Characteristics and Their Relationship to Organizational Climate. Final Report,

This report summarizes an investigation of the relationship between properties of organizational structure and certain personality traits of organizational members, and how the resulting interaction between these two factors relates to the organizational climate of elementary schools. Two hundred and ninety-six southern California teachers responded to three questionnaires which provided measures of (1) the organizational climate of schools as measured by the Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire developed by Halpin and Croft; (2) the personality characteristics of the respondents as measured by Cattell and Eber's Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire; and (3) the schools ' structural properties in terms of the degree of formalization, centralization, complexity, and autonomy as perceived by the respondent. Results indicated that teachers ' perceptions of organizational climate may be seen as functions of the interplay between teachers ' personalities and the structure of the organization in which the individual functions, thus supporting and extending the Getzels-Guba Social System Theory. Tables, copies of questionnaires, and a bibliography are included. (Author) 3