**2. The concept of organizational climate**

The work environment is created primarily by people. Humans are the most important element for an enterprise to function, and relationships largely determine the work climate and productivity. The work climate has a major impact on an employee's daily performance and career. A person acquires knowledge throughout life, and importantly this takes place primarily in the work environment. A pleasant environment in which employees work has a positive impact on performance and well-being. Employers who create a pleasant work environment and good employee relations find it easier to attract new employees. This is because their positive image reinforces the company's good reputation in the social environment.

The work environment includes many factors that affect well-being, work comfort, and productivity. These are divided into two groups: physical factors and psychosocial factors. Physical factors — otherwise known as the material work environment. They are designed to provide comfortable conditions and safety for the employee. Employees have little influence on this, but the environment in which they perform their work translates into their productivity and well-being. Therefore, it is an extremely important element to provide adequate working conditions for the employees and create a relaxed and pleasant zone, where everyone feels comfortable. Psychosocial factors—these are interpersonal relationships. They are formed at the stage of each employee's daily life. They are extremely important as they largely determine how people employed by the organization will feel in the work environment, and how this will translate into their work. This aspect of human functioning in an organization, along with satisfaction and satisfaction analysis, that is, the area of organizational climate research.

While there are various proposals in the academic literature on this area of research, the dominant approach defines organizational climate as the majority of employees' shared assessment of practices, procedures, and events that shape perceptions of an organization. Organizational climate is a tool for understanding human behavior in organizations [4]. Research on organizational climate dates back to Kurt Lewin's work in the 1950s [5]. The concept became particularly popular in the 1960s and 1970s [6]. The organizational climate is shaped by a variety of factors, including the leadership style, organizational culture, communication patterns, and the physical environment. It is important for organizations to create a positive and supportive climate that promotes employee well-being, engagement, and productivity [7]. According to Guion, this climate relates to both the attributes of the organization and the perception of the individual, and that it is simply an alternative to affective responses to the organization, such as job satisfaction [8]. Thus, one can agree with Taguiri that organizational climate is a set of measurable characteristics of the work environment in which the people studied function. These dimensions are something that employees perceive directly or indirectly that affect their motivation and behavior ([9], p. 362-381).

### *The Role of Organizational Climate in Cultural Transformation DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113094*

It is worth noting at this point that, in general, several groups of proposals for organizational climate can be singled out [10]. One of them is the subjective concept, which focuses on the individual feelings of employees. According to this concept, it is the sum of all the feelings, relationships, and perspectives of individual employees that creates a differentiated organizational climate. This is a dynamic and impermanent process. The climate evolves with the changes that naturally occur in employee groups. Another is the interactionist concept, which views climate as a phenomenon that can be created by a group of employees. The important thing is that, according to this concept, it is not just the sum of individual employee perspectives, but the sum of the relationship between individual employee perspectives, group perspectives, and the organizational environment. Other proposals can be categorized as a concept that is referred to as managerial because it focuses on the responsibility of managers for building the organizational climate. It is primarily concerned with creating positive vertical relationships (manager-subordinate). This is the basis for a good atmosphere in the organization and translates into work efficiency. It is also worth noting that the concept is focused on satisfaction and performance. It focuses primarily on the needs of the employee. The main idea here is to recognize the climate itself, which allows you to more reliably assess the needs and expectations of employees, and then respond accordingly. The last one worth mentioning is the cultural concept, which depicts the organizational climate as a "manifestation" of the organizational culture. This means that with the help of the visible organizational climate certain theses can be formulated about a given organizational culture.

It is worth noting that at different times different currents and directions of interest in the organizational climate emerged, which translated into differences in the selection and study of climate components. The debate on organizational climate research that has been going on since the 1970s in the pages of scientific journals has been not so much about how to measure it, but what to measure [1]. Cilliers and Kossuth summarized the research of many authors and concluded that organizational dimensions at the formal level are structure, policies, goals, management practices, task specialization, decision-making, standards, and rewards. At the informal level, organizational climate refers to identity, employees' needs, accountability, the process of social communication, information exchange, support, or ways of resolving conflicts [11]. Analyzing the emerging subsequent research results in this area confirmed these observations. Although, of course, there are some differences between the various areas that are studied. Thus, for example, C.M. Tustin based his research on such dimensions as [12]:


While Martins and Martins, for example, analyzed such dimensions as [13]:


However, it can be noted that there are common areas in all studies on organizational climate. These are [14]:

Autonomy — understood as the ability to make independent decisions about goals, methods, or priorities.

Relationships — a sense of belonging to a community and a desire to help each other;

Trust — primarily in relation to superiors;

Responsibility — in relation to task completion;

Support—primarily from superiors to support risk-taking by subordinates;

Recognition— the level of recognition of individual employees' contribution to the bottom line;

Fairness— a sense of justice on 3 levels-procedural, distributive and relational; Change—the ability to use new solutions or employees' own creativity without risk of punishment.

Based on these eight areas, individual researchers try to tailor their question proposals to achieve the broadest and most coherent picture of relations within an organization. At this point, it is worth taking a closer look at the various elements of the organizational climate.

A positive organizational climate is characterized by open communication, collaboration, trust, and a shared commitment to achieving common goals. On the other hand, a negative climate can be characterized by fear, mistrust, conflict, and a lack of cooperation. Organizations can analyze and assess their climate through surveys, focus groups, and other methods of gathering employee feedback. The feedback can then be used to identify areas for improvement and develop strategies for creating a more positive and supportive climate. For example, surveys conducted among users of a recruitment service showed that 65 percent of Poles believe that the atmosphere in a company can become a reason for resigning from a job, even if there is no other offer of employment. It turns out that the majority of Polish employees are not satisfied with relations in companies. A bad atmosphere at work causes frustration and a decrease in their commitment. The most common reason such a state is the behavior of co-workers and the boss [15].

The organizational climate can become conducive to develop the potential and competencies of the employees and provide opportunities for fulfillment. There is a need for an enhanced role of managers who should feel responsible for building a positive motivating work culture, which would ensure optimum utilization of the capabilities of the team members, leading to self and organizational effectiveness ([16], p. 33-43).

#### *The Role of Organizational Climate in Cultural Transformation DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113094*

At a time, when the employee is an organization's greatest asset, employers' concern for a good organizational climate is becoming a necessity. Organizational climate is a measure of verifying working conditions and the level of motivation of an employee team. A positively perceived work environment is often tantamount to an increase in employee performance, while an organizational climate that negatively affects employees promotes job burnout. Among the costs to the company of employee burnout are employee inactivity and the need to redirect tasks assigned to them to other team members who are not necessarily prepared and have the necessary aptitude to perform them. Interpersonal relationships can become uncomfortable for an employee, for example, when he or she becomes a victim of bullying or sexual abuse. The result can be resignation and psychological problems [17].

Another important issue worth investigating is the level of utilization of an employee's potential. According to T. Amabile, creativity is influenced primarily by the employee's knowledge of the field in which he or she moves on a daily basis and the motivation associated with the performance of a given task [18]. The employer does not have much influence on the first aspect, and he can only try to hire people who are specialists in a particular field and have creative aptitude. He does, however, have the opportunity to influence the motivation and commitment of the employee. It is worth remembering that an employee who is skilled in a particular field is not always ready to fully engage. This is influenced by several factors such as motivating the employee to be innovative, the system of mobilizing the team for new challenges and projects, the way the work is done, the tools the employee is given to perform the tasks, enabling the employee to act independently, and believing in the team. The employee motivation system is extremely important in the work environment. It improves the employee's psychological comfort, as well as facilitates problemsolving and improves interpersonal relations and atmosphere and well-being. It affects effective performance and commitment. Every employee values comfort at work, wants to be appreciated, supported, but also to be able to work independently, to have his opinion respected. This gives a sense of satisfaction and a desire to work. Reverse actions, such as disrespecting an employee's opinion, constant criticism, or excessive control, can be a threat to the well-being of the team and can reduce the sense of comfort, efficiency, and motivation. For a company to grow, it should be open to new ideas and projects. Employees should be given the opportunity to think independently so that they can create innovative solutions. This involves the extra time they must be given to perform activities unrelated to their current tasks. Team members should not feel stress or pressure when creating something new. Feedback on the work done is needed so that the employee knows if their actions are leading in the right direction. The evaluation should be positive so that the employee is motivated to continue.

"The best places to work are distinguished by the fact that you like the people you work with, trust them, and take pride in what you do." It turns out that companies that interact well with their employees, trust them, and give them opportunities for development are considered the best places to work. Employees feel safe there and want to give as much as they can form themselves to make the company grow and be as profitable as possible. Good relations between employees and also with the supervisor integrate the team for innovative action [19]. The relationship between employees and supervisor plays an extremely important role against the background of the entire enterprise. It should be based on cooperation, openness, and trust. The atmosphere in the group reflects their individual feelings, which affect the productivity and functionality of employees.
