (taken by themselves) in
creating an effective organization'' (p. 111).
Although studies exist which support the existence
of group and organizational climates, there is controversy as to whether the assessments of these climates
can provide information that is different from other
tools such as job satisfaction questionnaires.
Although organizational and group climates seem to be
accurate predictors of performance, researchers dispute
these claims and criticize part of the research on both
methodological and conceptual grounds.
Because of the
criticism of the methodological and conceptual grounds
of the organizational climate construct, questions have
been raised as to whether or not "climate" is a unique
and useful construct. The following section will discuss climate as a unique and useful construct by
examining its methodological and conceptual framework.
Climate as a Unique and Useful Measure
It is believed that climate measures overlap
with satisfaction measures and are redundant and useless measures (Johannessen, 1973).
However many
studies have indicated that although the measures are
similar they measure different aspects of the environment (i.e. descriptions versus feelings)
(Schneider and
28
Snyder, 1975; Payne, 1973; Hellriegal and Slocum, 1974;
Simms 1975).
Schneider and Snyder (1975) distinguished organizational climate from job satisfaction through a
comparative analysis of descriptive and evaluative questionnaires.
Organizational climate was characterized
by employees' descriptions of the policies, practices
and conditions which existed in the work place.
Job
satisfaction questionnaires were characterized by
employees' evaluations of the individual aspects of
their own job and the organization for which they
worked.
In other words, job satisfaction question-
naires were considered individual personal responses to
work, while climate assessments may or may not be
purely individual (Schneider and Snyder, 1975).
For
example, in the questionnaires used for this project,
found in the appendices of this paper, the emphasis was
placed on gathering descriptive data and following
through with any affective responses in order to establish why the person felt as they did.
The first ques-
tion of the management questionnaire asks the manager
to describe his or her responsibilities.
A satisfact-
ion question may ask an individual to evaluate the
responsibilities of his or her job.
The major problem with ascertaining the difference
29
between job satisfaction and climate constructs is the
fact that many researchers have combined evaluative and
descriptive questions in the climate construct.
When
dealing with satisfaction a respondent is asked to
explain what "should be" or how they "would like" it to
be.
Climate assessment is concerned with asking
respondents to examine what "is now" and the extent
to which it effects operations in the office.
Thus, the
climate is not solely based on the individuals' affective evaluation of a situation (Jablin, 1980).
Jablin (1980) further explained that it is difficult for people to keep personal feelings from affecting their perception; therefore, it is not surprising that climate assessments would overlap with job
satisfaction surveys.
Schneider and Snyder's (1975)
earlier discussion of the difference between descriptive measures and evaluative measures could help differentiate between the job satisfaction measure and
the climate measure.
Ih~-E~Ql~~!
This project is based on a case study of a major
insurance company's use of the climate assessment
construct.
There is much controversy in the literature
as to whether the climate assessment construct is a
30
useful tool for assessing organizational communication.
Through my experience with this company's use of the
climate construct I hope to answer the general questions:
1.
Was the climate assessment a useful tool for
this particular insurance company?
2.
Does the application of Deetz's methodology of
interpretative research strengthen the value of the
climate assessment tool for organizational communication researchers and practitioners?
By comparing the procedures currently used in this
company's use of the climate assessment with the application of Deetz's goals, the researcher may provide
specific recommendations concerning this company's communication climate that may result in better communication in the work place.
CHAPTER 2
l'1ETHOD
PARTICIPANTS
The participants in this study were clerical workers in a branch office in a national insurance company.
The branch office consisted of a Manager, Office Manager, Assistant Office Manager and four clerical staff
members.
The clerical workers serve as support staff
for the agents (sales force) in the branch office. The
climate assessment was focused on the support group and
management team and the relationships between and
within the two groups.
Members of the sales force were
not interviewed in this climate assessment. The climate
construct was used to identify what the management team
and support staff's perceptions were about the company's policy's and their work group in the branch
office.
QUESTIONNAIRE
The climate assessment questionnaire was developed
by the Human Resource Department of the insurance company for their specific use.
Two different question-
naires were designed, one for the management team and
31
32
one for the support staff. Both were used in an interview format.
(Appendix A contains the management
interview and appendix B contains the support staff
interview.)
INTERVIEWERS
Interviewers were a group of interns from California State University, Northridge.
All interviewers
went through a training session with the Human Resource
Director before being sent into the branch offices to
do climate assessments. All branch offices were assigned
two interviewers. The branch office was told ahead of
time that their office had been randomly selected to
participate in the climate assessment program and were
then given the choice of whether they wished to participate in the program. If they agreed, then the Human
Resource Director explained to the Manager that the
management team would be interviewed (individually) in
the morning and then the support staff would be interviewed (individually) throughout the day.
PROCEDURES
Before explaining the procedures of this project a
brief history of the company's climate assessment
procedures will be provided for clarification.
This
33
background information will also provide insight into
how the company's use of the climate assessment tool
complements Deetz's interpretive research methodology.
First, the training procedures used to prepare the
interviewers will be discussed.
Second, the results
from the interviews will be reported.
Thirdly, the
debriefing session between the two interviewers and the
human resource director will be discussed. Also
included in the third section is an explanation of the
action plan the human resource director wrote based
information obtained from the debriefing session.
The insurance company's Human Resource Department
is very careful in its selection and training of
interviewers for the climate surveys.
The insurance
company utilizes people who are not part of the company
for climate assessments because they feel such interviewers can remain more objective during the interviews.
Once selected the first task in the training
session is learning how to put the interviewees at ease
about taking part in the climate assessment.
As well as learning the techniques for making the
employees feel at ease with the interview, the Human
Resource Department personnel advocates several successful interview techniques or behaviors which help
strengthen the credibility of the Climate program.
• d
34
First and foremost, interviewers should maintain an
objective perspective. The Director of the Human
Resource Department stressed that the climate assessment program was seeking employees' perceptions of
company policy and procedure rather than evaluations or
interpretations of the company's policies (Company
Training Manual, 1986).
The Management Interview.
The interview for the management staff was structured specifically to determine the manager's or supervisor's relationship to her/his subordinates and superiors.
An analysis of their answers to the questions
indicated if a manager or supervisor felt supported by
her/his superiors and whether he/she felt secure in the
supervisory role.
The management questionnaire is also
a useful tool in assessing problems which occur in the
understanding or interpretation of Company policy.
The
tool seeks out anecdotal data which helps draw a ''portrait'' of an office or management individual or group
(Company Training Manual, 1986).
Employee Interview.
This was also a one-on-one interview which was con-
35
ducted privately. Once again it was important to make
the interviewee aware that the information they shared
would be completely confidential (Company Training
Manual, 1986).
Management Team Evaluation.
According to an interview with the insurance company's director of human resources, the company's analysis of the climate assessment interview can provide
information on the morale and structure of a given management team.
Although this tool is useful in evaluat-
ing individual management styles, it is not intended to
seek out deficiencies in a supervisor or manager's
approach to her/his job.
The purpose of this tool is
to identify areas of concern where there may be problems, real or perceived.
For example, supervisors who do not feel that they
are part of the "management team" may not be Harking as
effectively because they are unsure of their role and
the duties expected from them.
The supervisor may just
be doing technical work (e.g. typing, filing, filling
out reports) which weakens her or his effectiveness to
develop the skills necessary for administrative work.
Also, if supervisors do not feel supported by their
superior, then there may be a serious morale and/or
36
work problem developing in the office.
Two other concerns that need to be highlighted
when evaluating climate assessments are the fact that
inequities may be real or imagined but in any case present serious problems and that individuals need not
experience unfair treatment themselves to feel anxious
and desire solutions to a problem (Company Training Manual, 1986) .
Employee Evaluation.
Once again it is stressed that this tool is
searching for anecdotal data rather than statistically
quantifiable data.
For example, it would be interest-
ing to know if one or two people expected to be promoted and knew their requests were sent in but had been
turned down. Anecdotal data may provide information
about whether they felt they could question this decision or complain about the action (Company Training
Manual, 1986).
Based on the information in the training session,
each interviewer was made aware of how to carry out the
two types of interviews and what information was needed
in order to evaluate the data collection.
(Appendix C
presents a copy of a narrative evaluation based on
interviews with management and staff personnel in one
37
office of the Company.)
Before the actual climate profile was written a
"debriefing session" occurred between the two interviel,rers and the Human Resource Director.
The debriefing
session followed the format of the questionnaires and
each interviewer reported findings based on their
interviews with their half of the personnel.
Based on
information from the interviewers during the debriefing
session, the Director of Human Resources wrote an
action plan for the office. The action plan included
areas of concern and areas that were doing well. This
information was fed back personally to the management
team so that the improvements needed to be made could
be developed by the management team, and the areas that
were doing well could be recognized and continued by
the management team.
Interpretive process.
In order to evaluate the insurance company's use
of the climate construct as a useful tool for interpretive research, three important criteria must be established.
A brief overview of the criteria used to
evaluate the company's use of the climate assessment
tool is presented below. The company's climate assessment procedures were analyzed in Chapter Three to see
38
if they met each of the criteria outlined.
First, interpretive research must be evaluated by
how much coherence is established.
Coherence is a
standard for determining the validity of knowledge
claims.
As such, the greatest range of texts must be
represented (Deetz, 1973).
When coherence was applied
to this company's use of the climate assessment, it
was important to evaluate if all views were being
represented in the office.
It was also interesting to
note if all views were equally represented.
The second standard of evaluation of interpretive
research is its ability to maintain some form of objectivity.
Traditional statistical research has an a
priori criteria for judgement, but interpretive
research does not establish a priori criteria. The
criteria must emerge in the research.
Therefore, data
collection must be rich and compelling and reflect as
much anecdotal information as possible.
Any preconcep-
tions and prejudices must be exposed and tested so that
the representativeness of the data can be reported.
Objectivity can be achieved by the inability of the
community to deny the results (Deetz, 1973).
The com-
pany's use of the climate assessment must maintain this
form of objectivity in order to be a useful tool for
the company. The company's use of the climate assess-
39
ment must provide for a way to test for prejudices that
might be entering into the data.
The third element that must be present in interpretive research is the ability of the research to have
rhetorical force.
That is, the research must form a
true consensus of the community.
Interpretive research
must be able to stimulate dialogue in the organization
being studied and the community of researchers.
The
findings of the research should signify that there is
an ongoing need for development of the self and the
fact that concept formation is continual. In order to
develop the self to the fullest potential researchers
must provide some sort of action to accommodate this
development (Deetz, 1973).
The climate assessment will
be evaluated on its ability to open up channels of communication in the office and maintain open channels of
communication.
Theme Analysis.
A Q-sort technique was used on the responses
received during the interviews to determine if
the communication themes present in this office
reflected those in the literature.
The Q-sort procedure involves the selection of a
set of objects - verbal statements, single words,
40
phrases, pictures - related to the concept to be studied. These objects, statements, single words, phrases
are then placed on cards, one to a card.
The cards can
then be sorted by a subject and placed into a set of
piles (usually seven to eleven) on a continuum based on
the amount of agreement with the statements. With different instructions, the Q-sort technique can be used
in various ways (Brooks, 1969).
For this project the concept studied was managerial communication climate within the context of organizational climate.
Attention was based on how Red-
ding's (1972) dimensions of supportiveness; participative decision-making; trust, confidence and credibility; openness and candor; and high performance goals are
perceived by individuals in the branch office. The
Q-sort will also establish if there are any dimensions
present in this office that have not been established
in the literature.
The responses collected from the climate assessment interviews were in a question/answer format. The
questionnaires are listed in the appendices of this
paper.
For each interview, the researcher jotted the
responses down. Each answer was then typed onto cards
(one idea per card) for the purpose of having subjects
Q-sort them into categories.
•
<)
Each card was coded with
41
a letter to reflect if the answer was from a management
interview (M) or a staff interview (S). Repeat cards
were discarded with a notation of how many responses
were identical to the original response placed on the
original card.
There were a total of 90 cards.
The researcher used three undergraduate students at California State University, Northridge to
sort the cards into categories.
student were used.
Two females and one male
Two were Speech Communication
majors, and one was a Business major. One had some
knowledge of organizational communication the other two
had no knowledge of organization communication.
CHAPTER 3
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In order to determine what communication themes
were present in this office Q-sorts were done individually with the three subjects on different days.
Each
subject was asked to sort the cards into categories
which reflected similar ideas. They could have as many
piles as they felt were necessary.
On the first 0-sort
each of the students sorted the cards into 13 to 15
different categories.
They were then asked to keep the
cards in the same categories but to group them again
into similar issues or topics.
Each student working
independently from the other students sorted the cards
into six different issues or topics.
They were then
asked to name these six topics. These were:
1. training and evaluation;
2. money or benefits which were subcategorized
into a. pay, b. benefits, c. supplements and d.
promotions;
3. workload which was subcategorized into a.
challenging, b. manageable, c. timely informed;
4. overall rapport which was subcategorized into
management staff relations, supportiveness, work
43
group and morale;
5. company support;
6.
general policy.
Because of this project's focus on communication,
the researcher pulled all cards from the piles which
did not deal with communication issues.
are listed in Appendix D.
These cards
All cards remaining were
kept in the same piles as the subjects had placed them.
Communication themes were then derived inductively
based on close scrutiny of the cards that were left.
Four themes were induced from the remaining cards:
information giving;
(b) positive reinforcement;
office rapport and (d) company support.
(a)
(c)
Due to the
fact that the emphasis was on communication some of the
piles that originated from the subjects Q-sort were
collapsed into these four themes. Each of these themes
will be defined, and when necessary analyzed into finer
categories.
Information Giving, the first theme refers to the
degree that organizational members are kept informed
about matters of concern or relevance. Communication
issues that may be found under this theme would be
proper training to handle situations in job, or receiving information in a timely matter for decision making,
feedback which enables members to know how they are
44
doing in the organization.
The statements which seem
to support the existence of this theme may be found in
Table 1.
The second theme, positive reinforcement, refers
to the degree to which organizational members, especially managers, are skilled at building team morale
and building effective team spirit so that workers are
motivated to do a good job.
The statements which seem
to support the existence of this theme may be found in
Table 2.
The third theme, office rapport, refers to the
degree of trust and openness that is communicated to
the staff by superiors such as a willingness of superiors to listen to and understand subordinates problems. Also within this theme, is the degree to which
managers are able to maintain effective interpersonal
interactions with their staff and also ensure that
there are good interpersonal interactions among the
staff.
Statements which seem to support this theme can
be found in Table 3.
Office rapport is the area that
the company's questionnaire gathers the most information.
Company support, the forth theme which emerged in
this climate, refers to the degree the Home Office Personnel (Vice Presidents) are sensitive to the needs of
'
~
45
Table 1
Information Giving
Responses
Positive
Neutral
Negative
MANAGEt1ENT
We use the
review to let
staff know how
they are doing
X
We try to help
clerical staff
reach their
highest potential
X
Office manager comes
to manager when
decision has to be
made
X
Evaluations of staff
seem accurate
X
Getting a lot of man.
training now
X
Have had no formal
training-mainly hands
on experience
X
SUPPORT STAFF
Office manager is
real good at sitting down and
explaining things to
you
Staff meetings once a
week keep us abreast
of new procedures
x
x
46
Table 2
Positive Reinforcement
Responses
Positive
Neutral
Negative
MANAGH1ENT
We try to supplement
lower pay by little
games and contests
X
Not reached level as fast
as expected
I like seeing people
do well
X
I like being able to
run my own office
}~
I like the feeling of
accomplishment as a
manager
x
I like the challenge
·of the job
x
I. like the challenge
of the work
x
X
SUPPORT STAFF
Chances for promotion
seem good
X
Expectations are being met
If you make
a mistake the
manager corrects
you in private
Agents push you to get
work done so they keep
you motivated
x
}~
x
47
Table 3
Office f\apport
Responses
Positive
Management
I appreciate my
staff
){
I believe in
spending time
with people so
paper won~ is
delegated
X
Weekly meetings
with staff and
management team
keeps us in touch
with one another
)'~
I manage with an
open door policy
)·:
I try to talk with
everyone each day
X
Office manager counsels
problems between staff
which helps maintain
a positive environment
I always listen to
staff problems and
try to help
I try to help them with
problems if I can't I
let them know I understand
Management and staff relations seem real good
x
x
x
x
Neutral
Negative
48
Table 3 Con't
Responses
Positive
I think I would be rated
high by staff because
I try to be sensitive
to their needs
Neutral
Negative
.?o
I feel supported by my
supervisor because he
has sat in my place
X
OM understands my position
and is supportive
x
Open door policy of
manager helped loosen
atmosphere created by
past manager
AOM and OM work well
together as a team
x
x
There is one difficult
person but with
counseling should
come around
X
Strain between OM and
AOM has lessened
since merger 2 yrs
ago
Management and staff
seem to have good
relations
X
X
Not a lot of internal
problems
x
Work group gets along
well
x
Picnics and parties
keep people close
x
49
Table 3 con't
Responses
Positive
Neutral
Negative
Support Staff
OM gives a lot of
praise
Good rapport between
all staff members
X
X
Work group is OK
}~
People don't jump
at the chance to
help but will if
asked
X
Manager good at giving
praise
x
Manager takes you to
lunch and says Thanks
x
AOM is less by the book
X
AOM is more lenient
x
Manager is approachable
x
Management and staff seem
to have a good relationship
Man. and OM encourage staff
There is some
animosity between
agents due to
competition
x
x
x
50
the management team in the field offices.
Communica-
tion issues deal with such topics as managements ability to find support from their superiors and understanding for certain problems that thev incur in a
field office hundreds of miles away from the home
office.
Statements which seem to support this theme
can be found in Table 4. These themes will be discussed
in more detail later in this chapter.
In order to determine if the climate construct can
be used as a tool for interpretive research a comparison was made between Deetz's outline of the three elements of interpretive research with the procedures used
by this company in their climate assessment program.
The first element is coherence.
When the company
does a climate assessment of a branch office they go to
great lengths to ensure that all members of the management team and the support staff will be present for
interviewing.
In this way, they will ensure that the
greatest range of texts will be represented.
In other
words, everyone will have a chance to voice their perceptions of their world.
The company uses two inter-
viewers in each office which means that the interviewers serve as check points for one another.
If both are
able to agree on the climate of the office through
their interviews with different members of the office
'
~
51
Table 4
Company Support
Responses
Positive
t1
Negative
t1anagement
I have an enormous
dislike for expenses
of a new manager
X
No say on rent,
clerical staff,
filling emptied
agent spots
X
Psychologically
give up when odds
are against you
X
Too short of a
timetable for new
managers to show
profit
X
No say over what
district put in
X
VP should be more
involved with people
X
Too much stress on
numbers
'
Neutral
X
If you do good you
don't hear anything
X
If production is good
then everything else
must be good
X
No numbers your no good
X
Everything related to
production
X
52
Table 4 Con't
Responses
Positive
Neutral
Negative
Pressure from within
X
Continuous pressure from
top to perform
X
Harder in Texas then in
the east, not as
populated
X
Company not sensitive
to manager anymore
X
Support Staff
Home office should
be more sensitive
X
53
then a more coherent picture is being drawn. Using two
interviewers as a check point can also help indicate
where the consistencies and inconsistencies lie in the
interviewees responses.
Since the office staff is ran-
domly divided between the two interviewers, and each
staff member is interviewed individually then the
chances of people feeling inhibited to speak in front
of fellow staff members is lessened and people will
speak more freely.
The interviewers also highly stress
the fact that the information received from the interviews are kept completely confidential.
By ensuring
that all views are present, as well as providing privacy and freedom of opinion to the interviews, the company's climate assessment will be integrating the widest amount of perceptions possible, thus, the climate
ctinstruct possesses coherence.
The second element of interpretive research deals
with the aspect of objectivity. In order for the criteria (positive climate or negative climate) to be evaluated objectively the data collection must be rich and
compelling.
In order to ensure that the data collec-
tion is rich and compelling, the interviews are done
individually. In this way, staff members can feel
secure about speaking openly and honestly because they
are assured that their responses will be kept confiden-
54
tial.
The interview process also enables the inter-
viewer to follow up any responses that seem to need
more explanation other than a yes or no answer.
In the
training process of the climate assessment program
interviewers are constantly told to record the
responses to the questionnaire items as closely to the
actual words of the interviewee as possible.
In other
words, as much anecdotal information needs to be gathered as possible so that the climate reflects the
"meaning" systems of the interviewee's as they understand it.
In this way the information can remain
objective because it is reflecting how staff members
are perceiving their world, rather then reflecting only
on what the interviewer feels is important.
Nothing is
to be watered down for the sake of saving egos or
rewritten to make the information sound better.
By
leaving the information that is gathered as close to
the statements as possible then any preconceptions or
prejudices of the interviewer are left out. In addition, the companv also tries to avoid preconceptions of
the interviewer from entering the climate construct by
using individuals who have no previous knowledge of the
branch office.
The Company also stresses the impor-
tance of constantly repeating the persons answers back
to them to check for accuracy and to avoid miscon-
55
struing what the person has said or drawing interpretations of what the person is saying.
Another way the company tries to maintain objectivitv is by using two researchers.
Although the
researchers are interviewing different people in the
office, to some extent they can serve as check points
for each other because they should develop some sort of
"feeling" for
the climate in the office.
In this way
prejudices can be exposed because the two researchers
would be able to expose any statements that seem out of
the ordinary. At the same time, if the two researchers
get the same impression of the office by interviewing
different people then some sort of community consensus
is emerging.
During the debriefing session, each
interviewer reports what he or she has heard and his or
her impressions.
In this fashion,
prejudices or pre-
conceptions can be exposed and accounted for.
During the debriefing session, the Human Resource
Director writes an Action plan.
This is a report on
the work groups' perceptions of company policy, superior-subordinate relationships and so forth. This information is then taken back to the field office by a
field office consultant and the management team is able
to evaluate the information received as being a valid
reflection of their office. In very rare instances the
56
branch office has denied the results. The Human
Resource Director reported that the majority of climate
assessment profiles have accurately portrayed the
office. Because of the inability of the office to deny
the results (the climate profile's high level of accuracy) the climate measure has met the second element of
interpretive research which is objectivity.
The third and final element of the interpretive
process is the aspect of rhetorical force.
By inte-
grating the information received by the interviewers,
the perceptions of the interviewers, and the action
plan back into the community a true consensus of the
climate in the office is being reached.
The company
reinforces the idea that no one will be adversely
affected, but if problems are found, it is important to
recognize them and work toward solving them. The Human
Resource Director offers several suggestions to the
management team for problem solving but also encourages
them to make suggestions.
In this way dialogue is
being stimulated in the community.
The management team
is given the final choice of which suggestions they
will implement and how they will implement them.
Or,
if the climate is positive then the management team can
continue to use the successful methods and their suecesses are passed to other offices.
Each party recog-
57
nizes the ongoing need to improve the self and it is
important to recognize that climate is not static and
communication should be open and actors sensitive to
the fact that adaptations have to occur continually.
Hopefully, concept formation will continue to develop
and ideas on how to better the climate will never stop.
Hence, the climate construct exhibits the quality of
rhetorical force and can be a valuable tool for interpretive research.
The application of the interpretative process to
the company's use of the climate assessment construct
has yielded some interesting insights into the value of
the tool for organizational communication research. The
tool is a valuable asset to researchers and managers
alike in opening communication channels that may previously have been overlooked.
As companies become
larger and more diversified it becomes increasingly
difficult for managers to sit down with their employees
and ask them about their opinions of the work place.
The climate assessment tool can provide honest, open
information about workers perceptions of their work
place.
The impacts the climate assessment can have for
researchers and managers will be discussed fully in the
next chapter.
The other research issue to be addressed in this
.
\)
58
project is the theme analysis of the responses from the
climate interviews to see what kind of communication
themes emerged from this tool.
The first theme which
emerged was the information giving theme. The information giving theme is similar to Campbell's (1970) organizatlonal dimension of structure. Campbell is referring
~o
how well management and staff understand their
responsibilities and how formalized the communication
process is. Because this project is concerned specifically with communication issues, the area that is of
more concern is the formalized communication process.
Communication issues such as "we use the reviews to let
staff know how they are doing" and "the Office Manager
comes to the Manager when a decision has to be made"
indicated a high level of formalized communication was
occurring within the office.
Table 1 contains state-
ments, both from the management team and the support
staff, which are reflections of this particular theme.
Other issues included in Table 1 which are encompassed within this theme concern training.
The manage-
ment staff indicated that they had very little formal
training and that most of the skills they had acquired
were from "hands on" experience.
The management staff
did indicate that the company was beginning to offer
managers training courses which would help them in
.
~
59
accomplishing their goals.
The final issue that fell
within the boundary of the information giving theme was
instructional feedback.
Statements such as "evalua-
tions of staff are accurate" and "Office Manager is
real good at sitting down and explaining things to you"
indicated that there was a concern in the office to
communicate information to the staff in a positive and
useful way in order to facilitate good working conditions.
The second theme which emerged, positive reinforcement, is very similar to Campbell's (1970) organizational dimension of rewards.
Campbell was referring
to recognition and reward for good work as opposed to
disapproval for poor performance.
Statements such as
"the manager takes you to lunch and says thanks" indicated that the staff knows that the manager appreciates
their work and will reward them for doing a good job
(see Table 2).
Another statement such as "if you make
a mistake the manager corrects you in private" indicated that the management staff is communicating to the
support staff that they need not feel embarrassed if a
mistake is made.
This in turn helps build team morale
and team spirit which are two other issues which fell
within the theme of positive reinforcement. Responses
such as managers "I like seeing people do well" and
60
members of the staff "expectations are being met" indicated that the management staff was successful at motivating their staff into accomplishing goals and feeling
that their expectations were being met.
The third theme which emerged centered around topics concerning office rapport.
This was the most
heavily weighted dimension, because the largest portion
of the questionnaire was devoted to ascertaining
whether there was a positive or negative working environment.
This theme seems to encompass several of the
dimensions in the literature.
Campbell's (1970) orga-
nizational dimension of consideration, warmth and support,
("I appreciate my staff", "I always listen to
staff problems and try to help") as well as Redding's
(1972) ideal managerial communication dimensions of
Openness and Candor,
("I try
to~talk
with everyone each
day" and " I try to help them with problems if I can't,
I let them know I understand") and Supportiveness (I
feel supported by my supervisor because he has sat in
my place" and "OM understands my position and is supportive") are reflected in this theme labeled Office
Rapport.
The responses which support this theme can be
found in Table 3.
The fourth theme which emerged dimension of Lack
of Company Support.
This theme seems to encompass both
61
of Redding's (1972) managerial communication dimensions
of Participative decision-making and High performance
Goals.
By participative decision-making Redding is
referring to the idea that employees should feel free
to communicate upwards and that their opinions matter
to the company. The dimension of high performance goals
expresses the idea that there should be a clear communication of company goals to employees but there should
not be a high amount of pressure.
The responses for
this theme can be found in Table 4. Responses such as
"I have an enormous dislike for expenses of a new man-
ager," and "no say in rent, clerical staff, filling
emptied agent spots" indicated that the management
staff feel that they are not given a chance to particlpate in decisions which effect their office.
Other
responses such as "too much stress on numbers" and
"everything is related to production" indicated that
the company is perceived as placing too much emphasis
on production rather than the needs of the employees.
The emergence of these four themes is indicative
of the climate assessment tool's ability to measure
employee's perception of their work place. Communication patterns can be exposed for reflection and evaluation.
The next chapter will fully discuss and
evaluate the possibilities the climate assessment
62
measure offers to communication researchers and practitioners.
CHAPTER 4
CONCLUSIONS
The purpose of this applied case study was to
determine if the climate assessment measure employed by
a major insurance company was a useful tool for effectively assessing their communication and if the application of Deetz's methodology of interpretive research
strengthened the value of the climate assessment measure for organizational communication researchers and
practitioners.
The first section of this chapter will
focus on the findings from the theme analysis and how
each of these findings apply to the organization.
The
second section of this chapter will focus on the application of Deetz's methodology of interpretive research
and its value to researchers and practitioners.
The results from the theme analysis indicate that
the climate assessment can be a useful tool for organizational communication research.
The fact that commu-
nication themes could be induced from the data collected from the interviews is indicative of the climate
assessment's ability to expose communication patterns
for reflection and critical evaluation.
Specifically,
the communication themes which emerged from the information collected from the climate interviews were
information giving, positive reinforcement, office rap-
63
64
port, and lack of company support. These themes are
similar to the organizational and communication climate
dimensions proposed by Campbell (1970) and Redding
(1972).
Information giving, positive reinforcement, and
office rapport were all perceived as positive. Overall,
this office appears to have a very positive working
environment.
According to the Human Resource Director,
this office is one of the top producing offices in
their region, which seems to indicate a correspondence
between a positive working environment and high productivity.
The idea t·hat there is a relationship between
a positive climate and high production is not a new
one. This is evidenced by Goldhaber's (1986) feeling
that an individual's behavior in an organization is
influenced by her or his cognitive and affective perceptions of the organization.
Redding (1972) also
posited this idea when he stated that an organization's
climate is crucial in creating an effective organization.
An area of interest to communication researchers
and practitioners is the fact that most of the personnel from this office had worked in the office through a
merge:r.
Before, during and just after the merger the
personnel in the office had worked in a very poor elimate.
'
t:.1
At the time of this climate assessment, approxi-
65
mately a year after the merger, the members of the
office felt that now the climate was positive.
In
order to aid managers and staff in future mergers, an
assessment tool such as the one used in this applied
study can be important for communication researchers
and practitioners to understand what may lead to perceptions of poor climate.
The climate assessment mea-
sure can further aid the researcher and the practitioner in learning what the employees in the office
perceive and why they perceive that way during such
times of stress, uncertainty, and ambiguity.
In the third theme, office rapport, most staff had
indicated that the reason they liked this office now
was because the new Manager was very supportive of the
office staff where previous managers had not been. The
fact that most of the staff expressed the perception
that managerial support enabled them to ''like this
office now'' indicated the importance of Redding's
(1972) dimension of supportiveness in building an ideal
managerial climate. Redding explained that a supportive
climate exists when the leadership of an organization
enables each member of the organization to feel that he
or she can maintain a sense of personal worth and
importance.
Deeper understanding of the component "supportiveness'' is necessary in order for communication
.
~
66
researchers and practitioners to learn how they can
build more managerial support and avoid negative climates that are a result of employees perceiving that
they are not being supported. Gibb (1961) explains a
concept of supportiveness that may prove to be useful
to this company's practitioners in building ideal managerial climates in offices that are going to be
merged.
Gibb (1961) developed a paradigm comprising
six pairs of categories, each representing "supportive"
and "defensive" behavioral opposites.
He explained
that supportiveness is conceived as a desirable alternative to defensiveness. Gibb defined defensiveness as
behavior which causes an individual to perceive a
threat. Threat is defined by Gibb as threat to one's
ego or one's sense of self respect. The perception of
threat, real or imagined, is hypothesized as the great
enemy of supportiveness, and as a source of communication difficulties (Gibb, 1961).
Gibb (1965) later addressed himself to managers
when he contrasted defensive management with participative management.
Participative management includes
four kinds of managerial practices:
(1) trust, confi-
dence and acceptance which is synonymous with "supportive'' (trust in management and in self; respect for personal worth)
channels)
(2) Data flow (Open two-way communication
(3) Goal formation (emphasis on intrinsic
6'7
motivation; i.e.
motivation deriving from accomplish-
ment, self actualizing work, etc. l and C4) Control
(allocation of work by consensus. flexibility of work
organization, open expression of work organization}
CGibb, 1965).
Gibb (1965) believes that supportive-
ness should be conceptualized as part of a larger category which he defined as participative management.
Indeed, other elements such as those discussed by Gibb
(1965) were present in this office.
In addition to
Gibb's (19651 discussion of elements necessary for an
ideal managerial climate, Redding (1972) also indicated
that the ideal managerial communication climate consisted of five factors. Three of the factors that he
discussed. supportiveness; trust, confidence, and credibility; and openness and candor were all expressed by
members of this office.
For example, in the third theme, office rapport.
the staff indicated that in addition to feeling supported by management, they also saw a great deal more
of the Manager on the floor then the previous managers
and that they felt comfortable about talking about
problems with the current Manager. The Manager had commented that he liked people and he tried to talk with
all members of his staff each day.
He also believed in
an open door managerial policy. The fact that the staff
expressed the perception that the manager was approach-
68
able and that they felt comfortable talking with him
supports Gibb's (1965) and Redding's (1972) categories
of open communication and trust among management and
staff and that trust as well as supportiveness is a
essential ingredient for creating an ideal managerial
climat~.
Other themes which emerged in this office were
information giving which is very similar to Gibb's
(1965) second managerial style category of data flow
and positive reinforcement which is similar to Gibb's
(1965)
third managerial style of goal formation.
Examples from the climate assessment
int~rviews
illustrate how these themes or management styles are
in operation in this office (Appendix C).
Information
giving, the first theme which emerged, is supported by
such statements as the supervisors (Office Manager and
Assistant Office Manager) indication that they were
sincerely concerned with helping their staff reach
their highest potential which corresponds to the
staff's indication that they were being cross-trained
which enabled them to have a better understanding of
the overall organization of the office and a better
appreciation of what
use
performanc~
~ach
job entails. The supervisors
evaluations to let staff know how they
are doing as well as how they can reach higher levels.
Staff meetings were held once a week to give everyone
69
an opportunity to remain updated on new procedures that
may have been implemented on one of the desk assignments in the office or in changes that may be occurring
in overall company policv.
The second theme, positive reinforcement. is supported by such statements as the supervisors expressing
that they enjoyed working with people and developing
their skills.
The management team felt rewarded when
they saw their staff growing as individuals as well as
becoming more equipped to handle more aspects of the
overall office work load.
The management team also
expressed the importance of developing strategies for
rewarding their staff when they do a good job, such as,
friendly competitions among staff on such things as who
has the lowest number of computer errors in a month or
who has processed the most work for their agents.
Staff meetings are held once a week for informational
purposes but also as a means for allowing the staff to
participate in decisions which will be affecting their
office. The management team recognizes the importance
of allowing their staff to have a say in decisions
which will be affecting their jobs.
The climate assessment tool employed by the insurance company in this study is valuable to communication
researchers because it not only indicates that certain
communication patterns exist and are working or not
70
working, but why people perceive the climate the way
that they do.
Although each researcher has a different
label for the elements which comprise ideal managerial
climates, the ideals which comprise the labels (i.e.
trust, support, participation, two-way open communication, etc .. ) are consistent throughout the literature.
Researchers and practitioners need to understand these
elements so they can determine what types of communication patterns work with what types of positions, work
environments and the people involved in them.
Recommendations for this office should contain
strategies for maintaining the positive climate that
exists in the office.
Such strategies may include such
things as the management team continuing their efforts
to include staff in decisions which will affect their
jobs as well as continuing efforts to reward the staff
when they do a good job.
It is also extremely impor-
tant that the Manager maintain his open door managerial
policy and continue to be seen by his staff on the
floor talking and chatting with them.
As well as
developing strategies for maintaining the positive climate in this office, organizational communication personnel at this company should understand fully the elements of supportiveness and trust that were cited by
members of this staff as elements which helped them
transcend from a poor working environment to a positive
71
working environment and a high producing office.
The area of concern in this office is the perception, particularly by the management team, that there
is a lack of company support. There is much discontent
about how much support the horne office gives to the
field office management teams, particularly areas of
training in certain personnel policies such as the
Equal Employment Objectives and disciplinary actions.
The largest area of discontent regarding this lack
of company support is from the Manager who feels that
the pressure put on him to produce is too heavy.
The
Manager feels that because of his location he has problems competing with companies that are located in more
densely populated areas.
The Manager feels that the
companv should be more sensitive to the demands that
are placed on him.
The Manager believes that the com-
pany should have more trust in his ability to make
decisions that are best for his particular situation.
Once again, the climate assessment tool was able
to pinpoint where a communication problem existed (lack
of company support) and why it was perceived as a problem (company is insensitive to managers' needs in field
office).
The Manager in this office's climate assess-
ment had revealed that currently there were vacant
spots for.managers due to the fact that managers feel
that they don't have any say in decisions which affect
•
•
72
their offices. Personnel in this company need to make
specific recommendations on how the company can begin
to solve this problem. Losing managers due to their
perceptions that the company is insensitive to their
needs is a key area of concern that future climate
assessments should focus on in order to determine if
all managers feel this way and what sort of suggestions
they believe would help solve this problem.
By using the climate assessment tool to gain
information about how the managers feel the company can
become more sensitive to their needs,
the organization
is creating a risk-free opportunity for managers to let
their superiors know what steps are necessary in order
for the managers to feel that they are supported by the
company. The climate assessment measure is useless
unless ongoing efforts to respond to concerns expressed
in the climate assessment are developed and carried
out.
The action plan is one way the participants can
see that their needs are being dealt with.
Without
some sort of immediate response by top executives in
the organization to the information gathered through
the climate assessment, the climate assessment program
would lose credibility with participants and cease to
be a valuable tool for opening the door to two-way communication.
In conclusion, there is much controversy in the
73
literature as to whether the climate assessment construct is a useful tool for assessing organizational
communication.
This company's use of the climate con-
struct does produce useful data which expose communication themes for reflection and action.
The themes
which emerged in this office were similar to other
themes that have emerged in the theoretical literature
and research studies.
The information was also rich
enough so that a determination of the type of climate
which existed in this office could be made. Overall, it
appears that this office has a positive climate except
for the perception by management that there is not
enough company support.
The fact that this office has in9reased its production since the new manager took over is also indicative of the climate construct's ability to predict
behavior as researchers in the literature had suggested
(Redding, 1972; Goldhaber, 1986; Dennis 1975; Campbell
1970; Schneider and Snyder, 1975).
The personnel in
this company need to understand how certain elements
such as supportiveness, trust and an open-door policy
by the new manager enabled members of the staff to
transcend form a poor working environment to a positive
working environment. This increased understanding will
aid personnel in helping other offices in the company
that are currently undergoing mergers or will be under-
74
going mergers in the future to create participative,
supportive climates rather than defensive climates.
Increased understanding will also aid organizational
personnel in this companv to design training and educational programs which will help educate managers in
developing strategies in their office to create positive climates.
The second area that needs to be addressed is
whether the application of Deetz's methodology of
interpretive research strengthened the value of the
climate assessment tool for organizational communication research and practitioners.
The three major goals
of Deetz's (1973) methodology previously outlined in
Chapter One are understanding, critical interpretation
and new concept formation. The results of the application of the interpretative process to the company's use
of the climate assessment construct indicated that the
climate construct is a coherent (greatest range of
texts present), objective (data collection is informative and unbiased) tool which contains elements of
rhetorical force (dialogue is stimulated in community).
Because the company's use of the climate assessment
tool contains these three important interpretive elements it was important to see how effectively these
elements were meeting the goals of interpretive
research.
75
The first goal that the climate assessment tool
had to meet was that of understanding.
Through coher-
ence, which is the ability of the tool to represent,
without bias, all the views in the office so that
inconsistencies or constancies in perceptions can be
exposed and acted upon, a better understanding of the
management teams' and support staffs' views on company
policy and working environment could take place.
For
example, one of the communication themes which emerged
from this office's climate assessment was information
giving.
Information giving in this office includes
such communication issues as formalized communication
practices which were perceived as positive; training,
which was perceived as improving; and feedback, which
was perceived as positive. In other offices. however,
formalized communication patterns might be perceived as
negative.
The communication researcher and practi-
tioner need to begin to assess why formalized procedures work in some environments and don't work in others.
In this particular climate assessment, the data
collected indicated that while previous training had
not occurred in the company, present training efforts
were perceived as useful and valuable.
In other words.
the climate assessment not only indicated that training
was perceived as positive, but the assessment indicated
why training was perceived as positive.
Better under-
76
standing of the management team and support staff perceptions is occurring because the climate assessment
not only exposes what they perceive but why they perceive that way.
However, Deetz may argue that the understanding
which a communication researcher or practitioner gains
from this particular climate assessment seems to be a
surface understanding.
When Deetz (1973) refers to
understanding, he would want to explore the underlying
issues of why formalized channels of communication,
training and feedback were perceived as positive, and
what meaning systems have developed in each of the
staff's pasts which would enable them to perceive these
issues in the way that they did. It could be argued by
practitioners in this company that this approach is too
idealistic and is unnecessary for understanding what is
occurring within the environment.
The question may
then become, for organizational practitioners in this
company, how much understanding is enough.
Because this tool is designed to diagnose organizational climate, the answer becomes a matter of pragmatics for the organization.
In other words, how much
understanding is necessary for practitioners in order
to improve or maintain the climate in the office to
such a degree for proper functioning of the work environment; e.g., production, cooperation, decision-making
77
to mention but a few.
A nursery rhyme may lead insight
into this issue:
For want of a nail. the shoe was lost.
For want of a horse, the rider was lost.
For want of a rider, the message was lost.
For want of the message, the battle was lost.
As children, we were taught that being careless
may often spread beyond the initial problem to involve
many other people and situations. To analyze any problem properly, we have to consider all the people who
will be involved in the problem whether we are dealing
with companies, governments, groups or any other entity
where cooperation is required to carry out a plan.
Many examples in our world illustrate that much can be
lost when we improperly analyze the attitudes of other
people.
In the Bay of Pigs invasion, for example, the
U.S. government believed there was an active resistance
movement that would come to the aid of the invading
force.
They failed to understand and diagnose that the
majority of Cubans supported the Castro regime.
In the
1960's and 1970's auto makers had to make many assumptions about the attitudes and actions of consumers,
workers, suppliers, and competing world markets. Many
firms incorrectly analyzed the behavior of the people
and the industrial belt earned the nickname "rust belt"
(Pryor, 1987) .
• 0
78
Understanding the situation and the people
involved in the situation is key before decisions can
be made.
In an organizational setting, the climate
assessment is a tool which can aid the manager in
understanding how her or his people perceive varying
issues in the working environment.
Though the manager
may not necessarily need to understand the meaning systems of the individuals in order to understand that the
staff perceives something as good or bad, the more we
understand the people around us, the better we will be
able to communicate with them and make decisions which
would be more beneficial.
For this particular company to increase understanding of management and staff perceptions, adding
more "follow-up type" questions to the questionnaire
could begin to increase understanding of why people
perceive things the way that they do. For example, section IV. question 3 in the management interview, asks
"How were you trained in personnel policies?"
This is
the only question in the whole interview concerning
training.
Such follow-up questions such as "Are there
ongoing training programs for managers in the company",
"how would you describe the usefulness of the company
training programs" and "what types of additional training would you find helpful" could provide additional
information into why training is perceived a certain
'
~
79
way.
In my interview with members of this office,
these additional questions enabled me to understand
that although the management team had not received formal training before being placed in their current positions, the training that the company was now offering
was useful to the management staff. Had the company not
taken the time to train me to use "follow-up" questions, I may not have been able to understand why
training was perceived the way that it was. Furthermore, many climate assessments are paper and pencil
tools rather than interviews.
The interview allows a
researcher to follow up responses that may seem unclear
or out of the ordinary.
Currently, the use of this climate assessment tool
for the company is very expensive and time consuming.
Tr·ving to trace the meaning systems of each individual
who participates in the climate assessment program may
not be useful to the company. So, although understanding is not occurring at the level that Deetz proposes,
the Climate Assessment Tool seems to be able to provide
enough information to give researchers and managers
a basis for understanding what the staff perceives to
be happening in the working environment so that problem
areas can be pinpointed or positive areas can be maintained.
The second goal proposed by Deetz, is critical
80
interpretation.
The answer seems obvious that if the
first goal of understanding is not reached, then the
second goal of critical interpretation could not be
reached.
If the climate assessment has not exposed
th~
meaning systems of individuals for understanding, it
certainly would be difficult to educate people on how
to communicate openly without allowing social, political, or economic influences to suppress their ideas.
This Climate Assessment Tool may not be able to
explain why communication is being suppressed, but it
can indicate that there is a problem with communication
and to some extent where the perceived problem lies.
This particular climate assessment focused on the
relationships that had been developed in the office to
expose not only if and where communication problems
exist, but why the communication problems are occurring
(refer to sections III, IV, V, VI, VII, IX in the management interview in Appendix A; and sections III, VI,
VII, VIII, IX, in the support staff interview in Appendix B) .
For example, the responses from the management
teams interviews from section VII.
(question 1. How
would you describe the relations between the management
team and the staff? Why? and question 2. How closely do
you work with members of your staff? Explain.) are compared with the support staff's responses in section
VII. of the support staff interviews (question 1. How
81
often do you see management other than your immediate
supervisor? Do you get a chance to talk or chat?
and
question 2. How would you describe the working relationship between the supervisors and employees in your
office?) problem areas can begin to be pinpointed as to
whether they exist and why they exist.
In this
office, the Manager felt that there was a good working
relationship between the management team and support
staff. The Office Manager and her assistant also felt
there was a good working relationship, but also
revealed that they felt the new Manager's open door
policy helped create a more positive environment then
the past manager's closed management style. The support
staff felt that overall there was a good working relationship between management and staff but had mixed
feelings about which supervisor was easier to work with
(see Appendix C section VII). So, to some extent the
climate assessment tool does indicate why problems do
exist. In addition to the actual climate assessment,
the action plan that the Director of Human Resources
writes and sends back with the Field Office Consultant
helped provide the management team with strategies on
how to solve problems that were occurring or how to
strengthen areas that were doing well.
In this way
perceptions are being exposed and education and training is occurring to help solve any communication prob-
82
lems that may be occurring.
In pragmatic terms although Deetz's idea of critical interpretation is more complex, this company's use
of the climate assessment tool is beginning to educate
members of the management staff on how they can solve
problems in the office and communicate more effectively.
Deetz (1973) is concerned that all members be
taught better communication skills.
Perhaps more
emphasis on education of staff members as well as the
management team may prove to be even more effective.
Currently, the action plan goes to the management team
and then the management team and Field Office Consultant work closely on developing the action plan. Perhaps the staff also should be able to have more
involvement in this step so that two-way communication
can occur from both ends.
The third goal of organizational communication is
to help the organization form new concepts.
Once
again, the climate construct can indicate where and why
a problem exists but unless the information is followed
up with the action plan in a timely manner then the
tool is not being used to its fullest potential.
Flex-
ible ongoing communication programs need to be developed so that the organizational members can continue to
grow and develop.
Climates change and it is important
that evaluations of the data collected and responses
83
from the Human Resource Department in the form of an
action plan occur in a timely matter in order to allow
the staff to understand where they are and where they
need to go.
Using the Field Office Consultant to help
the management team initiate the action plan is good
because the Field Office Consultant is already familiar
with the office and has to stay in constant communication with the office.
This constant communication
between the Field Office Consultant and the office
staff enables the Consultant an opportunity to help
managers with ongoing programs to develop better communication climates within the office.
The climate assessment tool alone cannot meet the
demands of the interpretive methodology.
However, wher1
the interviewers are properly trained, and the action
plan carefullv drawn up and maintained and developed on
an ongoing basis, the climate assessment tool can meet
the demands placed on it and provide valuable information to both researcher and organizational managers.
This company's use of the climate assessment measure was beneficial assessing organizational communication.
Communication themes which emerged in this study
for reflection and critical evaluation were information
giving, positive reinforcement, office rapport, and
lack of company support.
While Deetz's interpretive
goals may be too idealistic for this or any organiza-
84
tion, in pragmatic terms they do help illustrate the
importance for practitioners to fully understand what
the employees perceptions are of communication issues
before trying to solve problems in communication.
Once
an understanding is reached then the organization must
act on their findings in a timely manner in order to
enhance two-way communication and ensure employees that
their feedback is important to the organization and
efforts are being made to correct problems that are
occurring.
This company's use of the Climate Assess-
ment Measure with an action plan for correction or
maintenance of communication patterns is an excellent
program for problem-solving and educating all members
of the organization to build ideal communication climates within the company.
Because this was a case-study, the findings from
this survey are limited to this company. This company's
use of the climate assessment in an interview format
as well as the use of outside interviewers and the
debriefing session to create an action plan, all
help enhance the climate assessments value to the
company. It must be stressed that this is a highly
expensive and time-consuming project for the company.
For this company the Climate Assessment Program is
successful.
However, this company's use of the climate
Assessment Measure may not be viable for other com-
'
tJ
85
panies.
In addition, using the Climate Assessment
Measure alone without feedback sources such as the
action plan used in this company may weaken the effectiveness of the measure.
The Climate Assessment Mea-
sure for this company is a useful tool for exposing
employees perceptions of their work environments for
reflection, critical evaluation and action .
. ,,
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Managerial behavior, pprfor-
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New York:
McGraw-Hill.
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(1973).
An understanding of science and
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Dennis, H.S.
(1975).
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International Communica-
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91
Appendix A
Climate Assessment
Management Interview
I.
Work Itself
la.
Tell me about your responsibilities for the
staff.
lb.
How do they compare with your responsibilities to the agents? (For Ordinary/District
office only)
2.
What do you like best/least about your job?
3.
How manageable is your work load?
4.
What are some of the factors your staff likes
most/least about their jobs?
II.
Working Conditions
1.
Are there any elements of the work environment
that the staff has complained about (e.g.,
lighting, temperature, furniture)?
2.
Is there anything they especially like?
III. Feedback and Recognition
1.
Do you feel you know what is expected of you?
How can you tell?
2a.
What factors are evaluated in you performance
review?
2b.
Do you feel these accurately reflect you job?
Why or why not?
'
f)
92
2c.
How often do you receive a formal performance
review?
3.
How well do those to whom you report understand your job?
4.
Are your efforts to develop your subordinates recognized in the same way as your
technical skills?
5.
Describe how you use performance reviews for
members of the staff.
6.
How do you feel about the usefulness of
performance reviews for the staff?
How do you know if you have made a mistake in
7.
any aspect of your job?
IV.
Promotions, Posting and Policies
1.
What do you look for when you consider someone for promotion or an interim increase?
2.
Which personnel policies are most difficult
to administer?
Why?
3.
How were you trained in personnel policies?
4.
Where do you go if you need clarification
on a personnel policy or question?
(e.g.,
manuals, other people, RHO, etc.)
5.
Have you found it necessary to modify any
personnel policies to improve operations,
office efficiency, etc.?
. t'
93
6.
How are performance expectations conveyed to
the staff?
V.
Compensation
1.
How do your staff members feel about their
total compensation?
2.
When people compare their salaries here, to
whom do they compare?
3a.
Are there any special ways you can reward
someone who is doing a good job?
3b.
Are there any ways in addition to dollars you
have used?
4.
Do you have any feelings or thoughts about
the Company's salary plan?
VI.
Communications
1.
Describe how training a new employee takes
place.
2a.
What is your involvement in decisions which
effect your subordinates?
2b.
How are operating decisions communicated to
you?
3.
Are they timely?
Do you have staff meetings and what purpose
do they serve?
4.
When you need to get additional information
or clarification on technical matters, where
do you go?
94
5.
In which ways do you find out or learn about
the sta(f's thoughts on work matters?
(e.g.,
meetings, they come to me, I go to them, from
others.)
VII.
Management/Staff Relations
1.
How would you describe the relations between
the management team and the staff?
2.
How closely do you work with members of your
staff?
3.
Explain.
Are some employees "easier" to manage than
others?
4a.
Why?
Explain.
When an employee has a specific work problem,
e.g., poor performance, how do you handle it?
4b.
When an employee has a complaint, how do you
handle it?
4c.
What if there is no agreement/resolution
between the two of you?
5.
How would your subordinates rate you as a
supervisor?
Whv?
VIII. Work Organization
1.
How is work assigned?
2.
How is the quality checked?
3.
How manageable is the work lose of your
staff?
4a.
How much overtime has there been in the past
95
year?
4b.
IX.
How do you determine who will get it?
Work Group
la.
How well does the staff get along with one
another?
lb.
What relationship do the service staff and
agents have?
lc.
How do you foster cooperation between the two
groups·:·
2.
How do you handle a conflict among the staff
members?
X.
Can you give me an example?
Expectations
1.
Has working in this office met your expectations?
2.
If you could change anything here, what would
it be?
96
Appendix
B
Climate Assessment
Employee Interview
I.
Work Itself
1.
Tell me a little about your job-- what you do
and how you do it?
2.
What are things about your job that you like
the most?
II.
The least?
Working Conditions
1.
How do you feel about the physical setting
where you work--temperature, noise,
supplies, etc.?
III. Feedback and Recognition
1.
How do you find out how you are doing?
2.
When management evaluates your performance,
what seems to be the most important aspects
of your job?
3.
Do you think that these are the most important aspects of your job?
4.
How do you know what is an average job and
what is an outstanding job?
5.
IV.
What happens if you make a mistake?
Promotions, Postings, Policies, and Procedures
1.
If someone does a good job here, what are
their chances for promotion?
'17
2.
Do you feel that the most competent people are
selected for promotion?
V.
Compensation
1.
How do you feel about compensation -- pay,
insurance, vacation, investment plan, etc.
Why do you feel that way?
2.
When you make comparisons on benefits and pay,
with whom do you compare?
VI.
Communications
1.
Is there information you need to do your job
that you are not receiving?
2.
Do you have staff meetings -- how do they
work?
3.
What do you do when you have a work problem
-- like too big a backlog, new procedures you
can't understand, or a personal problem?
VII. Management/Staff Relations
1.
How often do you see management other than
your immediate supervisor? Do you get a
chance to talk or chat?
2.
How would you describe the working relationship between the supervisors and employees
in your office?
VIII. Work Organization
1.
.
\)
Do you have a clear understanding of what is
98
required of you on your job?
2.
How do you feel about the amount of work you
are expected to do?
3.
Do you feel that work is divided among the
staff fairly?
IX.
Work Group
1.
In your office, do the employees cooperate to
help get the work done?
2.
In general, how well do employees here get
along with one another?
X.
Expectations
1.
When you started working for the company you
probably had some expectations about what the
work environment would be like here.
How
well have those expectations been met?
XI.
Conclusion:
Are there any additional thoughts
that you have about your work situation that
we have not covered?
. v
99
Appendix C
Dallas Office Profile
I.
Work Itself
The Manager feels that he has the ultimate
responsibility for everything that occurs in the
office.
He has had no hands on experience with the
clerical work but his sales production experience has
carried through.
His responsibility towards the staff
is mainly as an overseer, the Office Manager is in
charge of the clerical staff.
The Manager likes the
challenge that his position offers him and feels a
strong sense of accomplishment when he sees people he
helped develop succeed.
The hardest part of his job is
handling the continues pressure of getting the numbers.
Most of the pressure he feels is self-induced.
He feels that his work load is manageable because he
isn't afraid to delegate paperwork.
He is primarily
a people person and feels as a manager he should deal
mostly with people.
The Office Manager indicated that she is responsible for training, work flow organization, promotions
and interim increases for the staff.
She also tries to
maintain a positive attitude which helps keep morale
t,l
100
high.
She feels that some staff duties overlap with
responsibilities towards agents, i.e., work flow and
morale.
Although the work-load is heavy it is mana-
geable.
The O.M. reallv enjoys the position she is in
because she is free to run the office the way she feels
is best.
She is satisfied that the office has grown
the past five years into a really good office.
The
hardest part of her job is counseling problem employees
i.e., those employees who find it difficult to take
criticism or will not or can not realize their ineffectiveness.
The Associate Office Manager indicated that her
main responsibilities for the staff are training,
identifying and solving problems, and helping the
Office Manager carry out her objectives.
Her respon-
sibilities for the agents are very different.
Mainly
she is more service orientated with agents, although
there is some training that is involved.
The A.O.M.
also feels that her work load is manageable and really
enjoys the challenge that the position offers her.
The staff members feel that their work is very
challenging but enjoyable.
with people and the agents.
They really enjoy working
Some agents can really be
a problem to work with, especially when it is near
101
quarter.
II.
Working Conditions
Management and staff all agree that the office is
really beautiful and a good place to bring in clients.
However, all agree that it really has no convenient
locations close enough to go for lunch.
The
refrigerator is too small to hold everyone's lunch so it
presents a problem for staff members at lunch time.
Staff members
also indicated that the mail machine was
outdated, the printer was too slow, and that the office
really needed another computer.
Otherwise, working
conditions were fine.
III. Feedback and Recognition
The Manager feels he knows exactly what is
expected of him.
First of all, he is expected to
exceed the present company office record and second, he
is to keep up with the east coast offices.
He uses
management by objectives and feels he can accomplish
goals.
He feels that putting numbers on the board is
the Company's main concern and if you do this then
everything else must be doing OK.
He does feel that
The Vice President for his district is too much a
·technical man and tends to loose sight of people sometimes.
If you put the numbers on the board then you
102
seldom hear anything from above, but if you don't the
phone starts ringing.
He feels it would be nicer to
have more positive feedback given for a job well done.
The Manager lets the Office Manager do all the reviews
and then gores over them with her.
He doesn't feel
that the some criteria ought to be used for the O.M.
that are used for the clerk evaluations. He also feels
he is not capable of doing the evaluations on the O.M.
because he does not know what all her job entails, nor
does he feel he ought to know.
The Field Office
Consultant would probably do a better quality evaluation.
The Office Manager also feels she knows what is
expected of her.
Conferences, manuals and meetings all
reinforce what she is suppose to do.
once a year which is fine.
She is evaluated
The emphasis tends to lean
towards the technical side which is probably how it
should be.
Performance reviews are done once a year
and they are good tools for communication.
She feels
that the new ones should have a place to mark tardiness
because this is important.
She is very honest with the
staff so that they know exactly how they are doing and
where they need to go.
The Associate Office Manager also feels that
she
knows what is expected of her. The Office Manager is
103
good at letting her know what she expects.
She is
evaluated once a year on job knowledge, oral and written communication etc.
She feels that these are impor-
tant. She does feel that her evaluation should be different than the Office Managers because she does not
set objectives for the office she only follows them
through.
She also indicated that performance reviews
for the staff were good because thev were used as a
developmental tool.
If a mistake has been made she
feels she knows it herself.
She also feels that the
Office Manager and her have developed better
communication skills since the office merger.
The staff members feel the evaluations are fine
but thev would like to hear more positive verbal reinforcement when they are doing a good job.
Occasionally
the Office Manager will tell them that they are doing a
nice job but it would help to have more.
IV.
Promotions
The Manager does not have much to do with promo-
tions for the clerical staff.
sions up to the Office Manager.
He leaves those deciThe Office Manager
follows the guidelines in the book for promotions.
For
interims she feels that someone who goes beyond the
call of duty should be awarded interims.
The Manager and Associate Office Manager feel that
the toughest personnel policy to carrv out is the EEO
104
objectives.
There is not a large pool of minorities to
choose from. The minority's that do apply are the least
qualified which means reverse discrimination occurs.
Than if you hire a minority and the minority quits you
don't receive credit and have to go looking for
another minority to fill the vacancy.
They have had a
tough time filling the minority position and have had a
high turnover.
The Office Manager and Associate Office
Manager also feel that the progressive discipline program is hard to administer particularly when you have
people who cannot accept criticism or blame.
The supervisors try to give continual feedback to
staff members other than the performance reviews to
keep them informed on their progress.
They also try to
have weekly meetings to discuss progress.
Both staff members felt that with in the office
promotions were fair and timely given.
V.
Compensation
The Manager feels that overall everyone's pay is
low and that the benefits are comparable.
The older
people probably appreciate the benefits more but the
younger one's would rather have a bigger paycheck.
He
feels that when comparing pay with similar job
descriptions in noninsurance companies the pay is low.
They have tried to implement different contests to
'
"
105
reward staff members for doing a good job.
The management team all feel that the recruitment
salary is uncornpetitive and that they should put the six
month raise in the recruitment salary to make it more
competitive with other companies.
All staff members feel that they are underpaid but
the benefits are nice and the
vaca~ion
time is excel-
lent.
VI.
Communications
The Manager indicated that the Office Manager and
Associate Office Manager did most of the training.
The
Office Manager comes to the Manager with any large
decisions and they will decide jointly or the Manager
will tell her to do what she thinks is best.
The Office manager indicated that she did some
training but if there was a senior clerk who could
train a person than that person would work with the new
person.
The A.O.M. explained that the OM and herself
discuss the best place to start a new person and one of
them would sit with her on the desk.
The Manager feels that the information from the
Home Office is not always timely and this can be frustrating.
.
~
The Office Manager felt that overall infor-
106
mation was timely.
The Office Manager also indicated
that she is mainly responsible for all decisions
affecting her staff.
Meetings are held about three times a month and
they are held for various reasons.
They are informa-
tive, problem solving, motivational etc.
manager attends.
Sometimes the
Clerks will also be given the oppor-
tunity to present new information.
All staff members feel that they are given information in a timely matter.
VII.
Management and Staff Relations
The manager feels that there is a good
ment/staff relationship.
m~nage­
He tries not to treat them
inferior and tries to work with all of them.
If there
is a problem employee the Office manager usually
handles it.
The Office Manager and Associate Office Manager
also feel that there is a good team relationship.
They
both work closely with the staff and feel like they
have built a good working relationship.
The Manager is
much better than the previous manager and he maintains
an open door policy.
If their is a problem then the
107
supervisors try to handle it immediately.
Sometimes
they have to tell staff members to be patient with
others and that they are trying to work things out.
Staff had mixed feelings towards the immediate
supervisors.
Some felt that the OM was easier to talk
to and that the AOM seemed impatient with training and
answering questions.
Others felt that the AOM was very
knowledgeable about her job and they respected her
technical skills but the OM was more caring and
approachable than the OM.
Over~ll,
the staff did feel
that there was a good working relationship between management and staff.
VIII. Work Organization
The Manager is not involved in the day-to-day work
activities of the clerical staff except on the rare
occasion he has a project that he wants done. The
Office Manager and Associate Office Manager keep an eye
on the work load of individual staff members and if one
desk seems to have too much work, they will redistribute the workload.
Right now the work load is manage-
able but it gets really heavy when people go on vacation.
The quality of the work is checked by the Home
Office and by the computer terminal.
There is no overtime but some of the staff have
given up lunch breaks in order to get the work done.
108
Staff all feel that the work is distributed fairly and
that their work load is manageable.
I "A.
Work Group
Management and staff all feel that there is a good
working relationship among everyone.
There are a few
problems with some of the agents but management is trying to solve that problem.
Everyone cooperates to get
the work done although there are some that need a bit
more encouragement to help out then others.
X.
Expectations
For the most part, the Manager feels that his
expectations have been met.
He does feel that the
Company is not as supportive or sensitive to managements needs as it should be.
On one hand the Company
says run the business as you see fit but we're going to
impact your salary with clerical bonuses, rent, turnover of sales staff and not give you the choice of
what city or what office you work for. So, when the
manager took over this office, his salary was impacted
by a rent lease that was signed before he got there
which places the office in a high rent area.
He had
virtually no sales staff and had to here about twenty
people which meant that he would probably lose some of
those and his salary was impacted.
He requested to
109
work in an office that was not in a large city and was
placed in a office in a big city which a friend who is
also a manager in the same company asked for an office
in the city and was placed in the "Boon docks".
So,
the company needs to be more concerned with the feelings of their managers.
There are three or four
vacancies in managerial positions and this was something that you never use to see.
The supervisors and clerical staff all feel that
their expectations have been met.
They enjoy the ver-
satility of their work and feel that the Company does
make it possible for people to advance.
They all feel
that they are underpaid and that the Company needs to
upgrade their salary plan.
110
Appendix D
Responses from Interviews
I train and
help identify
problems
I (manager) have
ultimate responsibility
for everything that
happens in the office
I (manager) oversee
everything that
happens
Office Manager spends
most of the time
cross-training staff
Vacation time is great
Not fair my salary is impacted by decisions that
weren't my doing
The work is very
manageable because
I can delegate auth0rity
The work is manageable
Work load seems manageable
Information is timely with
computers
My responsibility for
clerks is one of
monitoring, finding
remedies & solutions,
training
Phones get real busy and irritating
Benefits excellent
Mail is slow
Pay is too low
Working conditions fine
Promotions are handled
by the office manager
Could use more space
Working conditions are OK
The work is pleasant
No overtime is used or
allowed
Young people don't
appreciate benefits
Starting pay is low
Pay system set up in
Disney Land
Pay is very poor
Benefits are really good
OM is average tends
to go by the book
Office manager shouldn't
review Ot·1
Not allowed to
hire temps
'
111
Work is at times
unmanageable
Need help at times
Communication is
not timely
EEO objectives are
hard to maintain
Reverse discrimination
occurs because of EEO
EEO to difficult to manage
Progressive discipline is
also difficult to manage
.
~