The psychological climate of work environments: an ecological perspective

Abstract

The ecological perspective has had a broad influence on modern scientific thinking, especially in the social sciences where it has emphasized the role of naturally occurring events in shaping behavior. The importance of ecologically valid research has been a recurring theme in modern psychology, where it has been characterized by person-situation interactions. This perspective has been most recently articulated by those who refer to themselves as ecological psychologists. One dominant theory within ecological psychology is manning theory, which has focused on the psychological consequences of under- and overmanned (or staffed) behavior settings. Despite a philosophical emphasis on naturalistic paradigms, much of the theoretical development with respect to manning theory has been used on laboratory experiments or field research where group or organizational size was employed as an indicator of manning levels. The current study tested manning theory predictions using psychological climate scales administered in two large field studies to two populations thought to be particularly sensitive to staffing levels: drug abuse counselors (in clinics) and US Navy petty officers (on ships). Usng moderated regression analysis, the efficacy of organization size as a manning indicator was not supported. Furthermore, client-counselor ratios and ratios of supervisors to subordinates failed to demonstrate significant prediction of six psychological climate scales selected on the basis of relevance to manning theory predictions. Results were explained in the context of the rich variety of other variables that comprise work settings.