The importance of organisational climate and commitment of knowledge workers for increasing the competitive advantage of enterprises

Abstract As a result of socio-economic transformations and development of the Information Era, the competitive advantage of enterprises is based on intellectual capital. Competent employees as owners of knowledge, skills and creativity, essentially contribute to the strengthening of the position taken by their organisation on the market. In order to allow employees to use their capabilities in an effective way, it is crucial to provide them with favourable organisational conditions, which constitute organisational climate. The concept of organisational climate refers to employees’ perception of organisational conditions, which can be combined with the first level of economic analysis in the approach presented by New Institutional Economics, according to the model presented by O. Williamson (2000, p. 597). It is assumed that the employees’ positive assessment of the organisational climate is correlated with a higher level of the employees’ commitment, which leads to an increase in the competitive advantage of an organisation. In order to verify the hypothesis, some quantitative surveys have been carried out among knowledge workers (N = 639). In the research, two questionnaires have been used: the Organisational Climate Questionnaire (authors: L. Rosenstiel and R. Bögel) and the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI developed by E. Demerouti), which examine the level of burnout and commitment to work. The results of the statistical analysis have shown a significant, strong relationship between the assessment of organisational climate dimensions and the level of employees’ commitment to work, which contributes to an increase in the competitive advantage of an enterprise.