Predicting collective climates: assessing the role of shared work values, needs, employee interaction and work group membership

Previous research has debated whether the collective climates, produced thr ough cluster analysis of psychological climate perceptions, are representat ive of meaningful organizational collectives or simply statistical artifact s. In-this study we examined the extent to which collective climates are co mprised of individuals with similar interpretive schemata such as work valu es and need strength or consist of individuals who share work group or inte raction group membership. Measures of psychological climate, work values, n eed strength, and employee interaction patterns were collected from the man agement and administrative staff of a manufacturing organization. Results s upported the symbolic interactionist perspective to the formation of collec tive climates. We found clear evidence that collective climates are related to employee interaction groups. Employee interaction based on sensemaking and information seeking activities was most strongly related to shared clim ate perceptions. There was also some evidence that individuals with similar levels of need strength share collective climate membership. Implications of these results on the debate over the use of collective climates are disc ussed. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.