Organisational Climate

Climate research is grounded in the Gestalt psychology of Kurt Lewin. From Gestalt psychology comes the critical notion of the whole - the gestalt - meaning that individual elements of perception are formed into wholes that represent more than the simple sum of the specifics of the individual elements. Organisational climate is a gestalt that is based on perceived patterns in the specific experiences and behaviours of people in organisations. That is, when experiences and behaviours are perceived to be patterned in particular ways, the gestalt that the pattern connotes in the abstract constitutes the climate of the situation. In other words, the sense people make of the patterns of experiences and behaviours they have, or the other parties to the situation have, constitutes the climate of the situation.