Organizational climate and performance in retail pharmacies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address an important gap in the literature by investigating the relationship between organizational climate and performance in small businesses.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 100 retail pharmacies in Sydney, Australia where a manager and up to three staff members and three buying customers were interviewed in each pharmacy.Findings – Supportive climates tend to be associated with higher organizational performance (i.e. financial performance, staff satisfaction, customer satisfaction) in small retail pharmacies, and may reduce staff turnover.Practical implications – The results suggest that managers should consider creating warm and supportive organizational climates to enhance business performance, employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and increase employee tenure.Originality/value – This paper is among the first to empirically establish a direct link between organizational climate and the performance of small businesses,...