FUNCTIONALISM VS. EXCHANGE THEORY AS THEORETICAL CONSTRUCTS
EXPLANATIVE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE AT CROSSROADS
Davis (1981) has defined organizational climate as the human environment within which employees work. According to Timm and Peterson (1982), organizational climate is determined by several components, the five most major of which are:
1. the degree to which management is supportive of its employees' efforts.
2. the extent of participative decision making.
3. the degree of trust employees have in management.
4. the freedom to communicate openly.
5. the firm's emphasis on high performance goals.
Regarding the importance of organizational climate, Timm and Peterson (1982) state that:
Many management theorists feel that the climate of an organization is more important to success than the management techniques used. Even careful planning, organizing, staffing, motivating, and controlling can fall flat if the organization's climate is poor (p.101).
The importance of organizational climate to any company, business, or institution makes it imperative that researchers and theorists attain an understanding of the development and maintenance of the organizational climate. The problem proposed for study consists of an attempt to attain this understanding. Specifically, the problem consists of the application of two sociological structure theories (Functionalism and Exchange Theory) to the organizational environment of Crossroads Hospital, a psychiatric facility for the treatment of emotional disturbed and/or chemically dependent adolescents.
The overall purpose of the proposed study is to present a comparison of two sociological structure theories' power to explain the observed organizational climate of a small psychiatric facility, Crossroads Hospital, that specializes in the treatment of emotionally disturbed and/or chemically dependent youth. Hospital staff include a total of 95 professionals, in...