How Do Nepotism and Favouritism Affect Organisational Climate?

This study seeks to determine the effect of nepotism and favouritism on organisational climate. Using the method of random sampling, 269 persons working in Lithuanian organisations were surveyed. The received data was analysed via the application of the methods of correlation and linear regression. It was determined that organisational climate is influenced significantly by variables such as the manager’s behaviour, safety and relationships with employees, values and traditions, communication, sharing of information, behaviour of employees, and interrelationships and tolerance of one another. Meanwhile, nepotism and favouritism are influenced by the lower number of climate variables (fear related to the absence of concreteness and security, such as joining an organisation, union and tolerance of individuals who have shared interests). This work fills the void in the knowledge of connections that nepotism and favouritism have with organisational climate, drawing attention to the mutual interaction between these phenomena. The article presents a discussion and the research limitations, and provides guidelines for further research.

The production of social science research in Nigeria: status and systemic determinants

Nigeria has a very large research system, with nearly 200 universities that employed more than 60,000 academic staff at the end of 2019. The country is also one of Africa’s largest producers of scientific research across all disciplines, surpassed only by South Africa and Egypt. In the social sciences, in particular, Nigeria is Africa’s second-largest producer of published research, after South Africa. However, the country’s social science research (SSR) production does not match the size of its SSR system. Using mixed methods, we come up with two important reasons for this: (i) research inputs are low, mainly because research is poorly funded and researchers devote too little time to research as a result of poor organisational climate, and (ii) the research support system is weak. No single institution currently has a clear mandate to centrally coordinate SSR in Nigeria. Consequently, research efforts are often duplicated and the limited research resources are spread too thin. Moreover, logistical support for research is missing or inefficient in most organisations. Therefore, improving research productivity in the country would require much stronger research coordination and wide-ranging improvements in the research climate.

Impact of Organisational Climate on Nurses’ Commitment at Public Hospitals in Saudi Arabia

Background: Nurses represent most healthcare professionals. They work in different healthcare organisations and play a vital role in improving the quality of healthcare. Consequently, it is essential to study the factors that influence nurses' organisational commitments. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of organisational climate and nurses' commitment in Saudi Arabian public hospitals and to explore the correlation between hospital climate and nurses' commitment. Methods: a quantitative cross-sectional method conducted at the Al-Zulfi General Hospital, Riyadh; King Abdul-Aziz Hospital, Makkah; and King Fahd Central Hospital, Jazan. The Data was collected from 343 participants by using electronic questionnaire in English distributed for the period between 01/03/2021 to 01/04/2021. The questionnaire is composed of three parts: demographic data, a three-component model (TCM) of employee commitment, and an organisational climate questionnaire (OCQ). The sample size was calculated based on the Steven K. Thompson equation. The data were analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-tests to identify the differences in organisational commitment and organisational climate among participants’ characteristics. Correlation analysis was used to identify the relationship between organisational commitment and organisational climate. Results: The results demonstrated a significant positive moderate correlation between nurses’ commitment and hospital climate, where r = 0.580 and P < 0.001. We found that organisational commitment was observed as significantly correlated with gender, nationalities and hospital; also, organisational climate was perceived as significantly correlated with gender, nationalities, marital status, years of experience and hospitals with a p-value < 0.05. It is evident that improving organisational climate leads to an increase in nurses’ commitment. Conclusion: Improving the organisational climate could help to promote nurse retention and enhance nursing commitment. The current study recommends that nurse managers pay careful attention to the organisational environment to increase organisational commitment, which can contribute to positive attitudes and appreciation for the organisation.

Servant School Leadership and Organisational Climate in South African Private Schools

The leadership of companies influences the organisational climate of companies by creating a cycle of continuous improvement or failing to do so. The same applies to educational leadership in their search for favourable teaching and learning conditions for all learners, especially those of underperforming schools whose academic results are not up to standard. Critical dialogue and new thinking regarding school leadership are mandatory to improve the status quo. It is proposed that the servant leadership paradigm, when practiced by school leadership, may have a significant influence on the school environment. A qualitative approach was utilised to measure the impact of servant school leadership on the organisational climate of private schools in South Africa, with the aim of learning valuable lessons to implement in the public school domain and especially the underperforming school sector. A purposive convenience sampling approach was applied to select participants for three focus group interviews. A theoretical thematic, semantic, and essentialist analytical approach served as the foundation for this study. The focus group interviews confirmed that the participants perceived their school leaderships to implement specific characteristics of servant leadership and organisational climate to enhance a positive school environment for teachers and learners to succeed. The participants also perceived definite links between servant leadership and organisational climate. It is recommended that the servant leadership paradigm and its impact on the organisational climate of underperforming schools be researched and considered for implementation nationally and internationally.

Pro-environmental Behaviours at Work: The Interactive Role of Norms and Attitudinal Ambivalence

The environmental costs arising from unsustainable production patterns have increased to the point that organisations are now expected to adopt more responsible practices. Pro-environmental behaviours (PEBs) in the workplace can significantly contribute to bettering companies’ environmental performance and sustainability transition. This research investigated the interactive role of norms and attitudes in predicting voluntary energy conservation behaviours, based on a correlational study of 189 Portuguese workers. The study examined whether perceived norm conflicts involving co-workers, closer colleagues and leaders’ behaviours promote or hinder workers’ own PEBs and whether attitudinal ambivalence towards their organisation’s pro-environmental initiatives is a moderator of this relationship. Controlling for the effect of the pro-environmental organisational climate, the ages of employees and organisation size, the results confirm that felt ambivalence moderates the relationship between norm conflict and reported energy conservation behaviours. The findings indicate that ambivalent workers are less likely to engage in PEBs if they perceive norm conflict, that is, if other staff members are not equally motivated to adopt those behaviours. Conversely, norm conflict had an energising effect on non-ambivalent workers. The results thus indicate that organisations could benefit from promoting their environmental policies more explicitly, encouraging their employees to discuss these initiatives and making voluntary PEBs more visible in the workplace.

Organisational Climate and Pro-environmental Behaviours at Work: The Mediating Role of Personal Norms

Organisations are currently strongly encouraged to adopt more responsible production patterns aligned with sustainable development goals (SDGs). Pro-environmental behaviours (PEBs) in the workplace can strengthen the expected positive impacts of organisations’ environmental performance and engender more sustainable transitions to low-carbon production. Research on PEBs at work is relatively recent, so this field still lacks studies of the role of organisational policies and practices in workers’ adoption of these behaviours and of psychosocial processes that contribute to more sustainable workplaces. The present research examined how perceptions of organisations’ environmental policies and practices (i.e., organisational climate or injunctive norms) and of coworkers’ PEBs (i.e., descriptive norms) affect employees’ self-reported voluntary PEBs. Thogersen’s norm taxonomy model was also applied to address the role of personal norms. Self-commitment to sustainable goals at work can play a fundamental role in workers’ behavioural choices, so this research further investigated whether personal norms mediate the relationship between perceived pro-environmental organisational climate and reported workplace PEBs. To test the proposed model, data were collected on 210 workers from different business sectors, who completed an online questionnaire. The analyses showed that, after controlling for the effects of tenure, education level, and a management position, a pro-environmental organisational climate predicts stronger personal norms and a greater tendency to adopt PEBs at work (adjusted R squared=0.36), providing evidence of complete mediation. Coworkers’ perceived descriptive norms also contribute directly to self-reported PEBs. The discussion of the results focuses on the importance of organisational level initiatives as a way to promote change in individuals’ behaviours, which can have positive consequences for workplaces’ transition to sustainability.

Setting the conditions for open innovation in the food industry: unravelling the human dimension of open innovation

PurposeThe human dimension of open innovation is paramount for organisational excellence. However, there is scant evidence of the implications of human resource management practices on employees' orientation towards open innovation. The article shows how such practices facilitate the development of an open innovation climate among food companies.Design/methodology/approachAn empirical study was designed to obtain insights into the approach to open innovation of a large sample of food companies (n = 2,458). Secondary data were collected from the sixth European Working Condition Survey. A parallel mediation analysis allowed us to investigate the human resource management practices' implications on individual perceptions of an open innovation-oriented organisational climate through the mediating effect of employees' involvement and engagement.FindingsHuman resource management practices have an impact on employees' skills, motivation and interpersonal relationships, but they do not have direct implications on the employees' perception of an open innovation-oriented organizational climate. As they solicit employees' involvement and engagement, human resource management practices indirectly nurture a favourable perception of an open innovation-oriented organisational climate.Practical implicationsTailored human resource management practices should be crafted to increase employees' capabilities and motivation and, therefore, to sustain open innovation in the food sector. Human resource management practices foster employees' involvement and engagement, which pave the way for a greater proclivity to open innovation at the individual and collective levels.Originality/valueThe article discusses the implications of human resource management practices on the perception of an organisational climate conducive to open innovation, envisioning aspects to focus on and avenues for future research.

‘Professional-supportive’ versus ‘economic-operational’ management: the relationship between leadership style and hospital physicians’ organisational climate

Background Health systems across the world have implemented reforms that call for a reconsideration of the role of management in hospitals, which is increasingly seen as important for performance. These reorganisation efforts of the hospitals have challenged and supplemented traditional profession-based management with more complex systems of management inspired by the business sector. Whereas there is emerging evidence on how medical professionals in their role as leaders and managers adapt to the new institutional logics of the health care sector with increasing demands for efficiency and budgetary discipline, no previous studies have investigated whether leaders’ emphasis on clinical or financial priorities is related to how hospital physicians’ view their working situation. The purpose of this study was therefore to examine the relationship between leadership style and hospital physicians’ organisational climate. Methods We utilised data from a survey among 3000 Norwegian hospital physicians from 2016. The analysis used three additive indexes as dependent variables to reflect various aspects of the organisational climate: social climate, innovation climate and engagement at the workplace. The variables reflecting leadership style were based on an item in the survey asking the respondents to rate the leadership qualities of their proximate leaders (department chair) on 11 specific dimensions. We used factor analysis to identify two types of leadership styles: a traditional profession-based leadership style that emphasises the promotion of professional standards and quality in patient treatment, and a leadership style that reflects the emerging management philosophy with focus on economic administration and budgetary control. Controlling for demographic background, leader role, foreign medical exam and specialty, the empirical model was estimated via multivariate regression. Results The results documented a clear relationship between leadership style and organisational climate: a ‘professional-supportive’ leadership style is associated with better social climate, innovation climate and engagement at the workplace, while an ‘economic-operational’ leadership style is associated with a poorer social climate. Conclusions The cross-sectional study design makes it impossible to draw inferences about direction of causality and causal pathways. However, the positive relationship between professional-supportive leadership and organisational climate is a matter, which should be seriously considered regardless of direction of causality.

Psychological ownership development in new venture teams

Psychological ownership (PO) is important for organisational climate and outcomes, yet, little is known about collective forms of PO in emerging entrepreneurial teams. Based on an in-depth study of a new venture team over three years, we sketch a process model of collective PO development. While studies on individual PO in established organisations highlight individual needs in triggering processes of PO development, our study indicates the importance of temporal, role-based, and input-based alignment of interpersonal processes for the emergence of collective PO in new venture teams. We discuss insights for research on new venture teams and research on small groups.

Exploratory and exploitative innovation influenced by contextual leadership, environmental dynamism and innovation climate

Purpose Organisations have to be ambidextrous to survive in modern times. This study, therefore, aims to investigate the influence of contextual leadership on exploratory and exploitative innovation. Environmental dynamism was the moderator in this relationship, and innovation climate was the mediator. Design/methodology/approach The research design was a quantitative study, using a Web-based survey questionnaire, which consisted of valid and reliable scales. There were 1,204 respondents who completed the survey. Analyses included reliability, validity tests and structural equation modelling to test the hypothesised relationships among the variables. Findings The results show that exploitative and exploratory innovation is predicted by the innovation climate, which in turn is predicted by contextual leadership. The findings include a slight moderating effect of environmental dynamism on these relationships. The results suggest that contextual leadership is a significant predictor for improving innovation climate. Practical implications As contextual leadership explains 33% of the variance in organisational climate, companies can benefit from developing their leaders to create climates that promote innovation. At increased levels of environmental dynamism, innovation efforts should increase. Originality/value Contextual leadership is a crucial element to build innovation-friendly workplaces. The study addresses the gap in research on the influence of contextual leadership on exploitative and exploratory innovation with the mediating and moderator effect on this relationship.