Assessment of Organisational Climate through Innovative Behaviour of the teachers

Abstract

Purpose: As Quality of education manifests itself in the quality of human resources, it is a central and strategic issue in the context of nation-building. The part of the work environment which is not capital intensive but intrinsic to the educational institute and more or less dependent on the management style of the education institution can be taken on priority to improve the quality of education. This paper attempts to present a conceptual frame work for assessment of quality of work climate in any educational institution from the perspective of Innovative behaviour of its teachers.
Findings: Irrespective of level of the education, the innovativeness of the teaching methods would invariably foster better learning among students. But, the innovation in teaching methods becomes all the more important, particularly in higher education because, unlike the school education which is primarily associated with memorization of facts, higher education is linked to higher order of learning and skill development involving higher mental operations such as problem solving and creative thinking. The ability of innovativeness and creativity among teachers can be cultivated in a productive and supportive work environment of any educational institute. There are several studies which support the direct relationship of Organisational Climate (herein after referred as OC) to the Innovative Behaviour (herein after referred as OB) of its teachers and ultimately to the performance of its students. Given that the ‘innovativeness of the teachers’ as OB is a plain and straightforward construct to measure than the complex construct of OC, this paper takes a cue from such studies and aims at devising a perspective by way of reverse engineering to predict the later from the former.