Climate strength: a new direction for climate research.

TLDR

Climate strength, a concept derived from Chan’s 1998 compositional models and organizational culture literature, is examined in the context of employee service climate perceptions and their link to customer satisfaction. The study tests whether climate strength moderates the relationship between employee perceptions of service climate and customer satisfaction experiences, and discusses implications for future research. Climate strength is operationalized as the degree of within‑group variability in climate perceptions, with lower variability indicating a stronger climate. Across 118 bank branches, partial support was found in both concurrent and 3‑year predictive tests, with the predictive study showing that only the interaction of climate and climate strength predicted customer satisfaction.

Abstract

Climate strength was conceptualized within D. Chan's (1998) discussion of compositional models and the concept of culture strength from the organizational culture literature. Climate strength was operationalized in terms of within-group variability in climate perceptions-the less within-group variability, the stronger the climate. The authors studied climate strength in the context of research linking employee service climate perceptions to customer satisfaction. The hypothesis was tested that climate strength moderates the relationship between employee perceptions of service climate and customer satisfaction experiences. Partial support for the hypothesis was reported in both a concurrent and predictive (3-year) test across 118 branches of a bank. In the predictive study only the interaction of climate and climate strength predicted customer satisfaction. Implications for future research on climate and climate strength are discussed.