ENVIRONMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS AND ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

This article is primarily concerned with exploring the relationships between organizational climate and characteristics of organizational environments. Environmental characteristics include dependencies, competition and uncertainty. In addition, the relationship of climate and environments with dimensions of organizational structure and size are examined. Using data from 15 industrial organizations in Britain, the results have shown that different environmental characteristics have different associations with organizational climate. Also, the relationships between organizational environments and climate are not similar to those found between environments and structure. It is suggested that the creation of appropriate climates and structural design as responses to environmental pressures may be considered as complementary strategies in an attempt to maintain administrative control. The results, therefore, provide support for the suggestion that, in order to improve our understanding of the dynamics of organizational climate, characteristics of organizational environments should be incorporated into future research designs.