Psychological Climate for Caring and Work Outcomes: A Virtuous Cycle

Abstract

The current literature’s focus on unidirectional effects of psychological and organizational climates at work on work outcomes fails to capture the full relationship between these factors. This article examines whether a psychological climate for caring contributes to specific work outcomes and investigates whether work outcomes support the climate for caring, creating a feedback loop. Results confirm a bi-directional, temporal association between perceived climate for caring and two of the four explored work outcomes: self-reported productivity and self-reported work quality. The effect of a perceived caring climate on these work outcomes was stronger than the effect in the opposite direction. The perception that the work climate was caring was also found to affect work engagement, but the reverse relationship was not identified. We did not find any evidence for a link between job satisfaction and a climate for caring at work in either direction.

Character Strengths Involving an Orientation to Promote Good Can Help Your Health and Well-Being. Evidence From two Longitudinal Studies

“…The Worker Well-being Survey was designed to comprehensively assess human flourishing at work and the state of working conditions. It has thus far been employed with a sample of more than 13,000 garment workers in China, Cambodia, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Poland and the United States, and in addition, more than 8,000 office and manufacturing employees of two Fortune 500 manufacturing companies and one major insurer in the U.S. 28 - 30 …”

Work Climate Scale in Emergency Services: Abridged Version

“…Finally, factor 4, performance at work, reduced to fours items, refers to all aspects related to worker integration on the job [ 2 , 80 ]. Although item 40 on shortcomings as a group is not included in the abridged scale, its information could be recorded individually for each of the work team members through item 37, “I know my professional shortcomings”.…”

“…In organizations providing healthcare, the safety of personnel is a top priority. A positive work climate promotes greater satisfaction, productivity, interpersonal relations, performance [ 2 ], and mental wellbeing at work [ 3 ]. Work climate is perceived as the quality of the experienced environment that influences the behavior of those employed there and, in the case of healthcare, impacts the effectiveness or quality of patient care [ 4 ].…”

A Model of Caring in Organizations for Human Resource Development

“…Strong organizational climates are important because they influence employee attitudes and behavior (Carr et al, 2003;Bowen & Ostroff, 2004). As indicated earlier, caring climates have been found to be positively related to employee job satisfaction, commitment, helping behavior, organizational citizenship behavior, work engagement, and psychological well-being (Chuang & Liao, 2010;Martin & Cullen, 2006;Takeuchi et al, 2009;Weziak-Bialowolska et al, 2020), as well as sales personnel service performance and business unit market performance (Chuang & Liao, 2010;Borucki & Burke, 1999). Thus, a climate of care for employees can be expected to result in positive outcomes for employees and organizations.…”

“…Weziak-Bialowolska et al (2020) recently examined the relationship between a psychological climate for caring and work outcomes in a sample of apparel workers in Mexico. They described a psychological climate for caring as a climate that “focuses on employees’ perceptions of management care about the workforce, and management priorities regarding trust, respect, fairness, caring atmosphere, and safety in the workplace” (p. 1).…”