1. Institutional Climate: Relevance For Teaching At Macquarie University
Dr Peter Langford
Voice Project
Department of Psychology
Macquarie University
Sydney, Australia
Teaching Quality Indicators Steering Group
Wednesday 7 November 2007

2. Agenda Introduction Defining “climate” Modeling climate
Teaching at Macquarie
Indicators
Gap analysis
Conclusions

3. Who Is Peter Langford?
Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology.
Chair undergraduate courses through the Dept of Business in human resource management and organisational behaviour, and postgraduate courses in organisational psychology.
Director of Voice Project:
A research and consulting company, with 11 staff, based on campus in the Research Park that specialises in organisational surveys and the diagnosis of culture, leadership and passion at work.
Licence arrangement through Access Macquarie Ltd.
We’ve conducted over 200 survey projects across 100 clients, and have “given a voice” to over 250,000 people.
Largest completed project is 30,000 staff in the Tasmanian State Service.
We ran the Macquarie University “Your Say” Staff Survey in early 2006.
We have 17 university clients.

4. Our University Clients
Charles Sturt University (2003 & 2006)
Flinders University, IRU (2006)
Griffith University, IRU (2004)
Macquarie University, IRU (2006)
Monash University, Go8 (2007)
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, ATN (2007)
Swinburne University (2006)
University of Adelaide, Go8 (2004 & 2006)
University of Ballarat, NGU (2007)
University of Canberra, NGU (2005 & 2007)
University of New England (2007)
University of Newcastle, IRU (2003 & 2007)
University of Southern Queensland, NGU (2006)
University of Sydney, Go8 (pilot 2006)
University of Technology Sydney, ATN (2007)
University of Wollongong (2007)
Victoria University, NGU (2004 & 2006)

5. Defining “Climate”

6. Defining “Climate”
There is considerable confusion and variation in the use of terms such as “climate”, “culture”, “practices”, “systems”, “values”.
A slowly emerging tendency is to define “culture" as an overarching concept encompassing values and climate (van den Berg & Wilderom, 2004).
“Climate” = Employees’ evaluation of their work environment including structures, processes and events (Denison, 1996; Schneider & Snyder, 1975)

7. Modeling Climate People - Motivation & Initiative Property - Resources
Talent
Teamwork
Property - Resources
Processes
Technology
Safety
Facilities
Purpose - Organisation Direction
Results Focus
Mission & Values
Ethics
Role Clarity
Diversity
Participation - Leadership
Recruitment
Cross-Unit Cooperation
Learning & Development
Involvement
Reward & Recognition
Performance Appraisal
Supervision
Career Opportunities
DRIVERS
OUTCOMES
Progress
- Organisation Objectives
- Change & Innovation
- Customer Satisfaction
Peace - Wellness
Work/Life Balance
Flexibility
Passion
(Engagement)
- Organisation Commitment
Job Satisfaction
Intention To Stay
Based on Langford, P. H., Parkes, L. P., & Metcalf, L. (2006). Developing a structural equation model of organisational performance and employee engagement. Proceedings of the joint conference of the Australian Psychological Society and the New Zealand Psychological Society, Auckland, New Zealand.

8. Teaching At Macquarie *
* Benchmarks have been updated since the original report for Macquarie University. The benchmarks presented here are the average scores across 10 universities.

9. “Gap Analysis” For Teaching
Ideally, management practices should rest in the oval where there is a good match between performance and importance
Maintain
Promote
Higher
Lower
Limit
Prioritise
Lower
Higher

10. Conclusions
Teaching at Macquarie is scoring higher than available university benchmarks.
Top 5 “drivers” of teaching at Macquarie are, in descending order:
Research quality
Community engagement
Talent of staff
Entrepreneurship
Learning & development of staff
And rounding out the top 10: performance appraisal of staff, rewards & recognition, teamwork, recruitment & selection, career opportunities.
The 5 weakest “drivers” of teaching at Macquarie, in descending order, are:
Facilities, work/life balance, workload, organisational direction, technology.