Systems & complexity

Organisational climate vs. organisational culture

Organisational culture has become a hot topic, with many leaders and experts talking about how particular organisational cultures can be implemented, or how organisations can make cultural change. However, in a post on CultureUniversity.com, Tim Kuppler warns that “Unfortunately, the reality is that most of these leaders and experts are actually focusing their efforts on climate and not dealing with the deeper, more powerful subject of culture.”

So what’s the difference? As part of a paper1 looking at the links between organisational climate and managerial practices and innovation, Manuela Varsani discusses the differences and also the overlap between “organisational climate” and “organisational culture”.

The two concepts have different research perspectives, with the climate concept based on psychological field theory and the culture concept typically addressed by the anthropology discipline. They also have different implications: “The term climate means consciously perceived processes and factors of the environment that can be controlled by the organisation. The focus of climate is on the situation and its link to perceptions, feelings, and behaviour of employees.”

Further differences are listed in the following table.

Differences Organisational Culture and Organisational Climate Research

So, before engaging in a cultural adoption or change activity, make sure that it is actually organisational culture you are dealing with.

References:

  1. Varsani, M. (2015). Organisational Climate – Links to Managerial Practices and Innovation. Humanities and Social Sciences Latvia, 86.
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Bruce Boyes

Bruce Boyes is a knowledge management (KM), environmental management, and education thought leader with more than 40 years of experience. As editor and lead writer of the award-winning RealKM Magazine, he has personally written more than 500 articles and published more than 2,000 articles overall, resulting in more than 2 million reader views. With a demonstrated ability to identify and implement innovative solutions to social and ecological complexity, Bruce has successfully completed more than 40 programs, projects, and initiatives including leading complex major programs. His many other career highlights include: leading the KM community KM and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) initiative, using agile approaches to oversee the on time and under budget implementation of an award-winning $77.4 million recovery program for one of Australia's most iconic river systems, leading a knowledge strategy process for Australia’s 56 natural resource management (NRM) regional organisations, pioneering collaborative learning and governance approaches to empower communities to sustainably manage landscapes and catchments in the face of complexity, being one of the first to join a new landmark aviation complexity initiative, initiating and teaching two new knowledge management subjects at Shanxi University in China, and writing numerous notable environmental strategies, reports, and other works. Bruce is currently a PhD candidate in the Knowledge, Technology and Innovation Group at Wageningen University and Research, and holds a Master of Environmental Management with Distinction and a Certificate of Technology (Electronics). As well as his work for RealKM Magazine, Bruce currently also teaches in the Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) Certified High-school Pathway (CHP) program in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China.

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