Organizational climate and climate strengths in UK hospitals

Jeremy F. Dawson, Vicente González-Romá, Ann J. Davis, Michael A. West

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In recent years, researchers have paid increasing attention to the idea of “climate strength”—the level of agreement about climate within a work group or organization. However, at present the literature is unclear about the extent to which climate strength is a positive attribute, and is concerned predominantly with small teams or organizational units. This article considers three theoretical perspectives of climate strength, and extends these to the organizational level. These three roles of climate strength were tested in 56 hospitals in the United Kingdom. Positive relationships were discovered between two of three climate dimensions (Quality and Integration) and expert ratings of organizational performance, and a curvilinear effect between Integration climate strength and performance was also found. Very high or very low Integration climate strength was less beneficial than a moderate level of climate strength. However, there were no interaction effects discovered between climate and climate strength. Implications for future climate strength research are discussed.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)89-111
Number of pages23
JournalEuropean Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology
Volume17
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2008

Bibliographical note

This is an electronic version of an article published in Dawson, Jeremy F.; González-Romá, Vicente; Davis, Ann J. and West, Michael A. (2008). Organizational climate and climate strengths in UK hospitals. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 17 (1), pp. 89-111. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology is available online at: http://www.informaworld.com/openurl?genre=article&issn=1359-432X&volume=17&issue=1&spage=89

Keywords

  • climate strength
  • level of agreement
  • climate
  • work group
  • organization
  • organizational level
  • positive relationships
  • quality and integration
  • expert ratings
  • organizational performance
  • integration climate strength

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