Features of the psychological climate in the team

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Psychological climate is one of the most important characteristics of the team. It has a significant impact on productivity, as well as the emotional state of each member of the group - both employees and management. What does this indicator depend on? How to diagnose it, and can it be changed?

Atmospheric components in the group

Under the psychological climate in the team is understood the mood of the group, which is determined by the relationship of people living together, working or studying. Nervous tension is a problem in many work and study groups. In addition to the direct harm to relationships between people, their he alth, stress also affects the work process.

Most often, a tense situation occurs in a situation of instability. Another fairly common reason why the psychological climate in a team is deteriorating is the unfavorable conditions in which an individual is forced to live.employee. Perhaps he does not have the best living conditions, poor nutrition, difficulties in relationships with relatives, etc. This may also affect the psychological state of other employees. Another common cause of unfavorable work environments is communication difficulties among employees themselves.

Satisfaction of each employee with work

There are several factors that determine the psychological climate in the team. One of the main ones is the satisfaction of employees with their duties. A great influence on the formation of the situation is exerted by the fact how much the employee likes his work - whether it is diverse, whether it is possible to realize his creative potential with its help, whether it corresponds to the professional level of the employee.

The attractiveness of work is always increased by such motivators as decent wages, good conditions, fair and timely distribution of holidays, and career prospects. Also important are such factors as the opportunity to increase the level of one's professionalism, the peculiarities of relationships both horizontally and vertically.

Compatibility and harmony of team members

Those relationships that were formed in the process of communication between people are an indicator of their compatibility in psychological terms. It is believed that those people who are similar to each other, it is much easier to establish interaction. Similarity helps the employee feel safe,increases self-esteem.

However, one should distinguish between such concepts as harmony and compatibility. If psychological compatibility is based on the characteristics of relationships between people, and it can be judged after a relatively short period of time after the start of joint activities, then coherence is developed over the years. Its basis is the successful results of joint activities. At the same time, both harmony and compatibility matter.

Cohesion

Formed on an emotional basis. If the team is united, then it is unlikely that everyone will be happy when one of the employees has grief. Factors that influence the level of cohesion in the group are the attitude of its members towards the leader, trust within the team itself, the duration of joint work, as well as recognition of the personal contribution of each of the employees.

To a large extent, this characteristic depends on the personal characteristics of employees, how cultural their communication is, whether there is sympathy or antipathy in the relationship. The predominance of certain qualities affects the overall psychological climate in the team.

Features of communications

The basis of the atmosphere of the team is always the personal characteristics of each of its members. It is important to have sociability, especially their assessments, opinions, social experience. For example, the difficulties experienced in communication by some members of the group may beinfluence on the situation in the team as a whole. For this reason, tension, distrust, disputes and conflict situations may arise. If each member of the team is able to clearly and accurately express their point of view, properly masters the techniques of constructive criticism, and has the skills of active listening, then this contributes to the creation of a favorable psychological climate in the group.

When analyzing the features of psychological compatibility of each of the team members, it is necessary to take into account such a factor as the type of communicative behavior. This classification was first developed by V. M. Shepel and includes the following categories:

• Collectivists are sociable people who will always support any undertaking. If necessary, they are able to take the initiative.
• Individualists. Those employees who prefer to work alone rather than interact in a team. They gravitate towards personal responsibility much more.
• Pretensionists. As a rule, such employees are often called vain, touchy, striving to be the center of attention during work. And such a characterization is not without reason.
• Mimics. People who seek to avoid complications by imitating other people's behaviors.
• Fixers. Weak-willed team members who rarely take the initiative and fall under the influence of others.
• Isolated. People who avoid contact. Often they have a completely unbearablecharacter.

Leadership Style

This factor also has a great influence on the characteristics of the psychological climate in the team. There are several leadership styles:

• Democratic. Thanks to this style, friendliness develops within the team. Employees do not feel the imposition of certain decisions "from outside". Members of the group also take part in the management. This style is one of the best for creating a favorable psychological climate in the team.
• Authoritarian. As a rule, all that generates this style is the hostility of the group members. There may be other alternatives - humility, fawning, often - envy and distrust. However, this management style often leads the group to success, and therefore is used in the army, sports, etc.
• Permissive style. It is characterized by the fact that the work takes its course. As a result, one can observe extremely low work efficiency, dissatisfaction of employees, as well as the formation of a socio-psychological climate in the team, which is unfavorable.

It can be concluded that each leader has a significant impact on the characteristics of the moral and psychological climate, the attitude of people to the activities performed, satisfaction with the process of work or study.

Nature of work performed

Also important are the features of the activities that each employee has to do. For example, the monotony of work has a significant impact, or, conversely, itsemotional oversaturation. It is also necessary to take into account the level of responsibility of each member of the team, the risk to life and he alth, the stressful nature of the work.

Features of a favorable atmosphere

There are many features that can be used to characterize a positive socio-psychological climate in the team. Consider the most basic:

• In such a group, as a rule, a cheerful and positive tone of relations prevails. The main principles here are cooperation, mutual assistance, goodwill. Trust prevails in the relationship between employees, and criticism is expressed with goodwill.
• In the team there are certain norms of respect for each of its representatives. The weak can find support, experienced workers help newcomers.
• Traits such as honesty, openness, and hard work are valued.
• Each of the team members is full of energy. If you need to do some useful work, he will respond. Labor efficiency indicators are generally high.
• If one of the members of the group experiences joy or failure, then those around him empathize.
• Also, there is mutual understanding in the relationship between mini-groups within the team.

Negative moral and psychological climate in the team: features

If there is no mutual respect in the group, then the workers are forced to constantly take a defensive position and defend themselves, including from each other. Communication becomes rarer. Whenthe leader demands the impossible from the members of the group, exposes them to public criticism, more often punishes than encourages, does not personally evaluate the contribution of the employee to joint activities - thereby he contributes to the formation of a psychological climate in the team with a “minus” sign. And the main consequence of this is a decrease in labor productivity, a deterioration in the quality of products performed.

Poorly cohesive group: properties

Such a group is characterized by pessimism, irritability. Often, team members get bored, they frankly do not like their work, because it does not arouse interest. Each of the employees has a fear of making a mistake, making an inappropriate impression, hostility. In addition to this symptom, which is obvious, there are other features of an unfavorable moral and psychological climate in the team:

• There are no norms of justice and equality in the team. There is always a noticeable division between the "privileged" and those who are neglected. The weak in such a team are treated with contempt, they are often ridiculed. Newcomers to this group feel left out and are often treated with hostility.
• Honesty, diligence, selflessness are not respected.
• Mostly group members are passive, and some openly seek to isolate themselves from the rest.
• Successes or failures of employees do not cause sympathy, and often become the subject of open envy or gloating.
• In such a groupthere may be small factions that refuse to cooperate with each other.
• In problem situations, the team is often unable to unite to solve the problem.

Worrying "bells" of negative changes

However, it must be taken into account that it is rare when a favorable psychological climate in a team becomes negative abruptly. Most often, this is preceded by some initially imperceptible changes. In the same way that a person must go through a certain border strip before turning from a law-abiding member of society into a criminal, certain tendencies are first outlined in the work collective. The brewing of negative sentiment has the following characteristics:

• Hidden disobedience to orders from superiors or inaccurate following of instructions.
• "Gatherings" during business hours. Instead of doing business, employees communicate, play backgammon - in a word, they kill time.
• Rumors and gossip. Often this feature is attributed to women's teams, but the gender of employees is not an excuse - rumors are inevitable where they have nothing to do.
• Careless attitude to technology.

"Scapegoat" - a consequence of excessive authoritarianism

If the leader of a group (be it a work team, a student stream or a school class) adheres to an exclusively authoritarian style, this can affect each of the members in a negative way. Fear of punishment, in turn, leads toemergence of scapegoats. For this role, in most cases, a person (or even a group of people) is chosen who are in no way guilty of the problems of the team, but are somehow different from the rest. The scapegoat becomes the victim of attacks and aggression.

Researchers emphasize that having such a target for aggression is only a temporary way for the group to get rid of tension. The roots of the problem remain untouched, and when the "scapegoat" leaves the group, another one will take his place - and it is quite possible that this will be one of the members of the collective.

How can you define the atmosphere in a group?

There are several criteria by which you can assess the psychological climate in the team:

• Staff turnover.
• Level of labor efficiency.
• Product quality.
• Number of absenteeism and lateness of individual workers.
• Number of claims and complaints from the company's customers.
• Deadlines for completion of work.
• Careful or negligent handling of work equipment.
• Frequency of breaks during the working day.

How to improve team relationships

After assessing the characteristics of the atmosphere in the team, you can determine those weaknesses that need to be corrected. You may need to make some personnel changes. Creating a psychological climate in the team is the task of every responsible leader. After all, labor productivity often falls when employees are psychologically incompatibleamong themselves or one of the employees has such a personal property as a banal craving for creating conflict situations.

Once the obvious problems are fixed, you should move on to strengthening relationships between employees by holding special events after hours. Formation of a favorable psychological climate in the team can be a long process. However, such a strategy allows you to relieve tension, as well as help employees move from the level of a purely business interaction to a friendly one.

Also, the improvement of the psychological climate in the workforce is facilitated by joint work projects. For example, it could be brainstorming. Often, special work events are also effective, in which employees of different departments should cooperate.

Features of the working atmosphere among teachers

Special attention should be paid to the psychological climate in the teaching staff. This area is always stressful, and the working atmosphere is often one of the factors that determine the effectiveness of a teacher. The rallying of the teaching staff always takes place within the framework of the fulfillment of some common task, activity - first of all, social, pedagogical. In such events, each of the teachers should have the opportunity to realize their creative abilities.

Of course, conducting methodological days or creative meetings of teachers often requires additional temporarycosts, however, such events remain in the memory of teachers for a long time as bright and unforgettable events.

How can a teacher create an atmosphere in the classroom?

Many teachers have to deal with the formation of the psychological climate of the class team. This is a rather difficult task, but its implementation contributes to the achievement of the most urgent tasks of education. Children in a close-knit class gain invaluable experience in interpersonal interaction, cooperation, and responsibility. The following methods of creating a positive atmosphere in the classroom are distinguished:

• Inclusion of various types of art in the daily educational process.
• Games.
• Common traditions.
• The active position of the teacher in relation to the class.
• Creating various situations in which the class could experience significant events for the team.

How to determine the characteristics of the moral situation in the group?

There are many ways to learn about the characteristics of the psychological climate in the team. Methods developed for this purpose allow you to get an idea of what is happening in the group. The easiest way is to distribute leaflets to group members with the following questionnaire (if desired, it can be anonymous):

1. Do you enjoy the work you do?
2. Do you have a desire to change it?
3. Assuming you were currently looking for a job, would you have stopped your attention at the current place?
4. Is the job interesting for you? Is she enoughvaried?
5. Are you satisfied with the technical equipment in the workplace?
6. Is the salary satisfactory?
7. What would you like to see change about collaboration?
8. How do you rate the atmosphere in the team? Is she friendly, respectful, trusting? Or, on the contrary, is there envy, tension, distrust and irresponsibility?
9. Do you consider your colleagues high-class professionals?
10. Are you respected by them?

Studying the psychological climate of the team allows you to take the necessary measures in time to improve it, and hence increase labor productivity. The appearance of negative symptoms indicates that the team is "sick". However, if you pay attention to these signals in time, the working atmosphere can be adjusted and even improved in many ways.