关键词: 气氛强度, 组内一致性, 多层次理论

Abstract:

For more than half a century, scholars have sought to understand the antecedents and influences of climates. Climate strength, an emerging concept in climate research, received little empirical exploration and much less validation. Research adopted dichotomous perspective has limited climate strength as a scientific construct. The dichotomous view suggests that dispersion of individual-level perception represents error, rather than theoretically significant phenomenon. Within-unit dispersion of individual-level constructs can be theoretically meaningful. During the application of multilevel theory in organizational and management research, climate strength, i.e., within-unit agreement among unit members’ climate perceptions, has received much attention from researchers. Two different literatures in organizational sciences, compositional models and culture strength, were useful as a basis for the development of the concept of climate strength. Based on extant research, we develop the research framework of climate strength. There are three perspectives to explain the antecedents of climate strength, i.e., organizational structure, Attraction-Selection-Attrition model, and social interaction approach. According to the organizational structure perspective, organizational forms that are clearly mechanistic or clearly organic have strong climates, with weaker climates emerging for organizations with more ambiguous forms. Research based on ASA model indicated average worksite tenure was positively related to climate strength such that higher average tenure was associated with stronger climates. Empirical research based on social interaction approach illustrated that climate strength is influenced both by leadership style and group social interaction. While concerning the effect of climate strength, studies have yielded contradictory and inconclusive results. In some research, climate strength has been shown to have a moderating effect on the relationship between climate level and organizational outcomes. While in other studies, significant main effects were found for some of the climate strength – outcome relationships. Potential reasons of the results were discussed. For example, the tasks used in different studies were various. In some research, tasks were completed by individuals, while in others tasks required cooperation within team members. Thus, work interdependence may be a potential factor moderating the relationship between climate strength and outcomes. In future research, we should pay more attention to the prerequisite of climate strength, broaden the conceptualization of organizational climate, explore the effect of climate strength in a variety of work types and industries, and test the potential moderator influence of work interdependent between climate strength and organizational outcomes.

Key words: Climate strength, within-unit agreement, multilevel theory