An application of Jones and James' perceived climate questionnaire in Australian higher educational institutions

Abstract

Attempts to explore the role of organisational climate in organisational effectiveness have been hampered by inadequacies in existing climate measures (e.g. Cameron, 1978aCameron, , 1978b. This paper describes the application of Jones & James (1979) perceived climate measures on a sample of senior level Australian academics. Six climate factors were identified: organisational conflict and ambiguity; two leadership components (facilitation and supportiveness, directiveness); work group cooperation in policy committees and immediate workgroups; and organisational and professional esprit. The data reduction procedures used produced results which strongly confirmed Jones and James findings but involved only approximately one-third of their variables. This represents a more efficient measurement approach and furthers the opportunity for understanding and management of climates in effective organisational outcomes. Implications for future studies of senior managerial perceptions of climate are discussed.

An Exploratory Study of the Jones and James Organisational Climate Scales

“…see Cameron, 1986). Lysons and Ryder (1989, in press) found that the incorporation of the relevant PCQ scales assisted in the evaluation of the effectiveness of Australian universities and colleges. Stable factors of leadership and workgroup characteristics comparable to those discussed here were also identified in this large study involving senior-level university academics.…”

Predicting a taxonomy of organisational effectiveness in U.K. higher educational institutions

“…Indeed, the original set of questionnaire variables captured these dimensions without needing the support of the extended instrument employed in pursuit of added precision in the study. However, a major proportion of the common variance explained (39.9 of 85.4%) continued to involve "organisational health" which was noted as problematic for management to interpret and apply (Lysons & Ryder 1989). Indeed, organisational health emerged as the dominant effectiveness factor in all of the studies in the U.S., and Australian as well as the U.K. (Lysons & Hatherly 1992).…”

“…These studies collectively suggested the importance of managerial and organisational activities and processes in OE, and the competing values literature strongly supports this view (Quinn & Rohrbaugh 1983;Quinn & Cameron 1983;Whetten & Cameron 1984;Quinn 1988). The next logical step was, therefore, to define these issues by introducing aspects of psychological climate into the research program (Lysons & Ryder 1989). The eight factors that emerged from the combined analysis of OE and climate variables confirmed the relative strength and consistency of dimensions of climate versus the less well defined omnibus organisational health scale (Lysons 1990b: p. 291).…”

Cameron's dimensions of effectiveness in higher education in the U.K.: a cross-cultural comparison

“…Indeed, his questionnaire variables have proven to capture his dimensions more efficiently than the extended instrument employed in this study, although a major proportion of the common variance explained (39.9 of 85.4%) continues to involve 'organisational health' which is problematic for management to interpret and apply (Lysons and Ryder 1989).…”