Organizational Leaders' and Staff Members' Appraisals of Their Work Environment Within a Children's Social Service System

Several studies have demonstrated the effect of an organization's culture and climate on the delivery of services to clients and the success of clinical outcomes. Workers' perceptions are integral components of organizational social context, and in order to create a positive organizational culture and climate, managers and frontline staff need to have a shared understanding of the social context. The existing literature does not adequately address how discrepancies in perceptions of culture and climate between frontline staff and managers affect the implementation of policies and services. The purpose of this study is to compare the workgroup-level culture and climate of a single, large, child and family social services organization, based on the reported experiences of frontline workers and senior managers. The results show that, as a group, senior managers rate the organization as having a culture that is much more proficient and much less rigid and a climate that is more engaged and more functional than the ratings of the average frontline workgroup. The discrepancies between the perceptions of upper management and workgroup-level staff indicate the need for interventions that can improve communication and cohesiveness between these two groups.