Organisational Climate

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