Psychological Climate and
Work Environment
Psychological Climate
• Psychological climate is defined as employees perceptions of their
work environment and has been the focus of considerable research in
organizational psychology.
• It is also defined as individual descriptions of organizational practices
and procedures that relate to organizational influences on individual
performance, satisfaction, and motivation.
• It reflects a judgment by the individual about the degree to which the
work environment is beneficial to their sense of well-being.
• It is an individual’s attribute, whereas organizational climate is a situational
attribute of the organization.
• Measures of psychological climate are intended to assess work environments
as they are perceived and interpreted by employees.
• Examples of psychological climate dimensions include job importance, leader
support, and workgroup cooperation etc.
• Research has linked psychological climate variables to work-related outcomes
such as job satisfaction, job involvement, and job performance.
Work Environment
• The term work environment is used to describe the surrounding
conditions in which an employee operates.
• The work environment can be composed of physical conditions, such
as office temperature, or equipment, such as personal computers.
• It can also be related to factors such as work processes or procedures.
• The work environment can involve the social interactions at the
workplace, including interactions with peers, subordinates, and
managers.
• Generally, and within limits, employees are entitled to a work
environment that is free from harassment.
• A hostile work environment exists when unwelcome sexual conduct
interferes with an employee's job performance, or creates a hostile,
intimidating, or offensive work environment.
Creating a Positive Work Environment
• A positive work environment is not only important for our physical, mental and
emotional health, but is also important for the product or service we produce for the
company.
• The better we feel at work, the more likely we will take pride in our work functions
and be loyal toward our place of employment.
• We have all worked at places where we were less than excited to get up and go to
work in the morning.
• This can be an awful feeling. It is much more pleasant, and less stressful to work in an
environment that is positive and enjoyable.
Causes of Stress
• Factors that may cause stress in the workplace include a poor work
environment.
• Poor lighting, high levels of noise, uncomfortable temperatures, and
unbearably close proximity to others all create higher levels of stress.
External Environment
• The external environment refers to forces and institutions outside the
organization that potentially can affect the organization’s
performance.
• The external environment is made up of two components, the specific
environment and the general environment.
Specific Environment
• The specific environment includes those constituencies that have a
direct and immediate impact on manager’s decisions and actions and
are directly relevant to the achievement of the organization’s goals.
• It includes the customers, suppliers, public pressure groups etc.
General Environment
• The general environment includes the broad economic, political, legal, socio-cultural,
demographic, technological and global conditions that may affect the organization.
• This brings us to the fact that if the external environment undergoes a change, it
impacts the organization.
• In order to adapt to the external change, the organization must undergo a change in
terms of its culture as well.
• Further, if there is a change in the internal environment of the organization, it also
needs to undergo a change in terms of the culture of the organization.
Organizational Motivation
Organizational Motivation
• Organizational motivation is the willingness to exert high levels of effort to
reach organizational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some
individual needs.
• It is created as a need-satisfying process. A need refers to some internal state
that makes certain outcomes appear attractive.
• An unsatisfied need creates tension that stimulates drives within an individual.
• These drives generate a search behavior to find particular goals that, if
attained, will satisfy the need and reduce the tension.
• There are two types of motivation:
1. Extrinsic Motivation
2. Intrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic Motivation
• Extrinsic motivation is when someone is motivated by external
factors, as opposed to the internal drivers of intrinsic motivation.
• Extrinsic motivation drives people to do things for tangible rewards or
pressures, rather than for the fun of it.
• When they are extrinsically motivated, they don’t particularly enjoy
the tasks but are motivated to perform well to receive some type of
reward or to avoid negative consequences.
Intrinsic Motivation
• Intrinsic motivation is when someone is motivated by internal factors,
as opposed to the external drivers of extrinsic motivation.
• Intrinsic motivation drives people to do things just for the fun of it, or
because they believe it is a good or right thing to do.
• When people are intrinsically motivated, they will seek to perform
well because they either enjoy performing the actual tasks or enjoy
the challenge of successfully completing the task.
Importance of Motivation (Organizational
Based)
• Productive use of resources
• Increased efficiency and output
• Achievement of goals
• Development of friendly relationships
• Stability in workforce
• The more motivated the employees are, the more empowered the team is.
• The more is the team work and individual employee contribution, more
profitable and successful is the business.
• During period of amendments, there will be more adaptability and
creativity.
• Motivation will lead to an optimistic and challenging attitude at work place
Importance of Motivation (individually
based)
• Motivation will help him achieve his personal goals.
• If an individual is motivated, he will have job satisfaction.
• Motivation will help in self-development of individual.
• An individual would always gain by working with a dynamic team.
Theories of Motivation
• Need based theories
• Process based theories
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
• Organizational implication of this theory is that different employees
are likely to be at different places in the hierarchy.
• For instance, one employee may be motivated to earn money that he
needs right now, whereas a second employee may be focused on
gaining the respect of her peers.
• The second employee would be motivated by esteem needs, whereas
the first employee would be focused on physiological needs.
Alderfer’s ERG Theory
• Alderfer developed three categories of needs somewhat parallel to
Maslow’s five levels.
• First, there are existence needs, analogous to Maslow’s physiological and
safety needs (e.g., pay and fringe benefits).
• Second are relatedness needs, which correspond to Maslow’s love needs
and are focused on social relationships.
• Finally, growth needs parallel Maslow’s esteem and self-actualization needs
Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory
• Two-factor theory suggests that motivators like recognition,
interesting work, responsibility and reinforcement for work are what
lead employees to be satisfied with and motivated by their jobs.
• Hygiene factors like supervision, salary, and working conditions results
in only a minimal level of satisfaction.
Need Based Theories
Process Based Theories
1. Reinforcement Theory
2. Equity Theory
3. Expectancy Theory
4. Procedural justice
John Adams’ s Equity Theory
• Equity theory is based on the notion that we compare the ratios of
what we bring to a situation (i.e., inputs) and what we get out of it
(i.e. outcomes) with what others bring to and get out of the situation.
• If we feel are that inputs are fairly and adequately rewarded by
outputs then we are happy in our work and motivated to continue
inputting at the same level.
• If we feel that our inputs out-weigh the outputs then we become
demotivated in relation to our job and employer.
Victor Vroom’s Expectancy Theory
• An individual’s belief about the likelihood of achieving a desired
performance level when exerting a certain amount of effort.
• Expectancy theory states that an individual tends to act in a certain
way based on the expectation that the act will be followed by a given
outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome to the individual.
• Higher expectations of an individual will lead towards high
motivation.
Procedural Justice Theory
• The study of people’s perceptions of fairness in organizational
contexts.
• When procedural justice is perceived to be low, motivation suffers
because workers are not sure that their inputs and performance levels
will be accurately assessed or that outcomes will be distributed in a
fair manner.
