McClelland’s Theory and Its Practicality in a Workplace

Working Paper by Zaldy C. De Leon Jr.

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” —Lao Tzu

“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.” —Henri Bergson

The desire for achievement, power and affiliation is one of the matrices that makes human excellent, though in a way good or bad. The end result is based on how the person appraised the tendency on his or her life. Good we say virtuous, bad we say hypocritical.

In a classroom setting, there are instances when everyone should adapt to the present condition. Change can come into our lives as a result of a crisis, as a result of choice or just by chance. In either situation, we are all faced with having to make a choice – do we make the change or not? I believe that it is better to be prepared for change because we have more control over how we react to the change we are having to face in our lives. When you are unprepared and resistant to change, then you have no control or choice as to how you want to live your life. You live your life as a reactionary rather than an activator of change. We cannot avoid the unexpected events (crisis) in our lives, as it is these events that challenge us and force us to step out of our comfort zone. If we ignore or hide away from the challenge of change, we deny ourselves the opportunity to learn and grow.

It is said that ‘culture is a hot topic. Caliper (2018) reports that ‘creating a sustainable work environment where students feel engaged, loyal and satisfied should be the goal of every organization. After all, if people dislike their workplace, they’re going to be unproductive at best and perhaps even quit, taking their skills and knowledge with them — leaving you with the high cost of finding replacements. The value of an student who looks forward to going to work versus one who doesn’t result in a 10% increase in customer satisfaction. Thus, Spreitzer & Porath (2012) discussed that when the economy’s in terrible shape, when any of us is lucky to have a job—let alone one that’s financially and intellectually rewarding—worrying about whether or not your employees are happy might seem a little over the top. But in our research into what makes for a consistently high-performing workforce, we’ve found good reason to care: Happy employees produce more than unhappy ones over the long term. They routinely show up at work, they’re less likely to quit, they go above and beyond the call of duty, and they attract people who are just as committed to the job. Moreover, they’re not sprinters; they’re more like marathon runners, in it for the long haul.

So what does it mean to be happy in your job? It’s not about contentment, which connotes a degree of complacency. When we and our research partners at the Ross School of Business’s Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship started looking into the factors involved in sustainable individual and organizational performance, we found a better word: thriving. We think of a thriving workforce as one in which employees are not just satisfied and productive but also engaged in creating the future—the company’s and their own. Thriving employees have a bit of an edge—they are highly energized—but they know how to avoid burnout. Across industries and job types, we found that people who fit our description of thriving demonstrated 16% better overall performance (as reported by their managers) and 125% less burnout (self-­reported) than their peers. They were 32% more committed to the organization and 46% more satisfied with their jobs. They also missed much less work and reported significantly fewer doctor visits, which meant health care savings and less lost time for the company.

It should be well known by now that the long and involved process of recruiting, interviewing, selecting and training ends up being rather expensive. It also brings the unpleasant side effect of lost production, not just because no one is doing the work once performed by the student who left, but also because the new hire is drawing labor resources away from other tasks.’ Thus, leaders and experts across the world are talking about how to develop an agile culture, implement a lean culture, overcome the culture clash in acquisitions, and many other areas of culture change. 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. I didn’t understand the difference until the past few years (Kuppler, 2015).’ However, what is the meaning of these organizational aspects? And, by the way what is more important? In a classroom setting, what should be adhered?

According to Kuppler (2015), organizational climate is the shared perceptions and attitudes about the organization while Organizational culture is the shared beliefs and assumptions about the organization’s expectations and values. These "unwritten rules" and perceived expectations drive our behavior in organizations. Veyrat (2016) said that to understand what the organizational climate definition is we should begin by reading an interpretation from one of the most respected authors on Human Resources, Professor Idalberto Chiavenato:

“A set of measurable properties of the perceived work environment, directly or indirectly, created by individuals who live and work in this environment and that influences the motivation and behavior of these people.”

In this definition of organizational climate, we can note two striking features: (1) the organizational climate is a concept “perceived” by employees. Importantly, it is dependent on a value judgment which can vary greatly from person to person; and (2) the organizational climate affects productivity, motivation and employee behavior. Besides these two factors, it is interesting to note some others to understand fully what the organizational climate definition is.

In this definition, we are expected to see organizational climate as something that is felt by all. The references below do not say anything if these organizational culture is written or not except for the latter. However, by definition, these are the ruling ‘understanding’ between people; and in this case the students. The ruling ambience, let us say in a church is silent, so others should follow. The same happens within the classroom. If the teacher maintained the silence within the classroom, there is a possibility that the students may acquire the attitude. Since, if written like for example in a Handbook, the students will also follow therein. The attitude of the students toward silence therefore is what is called the climate.

Other students may be noisy but because of the climate, the teacher must maintain, the students adhered on its credence. In relation to this, organizational climate is ‘the most visible area of a focus on culture that is actually climate is all the effort to measure and improve student engagement. This focus on engagement did yield results for some organizations. Unfortunately, according to Gallup’s Student Engagement Study, the number of students engaged at work has barely moved over the course of the last 15 years (Kuppler, 2015)’. Thus, Spector (2019) posits that the organizational climate concerns the policies and practices of an organization or unit of an organization. It concerns the behaviors that are encouraged and supported. It is communicated in several ways.

Policies: These are the written rules for the behaviors that people should and should not do. Policies describe how things should be done.

Practices: These are the behaviors that employees and their supervisors engage in, in other words, how policies are or are not enacted.

What is encouraged and discouraged. These are the expectations that supervisors and other employees express about what each employee should and should not do. For Beth is was customer service and for Mike it was efficiency.

Where the rewards are. Nothing expresses expectations like rewards. These can be monetary, such as bonuses for high sales volume, or nonmonetary, such as praise for a job well done.

In addition to this, the terms climate and culture are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same concept. Climate is part of culture and reflects the sorts of behaviors that are encouraged and presumably engaged in within an organization. Culture is far more than encouraged behavior patterns. Culture includes artifacts (e.g., the sorts of clothes people wear), symbols (e.g., the company logo), technology (e.g., salespeople’s use of tablets to ring up sales), and values (e.g., profitability). Although these aspects of culture might support the climate, they go beyond climate, and much of organizational culture might not link to climate.

Problems of organizational climate arise when you’re not paying attention. At companies that seem relatively healthy, management tends to chug along and maintain the status quo. However, many organizations are vulnerable to slowly escalating problems because they aren’t tuned in to the daily experience out on the shop floor, in the field or at the corporate office. It could be a problem with communication and messaging, general dissatisfaction with leadership decision making or structural/procedural flaws that are fomenting frustration and harming engagement and satisfaction. Somehow, a malaise is settling over the organization, and declines in productivity, student retention and market share will probably follow.

On the other hand, organizational culture Edgar Schein once said "90% of our behavior in organizations is driven by cultural rules." When faced with problems, challenges, or goals it often helps to understand the aspects of culture that either inhibit or support effectiveness. To surface these aspects of culture, students should be asked, for example, if they are expected or implicitly required to check decisions with superiors, work to achieve self-set goals, point out flaws, take on challenging tasks, never make a mistake, not “rock the boat”, make a “good impression”, and know what matters (Kuppler, 2015). Thus, organizational culture is your identity as a company. It’s your values and the norms that have arisen organically over time. According to Businessmanagementideas.com (2019), mixing up the difference between culture and climate can be very expensive! Many people use the terms climate and culture interchangeably. It does matter however and it can be expensive to get them mixed up. Organizational climate change and organizational culture change are two pretty different prospects so it matters that you are changing the right thing (Oxfordreview.com, 2019). The following should be considered:

To wit, there are many instances when the teacher must have establish the climate, which may not be general; and when this climate rules, it becomes a culture. Teachers establishes climate to manipulate the student’s action; as well as to define the future of the classroom. If that is the way for the good of everyone, then the students should, in these very moments, be accustomed of.

Once again, when asked how well a teacher understands, manage, and behaved the class, the first thing to see is the initial climate and the long-term culture goals of the teacher. On the question on the meaning of these organizational aspects, it has been proposed that organizational climate is set within the nearest possible time a teacher can manipulate, engage, connect or collaborate with the students in their various activities as well as condition in the present. On the other hand, organizational culture is something that is set within a longer range of time but definitely has been carried out even without saying that I t is a must. In other words, organizational climate is short-term and must be manually derived while organizational culture is long-term and does not need to be written hence it should be followed or otherwise.

And, by the way what is more important? In a classroom setting, what should be adhered? The answer is both.

To summarize the discussion, according to Businessmanagementideas (2019), here are the differences of organizational climate and organizational culture:

Organization Culture

1. Concept: It evolves over a number of years.

2. Perspective: It is a broader framework that determines organization climate.

3. Evolution: It evolves over a number of years to earn goodwill and reputation.

4. Manipulation: It cannot be easily changed and manipulated. Changes are introduced if absolutely necessary.

5. Focus: It focuses on values and norms of the organization.

Organization Climate

1. Concept: It reflects current atmosphere of the organization.

2. Perspective: It is short-term that defines its day-to-day functioning.

3. Evolution: It evolves according to needs of the organization to adapt to current environmental forces.

4. Manipulation: It can be manipulated and changed according to needs of the environment.

5. Focus: It focuses on current work practices of the organization.

To bring out the best in an institution, the desire for achievement, power and affiliation are motivational factors that made an individual keep on going.

Therefore when asked what lies in the core of an effective workforce, definitely it was the desire for achieving great and excellent things for the institution as well as for himself or herself; to get power to get the goals and objectives of the company or institution on the go; and the affiliation to learn more – discover, develop, enhance and unleash all these, a mutual bond is achieved.

References:

Kuppler, Ti, (2015). Workplace Culture vs. Climate – why most focus on climate and may suffer for it. Posted May 13, 2015. Retrieved at https://www.humansynergistics.com/blog/culture-university/details/culture-university/2015/05/13/workplace-culture-vs.-climate-why-most-focus-on-climate-and-may-suffer-for-it

Caliper (Corporation) (2018). Organizational Culture Vs. Organizational Climate. Retrieved at https://www.calipercorp.com/organizational-culture-vs-organizational-climate/

Oxforreview.com (2019). What is the difference between culture and climate? Retrieved at https://www.oxford-review.com/blog-research-difference-culture-climate/

Businessmanagementideas.com (2019). Difference between Organization Climate and Organization Culture Relation between Performance and Organization Culture. Retrieved at http://www.businessmanagementideas.com/notes/management-notes/corporate-culture/difference-between-organization-climate-and-organization-culture/5309

Sandford, K. (2020). Adapting to Change: Why It Matters and How to Do It. In: https://www.lifehack.org/372463/why-you-need-adapt-change

Spreitzer, G. and Porath, C. (2012). Creating Sustainable Performance. From the January–February 2012 Issue. In: https://hbr.org/2012/01/creating-sustainable-performance

Veyrat, p. (2016). Organizational climate definition: Everything you need to know

Posted February 4, 2016. In: https://www.heflo.com/blog/hr/organizational-climate-definition/

Spector. P.E. (2019). What Is Organizational Climate? Posted on May 3, 2019. In: http://paulspector.com/organizational-behavior/what-is-organizational-climate/