Climate Discrepancy: Refining the Concepts of Psychological and Organizational Climate

Abstract

Most climate research has emphasized either psychological or organizational climate without addressing the conceptual and empirical relationships between these concepts. This research e-xamined the performance and satisfaction correlates of discrepancies between individuals' psychological climates and the multiple aggregate organizational climates present in their work settings. Climate discrepancy was found to be the better predictor of work satisfaction, whereas membership in aggregate organization climates was the better predictor of job performance. Organization climates were identified on the basis of similarity of multidimensional psychological climate scores using hierarchical and nonhierarchical clustering methods. The implications of thesefindingsfor refining the concepts of psychological and organizational climate are discussed.