Psychological climate: A comparison of organizational and individual level referents

Abstract

Psychological climate is defined as individual employee perceptions of their work environment. This study advances our understanding of the psychological climate construct by addressing a generally ignored issue of frame of reference through measuring psychological climate with an organizational referent (PCo) and an individual referent (PCi). PCo reflects employee perceptions of their organizational environment in general; whereas, PCi reflects employee perceptions of their own experiences within an organization. This study found that a) there are mean level differences between the two types of psychological climate, b) the two types of psychological climate uniquely predict job satisfaction, and c) a discrepancy between the two types of psychological climate is found to relate to job satisfaction.