Essay on Organizational Climates of School

Helping and Craft gave different names to six different organizational climates and ranked them in order from open to close climate schools. These are:

(1) Open Climate:

This depicts a situation which has relatively more openness. Teachers are not died in their work either by the management or the school principal. They work without complaint or infighting.

They are intimate and friendly with one another. They are not overloaded and are motivated enough to overcome difficulties and frustration. They have job satisfaction. They are proud to be related to the school.

(2) Autonomous Climate :

The headmaster gives almost complete freedom to teachers to provide their own structure-for-interaction so that they can find ways within the group of satisfying their social needs. Teachers achieve their goals easily and quickly and work together well and accomplish tasks of the organization.

Morale of the teachers is high but not as high as in open climate. The principal runs the school in a business-like manner and remains aloof from teachers. He sets the procedure and regulations which provide guidelines which teachers can follow.

(3) Controlled Climate:

The climate is marked by emphasis on achievement at the expense of satisfaction of social needs. All work hard and there is hardly any time for friendly relations with others or for deviation from established controls and directives.

Teachers are expected to get work done and they expect to be told personally just how to do it. Job satisfaction is not from satisfaction of social needs but from task accomplishment. The principal is more result-oriented, shows bossism. He has low human qualities and gives little love, warmth or sympathy to his teachers. He is dominative and directive, formal and impersonal, ego- centred.

(4) Familiar Climate:

A friendly atmosphere is the most for both the principal and the teachers. Social needs satisfaction is extremely high while little is done for the group activities to be directed towards goal achievement. Socially, teachers will be all part of a big happy family.

As the principal does not want to disturb the big happy family he is afraid to make changes. He does not make any attempt to motivate or lead teachers to put their best efforts. He exerts little control on teachers, activities. The leadership lacks commitment and is feeble. He lacks the will and competence to emphasize production.

(5) Paternal Climate:

This deals with ineffective attempts of the principal to control teachers as well as to satisfy their social needs. It is partly closed climate and his behaviour is non-motivating. He becomes instructive and wants to know everything at once. He is everywhere at once, checking, monitoring and telling people how things should be done but still nothing seems to get done.

The climate shows more closeness than familiar-type climate. The principal has an inflated ego and his centre of interest and concern are the school and network of activities therein. Teachers do not work well together, there are factions. The principal s inability to control activities of teachers leads to lack of establishment of group maintenance. As the Principal takes care of things as best as he can, teachers give up trying.

(6) Closed Climate:

The principal is ineffective in directing the activities of teachers; at the same time he is not inclined to look out for their personal welfare. The principal will be highly aloof and impersonal in controlling and directing teacher’s activities. He sets up rules which are arbitrary. His words are hollow and he possesses little thirst and he does not motivate the teachers by citing good personal examples. He gives a proper direction to the teacher of his organization through “go by the book.”