The purpose of this article is the dissemination of a Cuban experience, carried out in various companies in the province of Matanzas, on the diagnosis of the organizational climate, after discussion of the theoretical and methodological concepts on which the research carried out is based.
The methodology used was recommended by UNDP for these diagnoses in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the article succinctly summarizes the main difficulties caused by the organizational climate in the companies selected for the experience. The conclusions reached will lead to the conception of further work aimed at improving the methodology used and deepening the study of this essential element for the success of management in contemporary organizations.
The XXI century is the century of Human Capital: it is a reality that is recognized by all management students as science. Assets in human resources (HR) are the greatest source of added value to the performance of contemporary organizations, so it is they who determine the difference between successful and unsuccessful companies.
The great technological advances, which in the 20th century set the tone, have been giving way to become a matter taken for granted, so that in the search for competition in the market, the fundamental role today is played by values “Intangibles”, that is, the added value of the professionalism of the staff and their competence for the work they carry out.
The situation described above, has led companies to make large investments in human capital, in their training, improvement and intensive preparation, making it the most important resource of the entity. Human Capital Management thus becomes an area of key results and internal customer satisfaction becomes a recurring occupation for managers.
The management of the 2000s, therefore, puts the emphasis on the human being, on the satisfaction of their expectations and professional and labor needs, and on the creation of a work climate that fosters high levels of performance.
For these reasons, studies of job satisfaction and organizational climate have been introduced in companies, as they are effective tools to analyze the needs and expectations of workers, and devise improvement actions that promote the sustained increase of their assets in HR.
The organizational climate can be understood as "… the psychosocial environment in which the employees of an organization operate… manifested by the cultural reactions, interpretation of realities and methods of action that characterize a moment of the organization" (UNDP, 2001).
The organizational climate is intangible but, nevertheless, it has a real and transcendent existence in the behavior of people. The conditions of the organizational climate influence motivation and satisfaction in the workplace, directly affecting the results of the work.
From another angle, the climate of the organization can be defined as the subjective perception that members of the organization have of the objective reality. The objective and subjective realities interact giving rise to the organizational climate; which theoretically should coincide, although unfortunately, it does not always happen this way. This criterion is endorsed by Marín (2002) when she defines it as "… the set of perceptions of the relatively stable characteristics of the organization, which influence the attitudes and behavior of its members".
Those who decide to venture into their study will be able to verify that, due to the plurality of factors that comprise it and the combination of objective and subjective variables that are involved in its analysis, the organizational climate has been defined in different ways by the different scholars of the subject.
For example, Goncalves (1997) defines it as "… a phenomenon that mediates between the factors of the organizational system and motivational trends that translate into behavior that has consequences on the organization such as productivity, satisfaction, turnover".
For his part, Anzardo (2006) considers the organizational climate as “… the interaction between the most stable characteristics of the objective reality existing in the organization and the subjective perceptions that its members have of it, which in their synergistic interaction, give rise to to the organizational climate ”. These realities influence each other, in a reciprocal interaction, which means that when a generalized negative perception is manifested, it is necessary to immediately initiate actions that allow their elimination, even though it is considered that this is not a faithful interpretation of the existing objective reality.
The specific characteristics of the organizational system generate a certain type of organizational climate, whose impact on the motivations of the members of the organization and on their corresponding performance determine the success or failure of the system.
Litwin and Stinger, (1980) postulate the existence of nine dimensions that would explain the existing climate in a given company. Each of these dimensions is related to certain properties of the organization, such as:
1. Structure
It represents the perception that the members of the organization have about the number of rules, procedures, procedures and other limitations that they face in the development of their work. The extent to which the organization emphasizes bureaucracy, versus the emphasis placed on a free, informal, and unstructured work environment.
2. Responsibility
It is the feeling of the members of the organization about their autonomy in making decisions related to their work. It is the extent to which the supervision they receive is general and not narrow, that is, the feeling of being their own boss and not having double checks at work.
3. Reward
Corresponds to members' perception of the adequacy of rewards received for a job well done. It is the extent to which the organization uses the reward more than the punishment.
4. Challenge
It corresponds to the feeling that the members of the organization have about the challenges that the work imposes. It is the extent to which the organization promotes the acceptance of calculated risks in order to achieve the proposed objectives.
5. Relationships
It is the perception by the members of the company about the existence of a pleasant work environment and good social relations both among peers and between bosses and subordinates.
6. Cooperation
It is the feeling of the members of the company about the existence of a spirit of help from the managers and other employees of the group. The emphasis is on mutual support, both from higher and lower levels.
7. Standards
It is the members' perception of the emphasis organizations place on performance standards.
8. Conflicts
It is the feeling of the degree to which members of the organization, both peers and superiors, accept dissenting opinions and are not afraid to face and solve problems as soon as they arise.
9. Identity
It is the feeling of belonging to the organization and that it is an important and valuable element within the work group. In general, it is the feeling of sharing personal goals with those of the organization.
Knowledge of the Organizational Climate provides feedback about the processes that determine organizational behaviors, also allowing planned changes to be made, both in the attitudes and behaviors of members, as well as in the organizational structure or in one or more of the systems that comprise it..
The importance of this information is based on the verification that the Organizational Climate influences the manifest behavior of its members, through stabilized perceptions that filter reality and condition levels of work motivation and professional performance, among others.
Taking into consideration the influence that the organizational climate has on the destinations of the organization, the managers have decided to invest capital in making studies of the organizational climate, to determine its weak points and immediately devise corrective and modifying actions that guarantee that the It is not altered to such an extent that it will conspire against the achievement of management objectives, deteriorating the motivation and job satisfaction of the group.
In Cuba, organizational climate studies are not yet a recurring practice. However, in Cuban entities, immersed as they are in the application of the Business Improvement process, where one of the basic principles is to achieve competitiveness, it is necessary to generalize the practice of studying the organizational climate, as a way for continuous improvement and the improvement of management.
The diagnosis of the organization's climate, given its multifactorial complexity, forces the integration of multidisciplinary groups that promote the enrichment of the analyzes and the conclusions reached in them, which is confirmed when the point of view is taken into consideration. de García Canclini (1995), when he states: “… multidisciplinary convergence can be used to the benefit of organizational studies, since what sense would it make to keep hidden the trajectories of anthropology, sociology and communicational studies in a period in which the classic research objects in the social sciences intermingle? ”
Rodríguez, D. (1999), Guillén, (2000) and other authors suggest measuring the Organizational Climate by means of the following dimensions:
- Attitudes towards the company and company management. Attitudes towards opportunities for promotion. Attitudes towards the content of the post. Attitudes towards supervision. Attitudes towards financial rewards. Attitudes towards working conditions. Attitudes towards coworkers.
Both the dimensions suggested by Litwin and Stinger, (1980) and those of Rodríguez, D. (1999), Guillén, (2000) and other authors, reaffirm the need to integrate a multidisciplinary group whose interaction in the research process allows to cover with depth all the dimensions of the organizational climate and the multiple variables that comprise them.
One of the most widely used models in Latin America for studying the organizational climate is the one proposed for such purposes by UNDP (2001), which contemplates the analysis of four critical areas:
- Leadership Motivation Reciprocity Participation
Leadership
In order to establish the parameters to be addressed in the context of this critical area, it is convenient to define, a priori, what will be understood by leadership. Leadership will be assumed “… as the influence exerted by an individual on the behavior of other people in the search, efficiently and effectively, for previously determined objectives, through the ability to guide and convince others to enthusiastically execute the assigned activities ”Marín, (2002).
For the analysis of leadership, the following parameters should be considered:
- Management Encouragement of Excellence Encouragement of Teamwork Conflict Resolution
The Directorate provides the sense of orientation of the activities of a work unit, establishing the objectives pursued and clearly identifying the goals to be achieved and the means to achieve it.
In this process, the responsibility of each subordinate and the interactions with other individuals or groups of these are determined and quantified to achieve expected results. For this, it is necessary to provide sufficient information, as well as the corresponding technical guidance to be able to make complementary decisions.
In other words, conduct the work of other people and stimulate their creativity to ensure compliance with the activities to be carried out. It should be noted that management also involves ensuring compliance with the regulatory aspects that order the behavior of people in the organization.
The Stimulus to Excellence means putting a great emphasis on the search to constantly improve, by incorporating new knowledge and technical instruments, the work of all workers in the organization. The encouragement of excellence is promoted within an environment where the leadership shows a genuine concern for the development of people, that is, of their assets in human resources; encourages and supports them to update their knowledge and constantly encourages them to improve results.
The Encouragement of Teamwork implies the recognition, by senior management, that organizational management is based on teamwork, seeking the achievement of common objectives. Leadership must guarantee an environment of mutual support, where the organized participation of the members of the organization is fostered, in the achievement of its objectives.
In this type of environment, "… there is no room for individualism, but rather the complementation of different knowledge and experiences, made available and benefiting from the objectives of the institution and the group." (Anzardo, 2006).
It is appropriate to point out that, even when there are different opinions regarding a situation, “… one must have the capacity to put them at the service of a uniform leadership, rescuing from each of them the most valuable part, and thus you take, in that diversity of opinions, an enriched decision ”(Marín, 2002).
Conflict Resolution is part of the daily life of every organization, while conflict is an inherent part of institutional life. Conflicts originate from various causes, although ultimately they have a common point: they are differences in perceptions and interests that compete on the same reality. The conflict resolution capacity consists of “… managing to overcome them by synthesis of differences, instead of ignoring or avoiding them” (Marín, 2002). This ability must be periodically developed, implemented and evaluated.
Motivation
As in the preceding analysis, it is necessary to define how to understand motivation in the analysis of the organizational climate. To this end, it seems advisable to refer to the criteria of Robbins (1999), who defines it as "… the will to exert high levels of effort towards organizational goals, conditioned by the capacity of the effort to satisfy some individual need". Likewise, it should be considered that motivation "… is not an act, a moment or an action, but rather, a coordinated set of actions, it is a process, reflecting the personality of the individual" (Santos, 1993).
It is also possible to distinguish different types of motivation, taking into account what are the factors that in each circumstance determine predominantly the subject's behavior. (Moreno, 2001).
There are three types of motivation:
- Intrinsic motivation. It corresponds to the satisfaction felt by the subject produced by the same behavior or task when performed. Extrinsic motivation. In this case, what moves the person is the benefit obtained as a result of their performance, transcendent motivation. Given our condition as social beings, many of our behaviors are not explained exclusively by the extrinsic benefit obtained, or by the intrinsic satisfaction achieved, but rather by the benefit or satisfaction obtained by a third party, or because the latter avoids something negative for him.
Without motivation there can be no satisfaction. Motivations differ from one individual to another, evolve and may change over the years and times. Job satisfaction obviously goes through satisfaction with wages, but that's not all: People's motivation has a complex dynamic. The working conditions, the environment, the treatment they receive from superiors, the respect and recognition of managers for each other's work, the quality of life at work and the environment are important factors of satisfaction and therefore motivators for a person to give the best of himself ”. (López A. 2002).
For the purposes of the analysis of motivation as a critical area of the organizational climate, it is convenient to take into account what was stated by Davis and Newstrom, (1999) that indicate that there are four levels of motivation:
- Achievement motivation. It is the drive some people have to pursue and achieve goals. Affiliative motivation. It is the drive to socially relate to others. Motivation towards competition. It is the drive to be good at something, which enables the individual to do high-quality work. Motivation for power. It is the urge to influence others and change situations.
Within the critical area Motivation, the following variables must be addressed:
- Personal achievement Acknowledgment of contribution Responsibility Adequacy of working conditions
Reciprocity
In any organization, the satisfaction of mutual expectations, both of the individual and of the organization, must be achieved, which go beyond the formal employment contract between the employee and the institution. It is a complementation process in which the individual and the organization become part of each other.
Any social system can be assumed in terms of a group of people engaged in the exchange of its resources based on certain expectations. Those resources that are not limited to material resources, since they include ideas, feelings, abilities and values, are constantly exchanged.
"In the exchange of resources within social systems, psychological contracts are developed between men and systems, between men and groups and systems, where the feeling of reciprocity prevails: each one evaluates what he is offering and what he is receiving in compensation" Castaño, (2002).
When the individual considers that the remuneration they obtain from the organization is greater than their efforts, they perceive the relationship as successful. On the contrary, if you do not have this perception, you become prone to deteriorate your relationship with the organization, and may even abandon it.
In the framework of the organizational climate studies, Reciprocity must be analyzed through the following parameters:
- Application to work Care of institutional heritage Remuneration Equity
Participation
The organization is built on the basis of widespread participatory awareness, while the integration of people into the organization is an effect of participation.
Participation consists of the involvement of people in the activities of the organization, each contributing their part, to meet the institutional objectives.
For this purpose, “… the participation requirements must be made explicit through the design of each job position and the scheduling of activities that determine the objective to be covered, the functions and activities necessary to perform in the position, the quality standards and of quantity demanded in terms of productivity, the information to be exchanged and the available resources… ”(Marín, 2002).
Participation analysis will be addressed through the following parameters:
- Commitment to productivity Compatibility of interests Exchange of information. Involvement in change.
Experiences about the application of the UNDP Diagnostic Model in Matanzas companies.
In the last five years, the authors have ventured into the diagnosis of the organizational climate in entities of production and services in the province of Matanzas, using the UNDP Methodology for Organizational Climate Studies in Latin America (2001). The general results obtained are set out below.
The organizational climate was diagnosed in 11 entities of the territory, of which 18.2 percent correspond to banking entities and similar proportions to entities related to Tourism and other services; 36.4% to productive entities and the Provincial Office of Labor in the territory. Of the diagnosed entities, only 2 are applying the Cuban Business Administration and Management System (Business Improvement) and another 2 are currently going through the Business Diagnosis phase, as part of which the present study was carried out.
The analysis of the integrated results of the 11 entities by critical area is presented below, according to the methodology used. The graphs show the proportion of the organizations considered to have dysfunction in each of the variables by critical area.
As can be seen in the preceding graph, except in the variable Stimulus to Teamwork, in the rest 50.0% or more of the companies analyzed show affectations in the variables that make up the critical area of Leadership, even though the proportion of those that also have problems in this variable are not significantly different.
The dysfunctional behavior of the Management variable, in 55.6% of these entities, points to the lack of preparation in many of the managers considered in the analysis, and to the existence of areas for improvement and superior development of their professional skills. While the results of the variables Stimulus for Excellence and Group Work, at 66.7 and 44.0%, respectively, reveal a waste of the potential of collaborators and collective intelligence for continuous improvement and improvement. sustained increase in the quality of the organization's performance.
The most affected variable in this critical area is the ability to resolve conflicts, which is perceived unfavorably in 90.0% of the entities studied, with the exception of only one of the service companies. This situation shows that the cadres in general have few skills for the successful and assertive negotiation of the disagreements that occur within the framework of business management.
It should be noted that in the entities that apply Business Improvement the behavior of these variables differs significantly from that of the other companies, presenting only an unsatisfactory perception of the skills for conflict resolution in one of them.
As can be seen in the graph, all the variables considered in this critical area are unfavorably perceived in more than 50% of the companies included in the study, with Personal Achievement being the most deteriorated, which exhibits unwanted behavior in the 78.0% of the entities.
The perceptions that the Recognition of Contribution and Adequacy of Working Conditions show in 66.67% of the organizations diagnosed, point to a managerial style where the needs of the employees, neither emotional nor material, are taken into account, influencing significantly both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation; which, together with the waste of the potential of the group, already analyzed, induces a reduction in motivation that, sooner rather than later, will eventually erode the economic-productive results of these organizations.
On the other hand, the behavior of the motivation towards Responsibility, evidenced in 66.67% of these entities, the workers are not willing to assume positions of greater complexity and commitment, which negatively affects the development of an adequate policy of cadres in these organizations.
In the critical area of Reciprocity, with the exception of Institutional Heritage Care, the rest of the analyzed variables show a relative frequency of dysfunction of more than 50.0% among the organizations studied.
The unfavorable behavior of the Application to Work in 55.6% of the reference entities is a direct consequence of the deterioration in Motivation, previously analyzed, and reflects the lack of emotional commitment and involvement of the workers in the goals and the general results of the management of these organizations. It should be noted that in the case of this variable, even the companies in Business Improvement are not excepted, although in these the dysfunction appears to a much lesser extent.
In the case of Remuneration, with the exception of the two companies that apply the Improvement, the rest present a perception of total disagreement between what the workers contribute to the entity and what the entity rewards them, with special emphasis on the amount of wages received, a situation that may be determined by the relationship between these and the cost of living, and the depression of the purchasing power of those workers who only receive remuneration in national currency.
The proportion of companies that shows a deterioration in the perception of Equity is 77.78%, a perception that induces a high degree of demotivation in the employees, because when they perceive that the organization does not reward their efforts with equity, the dissatisfaction that is felt, decreases the emotional commitment to it and its results, and in general, motivation towards work.
In this critical area, only the Compatibility of Interests presents problems in less than 50.0% of the organizations studied, although the proportion of them that show dysfunction in it is not statistically negligible (44.4%).
The rest of the variables are perceived unfavorably in at least 55.6% of the reference entities, such is the case of the Commitment to Productivity and the Exchange of Information. The behavior of the first of these variables corresponds to the analyzes carried out in the areas of Leadership, Motivation and Reciprocity, since nobody can maintain a consistent commitment to economic-productive results if it is not adequately led, if it is not allowed develop their full professional potential and their contributions to the organization are not recognized in a timely and equitable manner.
On the other hand, the dysfunction of the Information Exchange variable evidences a non-participative leadership style, where collaborators are not provided with the necessary information to make all of their professional skills available to the organization.
As a consequence of the behavior of all the variables analyzed, the Commitment to Change is unfavorable in approximately 70.0% of the companies analyzed, which is particularly harmful for the two companies that are passing through the first phases of Business Improvement.
The experience obtained with the development of these research works makes it possible to state the following conclusions:
- In the conditions of contemporary management, the study of the organizational climate is unavoidable in order to maintain a balance between the objective reality of the work environment and the perception that employees have of it, which fosters success in management, based on achieving emotional commitment., the involvement and active participation of all members of the organization. Although the methodology suggested for UNDP caters for a significant number of variables involved in the development and operation of the organizational climate, it does not include the analysis of the structure of the organization and the relationship between the climate and the business culture, factors that the authors consider significant for its systemic and comprehensive approach. 81.2% of the institutions studied,Except for the two that currently apply Business Improvement successfully, it presents dysfunctions in the critical areas of the organizational climate analyzed that are negatively affecting the results of its economic-productive management. The experience carried out shows that it is necessary to generalize the studies of organizational climate in Cuban companies, deepening in the diagnosis of all the variables that comprise it, as part of the improvement to which they are obliged to achieve the expected results, both in production and in services.The experience carried out shows that it is necessary to generalize the studies of organizational climate in Cuban companies, deepening in the diagnosis of all the variables that comprise it, as part of the improvement that they are obliged to achieve the expected results, both in production and in services.The experience carried out shows that it is necessary to generalize the studies of organizational climate in Cuban companies, deepening in the diagnosis of all the variables that comprise it, as part of the improvement that they are obliged to achieve the expected results, both in production and in services.
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