The purposes of this essay are to (a) present some evidence about the importance of the climate concept as an aid in understanding employee behavior in work organizations and (b) provide a framework for guiding future climate research. (Author)

A review of literature thought to be relevant for understanding situational contributions to ability performance relationships was conducted. When organizaions establish work conditions that facilitate task-relevant individual ability, then validity for ability measures, average performance levels, and levels of satisfaction will be high.…

Part 1 of this paper presents some logical and conceptual distinctions between job satisfaction and organizational climate, the former being viewed as micro, evaluative, individual perceptions of personal events and experiences the latter as macro, relatively descriptive, organizational level perceptions that are abstractions of organizational…

Emphasizes that environments are a function of the people behaving in them. Reviews a new conceptualization of organizational functioning based on the attraction-selection-attrition framework. Describes the implications of this framework for various areas of study in industrial/organizational psychology and vocational behavior. (Author/KS)

In considering the success outcomes associated with a new life insurance agent entering an agency which fits his climate expectations and preferences, data were compiled from 914 of a possible 1,125 respondents. The agents completed an Agency Climate Questionnaire (ACQ) on managerial support, managerial structure, new employee concern,…

Some "hidden" consequences of an organization's goals, practices, and procedures on the climates created for employees were reviewed, beginning with an exploration of some potential impacts of a lack of fit between goals and means to obtain goals on climate and eventual employee behavior, referring particularly to differences between product- and…

Relationships among two measures of job satisfaction and one of organizational climate, among seven production and turnover indices of organizational effectiveness, and between the two sets of measures were investigated in 50 life insurance agencies (N=522). It was shown that: (1) climate and satisfaction measures are correlated for some people…

Presents a framework for understanding the etiology of organizational behavior, based on theory and research from interactional psychology, vocational psychology, industrial/organizational psychology, and organizational theory. Proposes that organizations are functions of the kinds of people they contain and that the people there are functions of…

This paper presents the view that both individual differences-oriented personnel selection researchers and situationally-oriented organizational behaviorists can profit from an examination of each other's theories and findings. Specifically, it is argued that (1) personnel selection researchers will achieve increased levels of predictive validity…

The benefits of clustering organizations into types were discussed, and a method for clustering life insurance agencies by climate profiles was presented. Clusters of life insurance agencies were identified on the basis of manager, assistant manager, and already-employed ("old") agents' climate perceptions. Agency success, including production of…

Reviews conceptual and methodological progress in climate research. A discussion of current thinking on the etiology of climates follows, and an integrative conceptual scheme is developed, based on Mead's (1934) symbolic interactionism. Implications are discussed with respect to measurement issues, management of climate acquisition, and the change…

Behavior in organizations was conceptualized to be based on self-perceived power and perceived organizational climate. Power and climate perceptions were investigated as a function of three dimensions of organizational environment. The 2 x 2 x 3 (level of participation, profit or service orientation, and position level, respectively) design (N =…