THE FOLLOWER CHARACTERISTICS AND ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE INFLUENCING OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY OF EMPLOYEESA CASE STUDY OF THE INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS GROUP

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to study: 1) the relationships among the follower characteristics and operational efficiency of employees, 2) the relationships among the organizational climate and operational efficiency of employees, 3) the follower characteristics influencing operational efficiency of employees, and 4) the organizational climate influencing operational efficiency of employees. The samples were 400 participant employees working in the information and communications technology business selected by using multi stage sampling. The sampling was classified into four levels consisting of operational level, first-line manager, middle manager and top manager. The research instrument used was the questionnaire, while statistics used for data analysis included Pearson Correlation Coefficient, and Stepwise Multiple Regression.

The results revealed that the follower characteristics were related to operational efficiency of employees at the medium level as an overall and in each aspect, except alienated followers which were related at the low level (r = 0.304). Pragmatic survivors were insignificantly related to operational efficiency at the low level (r = 0.068), and passive followers had negative relationship at the low level to operational efficiency at a significance level of 0.05 (r = -0.144). Moreover, organizational climate was related to operational efficiency of employees at the high level as an overall while it indicated the medium level for each of the aspects. The highest level was acceptance (r = 0.668), followed by organizational support (r = 0.655) while the lowest level was responsibility (r = 0.526) at a significance level of 0.01. The study also indicated that effective followers and conformist followers significantly affected operational efficiency of employees at a significance level of 0.05. According to organizational climate, the aspects of acceptance, organizational support, task structure, homogeneity, performance standard, and responsibility significantly affected operational efficiency of employees at a significance level of 0.05.