Google the four Characteristics of the Climate at Whirlpool

Google the four Characteristics of the Climate at Whirlpool, and post your answer the following questions:

Could the innovation success of the Gladiator line have been achieved without the four characteristics being present in the organization? Why or why not?

Comment on the overall commitment of Whirlpool leadership to the process of creativity and innovation. Were there any leadership actions that stood out as being critical to unleashing the creativity and entrepreneurship of the Gladiator team?

Solution

Organizational culture is with the nature of belief and expectations about organizational life, while climate is an indicator of whether those beliefs and expectations are being fulfilled”.

Richard M. Hodgetts has classified organizational climate into two factors. 1) overt factors which can be analyzed they are Hierarchy , Goals of the organization , Financial resources , Skills and abilities of employees , Technological state of the organization , Performance standards adopted , Efficiency measurement. 2) covert factors that can not be analyzed being subjective in nature they are Values , Attitude , Norms, Feelings, Interaction, Sportiveness, Satisfaction.

Likert has carried out studies on organizational climate by isolating six different variables namely decision making, leadership style, motivation, goal setting communication and control. Each variable was then evaluated on four dimensions. Each of the dimensions can then be studied on the five-point scale Strongly agree , Moderately disagree,Neutral , Moderately disagree, Strongly disagree.

These characteristics plays an important role for success of organization.Achieving required quality of product and managing customer satisfaction are important factors in running a growth oriented organization. While all the resources can be managed, it is difficult to manage human resource especially when globalization is the order of the day in all facet of our life. Therefore culture plays a decisive role in running of an organization smoothly. Culture is an invisible power of any organization.When the thinking and actions of employees are institutionalized, an organizational culture is deemed to have been formed.

Leadership is one of the most important aspects of studies of human behaviors in organization. It is the leader who creates working environment. The success of an organization depends upon the efficiency of the leader. It is the attributes, positive approach and the ability to solve problems that make a person leader.Leadership is about influencing subordinates to act willingly towards achievement of organizational goals.

To achieve innovation and creativity among employees, it is necessary to introduce the concept of work design and promote intrinsic value of the job so that personal growth,recognition and sense of achievement is experienced by the employees. This can be achieved by giving employees enhanced responsibilities, greater autonomy, higher control over the resources, assuring them of personal growth and achievement. For creativity and innovation less of formalization is recommended.Generative learning involves creativity and innovations. Generative process leads to a total reforming of an organization\'s experiences and learning from that process.Centralized command and control, strict hierarchy and fixed communication are indicative of formal culture with little freedom of action and with scant attention to innovation and creativity