The strength and quality of climate perceptions

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether and how climate strength and quality are related to employee commitment above and beyond individual climate perceptions.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 48 work units in organizations from different branches of industry. A total of 419 employees completed a questionnaire.

Findings

Climate quality was related to commitment above and beyond individual climate perceptions. However, this concerned the climate dimensions of cooperation and innovation, but not reward. Climate strength moderated the relationship between individual cooperation and innovation perceptions, and commitment.

Research limitations/implications

This study emphasizes the importance of group‐level perceptions as related to employee commitment. Because of the cross‐sectional design, conclusions about the causal order of the variables cannot be drawn.

Practical implications

If organizations want to increase employees' commitment they should put the more skeptical employees in positive work environments, thus, in units of higher cooperation and innovation quality.

Social implications

People are sensitive to the evaluative tone of their social environment.

Originality/value

The paper is the first to examine the combined relationships of individual climate perceptions, climate‐strength, and climate quality with employee commitment.

Citation

Van Vianen, A.E.M., De Pater, I.E., Bechtoldt, M.N. and Evers, A. (2011), "The strength and quality of climate perceptions", Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 77-92. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683941111099637