General Article Information
Provide full reference for the article (using APA style):
Suliman, A., & Al Harethi, B. (2013). Perceived work climate and employee performance in public security organizations in the UAE. Transforming Government, 7(3), 410-424.
Who are the authors? Where are they from? What is their background? What organization(s) do they come from?
The authors are Abubakr Suliman and Bader Al Harethi. They are of Arabic background, and they work at The British University in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
What is this article largely about? Provide a brief summary in your own words
The article studies the factors that impact the workplace atmosphere and the quality of the employees’ performance in security organizations.
Which category does this study fall into: reporting, descriptive, explanatory or predictive? Why?
This study can be recognized as explanatory and predictive because it investigates and reveals connections between the workplace climate and the employees’ performance and allows making predictions concerning the professional results of the workers under various conditions.
Introduction
What type of background information does this article provide? Does the article provide enough background information about the topic or problem that it aims to address?
The background information supplied by the authors includes the description of the importance of the bond between the employees and the organization and positive work climate. The introduction provides enough information to motivate the readers to learn the correlation the between professional performance of the workers and the atmosphere of their workplace in a public security organization, yet no similar research is referred to.
What is the main problem or topic that the article trying to address?
The study explores the links between the workers’ perception of their workplace and their motivation and productivity.
Does the main problem or topic of the article seem to be important? Why or why not?
The research investigates an important subject providing the managers with the opportunities to assess and address their organizational climate to improve the performance of their employees.
What are the main objectives or research questions of the article?
The questions are: Is there a relationship between the employee productivity and the workplace climate? What factors impact the perceived work climate and the workers’ motivation?
What do you think needs to be done to improve the introduction of the article?
The introduction could be improved if the authors used the findings of other researchers as the examples to support their claims.
Literature Review
What are the main themes or areas of the literature review? In other words, what are the main topics covered by the literature review?
The literature review covers: a) the structure and contributing factors of the workplace climate according to structural, perceptual and interactive model; b) the physical and psycho-social components of the workplace climate; c) the effect of the organizational climate on the employees’ professional performance and their psychological and organizational determinants.
Is the literature review broad enough to educate readers about the problem that the article is addressing, its main constructs and concepts, main issues, alternative perspectives or solutions to the problem, etc. Why or why not? What is missing?
The literature review introduces the reader to numerous studies that targeted the impact of workplace environment on the employees. It explains all the most important concepts and educates the readers on the subjects in detail. It also provides solutions using the research of other authors. The review includes the works from all around the worlds studying different organizations. The missing part is the research targeting public security organizations, yet the authors explain that their study is the pioneer in this area.
Does it appear from the literature review that the authors are experts in this area? Why or why not?
The literature review is extremely profound and detailed; it presents theory and practical research which signifies that the authors are experts, and their knowledge of the subject of the study is very elaborate.
Do research questions clearly emerge from the literature review?
The literature review is penetrated with the research questions considering the links between the organizational climate and the employees’ performance; it uses the works of the other researchers to discuss the main factors contributing to this correlation. The authors also analyze the studies of other researchers and make conclusions relevant to their subject.
How can the literature review be improved?
The review contains all the necessary components; it covers diverse organizations from around the globe, it introduces main themes and concepts, provides analysis and conclusion, it sticks to the main subject and research questions. I do not think it should be improved.
Theory
What is the main theoretical perspective of the article? From which field does it come from?
The article comes from the perspective that the employees should be viewed as the key to a business’s success. This way, the authors propose that the wellbeing and comfort of the employees directly impact the performance of the organization in general. This perspective comes from the fields of psychology and sociology, and it works along the line of humanist theories.
What are the main constructs or concepts of this article? Briefly discuss each main construct or concept.
The main concepts of this article are the work climate and work performance. Work climate refers to the overall workplace environment that includes the wellbeing and comfort of the employees, their relationship with the organization created through the attitude of the organization to its employees. Work performance describes the professional results, level of motivation, and productivity of the workers.
What are the main hypotheses or propositions of the study?
The authors claim that the work climate and work performance are in a tight relation and propose to research this correlation within a public security organization in the United Arab Emirates. The authors also suggest discussing the factors that contribute to both concepts and may impact the balance between them.
Do the hypotheses or proposition seem to be logically sound?
The proposition of the authors seems logically sound as job satisfaction often depends on the workplace conditions, organizational support, and the level of appreciation provided by the employers to the workers.
How can the theory section be improved?
The theory section contains a lot of background material and thoroughly discusses the subject educating the reader about the research, its purpose, value, and possible implications for the managers and other decision makers of the organizations. In my opinion, the theory section does not require an improvement.
Research Design/Methodology
What type of research design or methodology does the study use to address its research question(s)?
Collecting data from the public security organization in UAE, the study relied on such methods of data collection as random sampling and questionnaires with 34 items that were provided to the participants in person and included questions in both Arabic and English language to avoid misunderstandings.
Does the research design or methodology seem to be appropriate given the goals of the study? Why or why not?
The goal of the study was to determine the connection between work climate and work performance and the determinants of its quality. Random sampling and questionnaires are suitable methods to achieve the goal because they objectively collect data from diverse employees using their perceptions and ideas.
Who are the participants of this study? What sampling procedure did the researchers use to recruit subjects for this study?
The participants of the study are 514 full-time employees of one governmental public security organization occupying high, middle, and bottom managerial positions the majority of whom were male. The participants were selected through the random sampling procedure.
Briefly summarize the sequence of steps undertaken by the researchers to collect data.
First, the researchers located the participants and met then in person to distribute the questionnaires. Then they collected the instruments, 86% of which were suitable for data analysis.
Does the research design ensure internal validity? Why or why not?
The design of the research ensures internal validity for several reasons. First of all, it covers a rather large sample of participants. Secondly, it engages the managerial employees of three different levels which ensures diversity and allows making conclusions about the whole organization based on the sample.
How can the research design of this study be improved?
The design could be improved if the research sample of the participants included non-managerial representatives. Besides, the article does not have a clear explanation for the distribution and collection of the questionnaires and communication with the participants.
Analysis
What procedure(s) or statistical tests did the authors use to analyze data? Please provide a brief summary
The researchers used five-point Likert scale to analyze the responses in the questionnaires (the highest degree was “strongly agree”, the weakest – “strongly disagree”). The performance of the employees was measured using self-rating. Work climate was evaluated based on a scale developed by one of the authors, the reliability of this tool was measured using Cronbach’s alpha and determined as high.
Does the analysis seem to be appropriate for the kind of data collected by the study? Why or why not?
The analysis targets all of the most necessary groups of data and uses appropriate scales (Likert scale is used for the evaluation of questionnaires). The tool developed by one of the authors is tested for reliability before being employed.
Does the analysis procedure seem to be rigorous? Why or why not?
The analysis procedure seems extremely rigorous. It breaks down the data into groups and conducts numerous calculations of the importance of the variables. It determines four main climate factors and regresses them against work job performance, work skills, and work enthusiasm to establish the connections.
How can the data analysis employed by this be improved?
The study does not seem to mention the factors that negatively impact the work enthusiasm, but only mentions the positive contributors. I believe it would be informative for the readers to learn which factors negatively affect the employees’ readiness to perform.
Findings or Implications
What are the main findings or implications of this study?
The study finds that there is a relationship between work climate and work performance. Besides, it identifies the factors that contribute to work enthusiasm of the employees which are satisfaction with own performance and appraisal. The findings imply that to improve the workers’ willingness to show good results, the managers are to improve the factors that contribute to their job satisfaction.
Do the findings or implications seem to have external validity? Why or why not?
The implications have a significant external validity since they provide the organizational decision-makers with an evidence-based recommendation concerning one of the most efficient ways to improve the productivity of the employees and the performance of the business in general.
Do the findings or implications seem to be clearly derived from the results of the study or there seems to be a degree of speculation by the researchers? In other words, do the researchers stick to their actual results when they state their findings and implications or they go way beyond what the data suggests when they discuss their findings?
The authors stick to their research results and hypotheses summarizing the findings and results of the study.
Are there any limitations of the study that may seriously undermine the findings or implications of this study? In other words, does the study contain any fatal mistakes or omissions that seem to make the results of the study invalid?
The only limitation of the study is mentioned in the initial part of the introduction (the fact that only one public security organization was targeted), but it does not undermine the findings or implications of the research. No mistakes that make the findings invalid were noticed.
Do the findings or implications seem to be important? Why or why not?
The findings are valuable because they imply that the managers are able to improve the efficiency of their organization addressing the work climate within it.
Overall Evaluation
What are the main strengths of this article?
The article targets an important and frequently discussed subject of the maximization and optimization of business performance and provides positive and humane solutions. This study is also a pioneer in its field researching the climate within a public service organization.
What are the main weaknesses of this article?
The article covers a very specific area (one public service organization).
What are your main recommendations to the authors of this article?
I would recommend that the authors research the factors the make negative impact on the work performance to bring up the business dilemma where some negative factors such as exhausting working conditions are difficult to address.