This article contributes to debate on the measurement of organizational
climate. Use of means cloaks wide variations in individual
perceptions. Use of clustering techniques to identify groups of people
who see climate in a similar way has been questioned because
such "collectives" may not represent meaningful sociopsychological
groups. The present work is based on the view that meaningful collectives
are most likely to emerge when people work together on
common tasks in relatively isolated and defined physical locations.
In an organization in which such conditions exist, a clustering
technique largely failed to identify meaningful social collectives.