6. Socio-psychological climate of the group

In order to most generally characterize the conditions of activity of a group, its internal situation, the concepts of “socio-psychological climate”, “moral and psychological climate”, “psychological climate”, and “emotional climate” are often used recently. When applied to a workforce, people sometimes talk about a “production” or “organizational” climate. In most cases, these concepts are used approximately in an identical sense, which, however, does not exclude significant variability in specific definitions. There are several dozen definitions of the socio-psychological climate in the Russian literature and various research approaches to this problem (I.P. Volkov, E.S. Kuzmin, V.V. Novikov, V.B. Olshansky, B.D. Parygin, K. K. Platonov, AL Sventsitsky, VM Shepel, and others).

The socio-psychological climate of the group is a state of the group psyche, due to the peculiarities of the vital activity of this group. This is a kind of fusion of emotional and intellectual - attitudes, moods, feelings, opinions of members of the group as separate elements of the socio-psychological climate. Note also that the states of the psyche of a group are characterized by varying degrees of awareness.

It is necessary to clearly distinguish the elements of the socio-psychological climate and the factors influencing it. For example, the features of work organization in any work collective are not elements of the socio-psychological climate, although the influence of work organization on the formation of a particular climate is undoubted.

A socio-psychological climate is always a reflected, subjective formation, in contrast to the reflected - objective life activity of a given group and the conditions in which it takes place. Of course, the reflected and reflected in the sphere of public life are dialectically interrelated.

The presence of close interdependence between the socio-psychological climate of the group and the behavior of its members should not lead to their identification, although it is impossible not to take into account the features of this relationship. For example, the nature of the relationship in the group (reflected) acts as a factor influencing the climate. At the same time, the perception of these relationships by its members (reflected) is an element of climate.

When addressing the problems of the socio-psychological climate of the group, it is particularly important to study the factors influencing the climate. It has not only theoretical, but also applied value. After all, by highlighting the factors that somehow influence the climate of any group, we can try to influence these factors and regulate their manifestation. Consider the problems of socio-psychological climate on the example of the primary labor group - brigade, link, bureau, laboratory. So, it will be a question of the elementary organizational cells which do not have any official structural divisions. Their number can vary from 3-4 to 60 people and more. We can say that this is the “cell” of each enterprise and institution. The socio-psychological climate of such a cell is formed due to a variety of different influences. We divide them conditionally into factors of macroenvironment and microenvironment.

The macroenvironment refers to a large social space, a wide environment within which this or that organization is located and implements its livelihoods. What is included here? First of all, the cardinal features of the socio-economic structure of the country, and more specifically, the specifics of this stage of its development, which is accordingly manifested in the activities of various social institutions. The degree of democratization of society, the peculiarities of state regulation of the economy, the unemployment rate in this region, the likelihood of an enterprise bankruptcy, etc. - these and other factors of the macroenvironment have a certain impact on all aspects of the life of the organization in modern conditions. The macro environment also includes the level of development of material and spiritual production and the culture of society as a whole. Finally, the macroenvironment is also characterized by a certain social consciousness, reflecting the given social being in all its contradictions. Thus, the members of each social group and organization are representatives of their own epoch, a certain historical period in the development of society.

Ministries and departments, concerns, and joint-stock companies, in whose system an enterprise or institution belongs, carry out certain managerial influences in relation to the latter, which is also an important factor in the influence of the macroenvironment on the socio-psychological climate of the organization and all its constituent groups.

As essential factors of the macroenvironment affecting the climate of an organization, it should be noted its diverse partnerships with other organizations, as well as with consumers of products of this organization. Note that in a market economy, the influence of consumers on the organization's climate will increase.

The microenvironment of an enterprise, an institution, is the "field" of the daily activities of people, those specific material and spiritual conditions in which they work. It is at this level that certain influences of the macroenvironment acquire for each group their certainty, connection with the realities of life practice.

What circumstances, conditions of daily life activity form one or another attitude and the mood of the primary labor group, its social and psychological climate?

There are a number of impacts. First of all, we note the factors of the material-material environment. This is the nature of the labor operations performed by people, the state of the equipment, and the quality of the workpieces or raw materials. Of particular importance are also the features of the organization of labor - shiftwork, rhythm, the degree of interchangeability of workers, the level of operational and economic independence of the primary group (for example, brigades). Note the role of sanitary and hygienic working conditions, such as temperature, humidity, light, noise, vibration, etc.

It is known that the rational organization of the labor process, taking into account the capabilities of the human body, the provision of normal working and rest conditions for people influence in a positive way the mental states of each employee and the group as a whole. And vice versa, certain faults of technology, technology imperfections, organizational disorders, labor irregularity, lack of fresh air, excessive noise, abnormal temperature in the room, etc. factors of the material environment have a negative impact on the climate of the group. Therefore, the first direction of improving the socio-psychological climate is to optimize the complex of the above factors. This task should be solved on the basis of developments of specialists in occupational health and physiology, ergonomics and engineering psychology.

Another, no less important group of factors in the microenvironment are effects, which are group phenomena and processes at the level of the primary labor group. These factors deserve close attention due to the fact that they are a consequence of the socio-psychological reflection of the human microenvironment. For brevity, we will call these factors socio-psychological.

We begin with a factor such as the nature of formal organizational ties between members of the primary labor group. These links are enshrined in the formal structure of this unit. Possible differences between the types of such a structure can be shown on the basis of the selected L.I. Umansky following "models of joint activity" (Umansky, 1977):

1. 1) jointly-individual activity: each member of the group does his part of a common task independently of the others (a team of machine operators, spinners, weavers);
2. joint-sequential activities: a common task is performed sequentially by each member of the group (the team of conveyor production);
3. jointly interacting activity: the task is carried out with the direct and simultaneous interaction of each member of the group with all other members of the group (team of installers).

Experimental studies conducted under the guidance of L.I. Umansky, show a direct relationship between these models and the level of development of the group as a team. Thus, “cohesion by orientation” (unity of value orientations, unity of goals and motives of activity) within a given group’s activity is achieved faster with the third model than with the second and even more so with the first.

The materials of research at enterprises also indicate that the features of this or that “model of joint activity” themselves are reflected in the result on the psychological features of labor groups. As shown by A.I. Dontsov and Sh.V. Sargsyan, as a result of a study that covered 11 brigades in the newly established enterprise, satisfaction with interpersonal relationships in these primary groups increases as the first one goes through the “joint activity model” to the third one (Andreeva and Yanaushki, 1987).

Along with the system of official interaction, its informal organizational structure has a profound effect on the socio-psychological climate of the primary working group. Certainly, comradely contacts during work and at the end of it, cooperation and mutual assistance form a different climate than unfriendly relations, manifested in quarrels and conflicts.

Speaking about the important formative influence of informal contacts on the socio-psychological climate, it is necessary to take into account both the number of these contacts and their distribution. For example, within one brigade there can be two or more informal groups, and the members of each of them (with strong and benevolent intra-group connections) oppose the members of "not their own" groups.

Considering the factors influencing the climate of a group, one should take into account not only the specifics of formal and informal organizational structures, taken separately, but also their specific correlation. The higher the degree of unity of these structures, the more positive the impacts that form the climate of the group.

The nature of leadership, manifested in a particular style of relationship between the immediate leader of the primary labor group and the rest of its members, also affects the socio-psychological climate. Workers who consider the shop managers equally attentive to their production and personal affairs are usually more satisfied with their work than those who declared that they were not paying attention to them by the managers. The democratic leadership style of the masters of the brigades, common values ​​and norms of the masters and workers contribute to the formation of a favorable social and psychological climate.

The next factor affecting the climate of the group is due to the individual psychological characteristics of its members. Every person is unique and inimitable. His mental makeup is a combination of personality traits and properties, creating an identity of character in general. Through the prism of personality traits all the influences on it from the external environment are refracted. The attitude of a person to these influences, expressed in his personal opinions and moods, in behavior, represent his individual “contribution” to the formation of the climate of the group. Of course, the psyche of a group should not be understood only as the sum of the individual psychological characteristics of each of its members. This is a qualitatively new education. Thus, for the formation of a particular socio-psychological climate, groups are important not so much the individual properties of its members, as the effect of their combination. The level of psychological compatibility of group members is also a factor in determining to a large extent its climate.

Summarizing what has been said, we will single out the following main factors influencing the socio-psychological climate of the primary labor group (Diagram 9.1).

Impacts from the macro environment: the characteristic features of the current stage of the socio-economic and socio-political development of the country; the activities of the higher structures governing this organization, its own governing and self-governing bodies, public organizations, the connection of this organization with other city and district organizations.

Impacts from the microenvironment: the material and material sphere of the primary group, purely socio-psychological factors (the specifics of formal and informal organizational relationships in the group and the relationship between them, the style of leadership of the group, the level of psychological compatibility of workers).

Of course, when analyzing the socio-psychological climate of the primary labor group in a particular situation, it is impossible to attribute any influence on it at the expense of the macroenvironment only or the microenvironment. The dependence of the climate of the primary group on the factors of its own microenvironment is always due to the macroenvironment. However, in solving the problem of improving the climate in one or another primary group, one should pay priority attention to the factors of the microenvironment. After all, it is here that the effect of purposeful influences is most noticeable.

Scheme 9.1 Factors affecting the socio-psychological climate of the group