How Can Employee Morale Be Measured Effectively?

Explore the comprehensive overview of employee morale, its significance, and effective strategies for improvement. Understand the definitions, types, and factors influencing morale, along with methods to evaluate and enhance it for organizational success. Discover how high morale drives productivity and fosters a positive work environment.

Employee Morale: A Comprehensive Overview

What are the Best Ways to Improve Employee Morale? Employee morale is a frequently discussed yet often misunderstood concept in organizational literature. While its importance is widely acknowledged for fostering a sound behavioral climate, a universally accepted and comprehensive definition remains elusive.

Introduction to Employee Morale

Morale reflects the attitudes and sentiments of individuals or groups toward organizational objectives, significantly impacting productivity and satisfaction. High morale is characterized by enthusiasm and confidence in the work environment.

It signifies an individual’s zest for work, self-confidence, and a belief in the value and quality of their contributions. Morale, often associated with team spirit and togetherness, gained extensive study after World War II as a key to productivity and success. It signifies a positive, confident feeling towards individual and group achievement within an organization.

Meaning of Employee Morale

Morale is a culmination of an employee’s feelings, attitudes, and sentiments regarding their job, superiors, and the organization itself, reflecting their state of mind. It represents the collective spirit and attitude of individuals and groups towards their work environment, fostering voluntary cooperation for organizational goals. Morale indicates employees’ attitudes towards their jobs, superiors, and environment, and it is a byproduct of motivation and group relationships.

Some perspectives categorize morale as a classical approach (satisfaction of basic needs), a psychological approach (mental condition influencing cooperation), or a social approach (attitudes towards work and voluntary cooperation). Ultimately, morale is a composite of feelings, attitudes, and sentiments contributing to overall job satisfaction, reflecting one’s attitude towards accomplishing work rather than immediate emotions.

Definitions of Employee Morale

Morale is an internal feeling of confidence, enthusiasm, zeal, satisfaction, and optimism that minimizes frustration. Various researchers have defined morale differently:

• Theo Haimann: Morale is the state of mind and emotions affecting willingness to work, which influences individual and organizational objectives.
• Mooney: Morale is the sum of psychic qualities including courage, fortitude, resolution, and confidence.
• Davis: Organizational morale is a mental condition of groups and individuals that determines their attitude.
• Guion: Morale is the extent to which an individual’s needs are satisfied and perceived as stemming from total job satisfaction.
• Dr. Leighton: Morale is the capacity of a group to persistently and consistently work together for a common purpose.
• Miller and Form: Morale encompasses total individual satisfaction from organizational involvement, motivational drives for goal accomplishment, and a collective “esprit de corps” for achieving goals.
• Edwin B. Flippo: Morale is a mental condition or attitude of individuals and groups determining their willingness to cooperate.
• Dale Yoder: For a group, morale refers to the overall work atmosphere; high morale signifies enthusiasm, optimism, a sense of mission, and friendliness, while low morale indicates dissatisfaction, irritation, criticism, restlessness, and pessimism.
• Keith Davis: Morale refers to the attitudes of individuals and groups towards their work environment and their voluntary cooperation for the organization’s best interest.

Conclusively, morale is an internal feeling of satisfaction, courage, zeal, and enthusiasm that influences attitude and job satisfaction, acting as a self-motivating factor.

Types of Morale:

• Individual Morale: An individual’s feelings towards their job, co-workers, and environment.
• Group Morale: The collective “esprit de corps” of a group, influenced by group cohesiveness and shared values. Group morale is not necessarily the sum of individual morale.

Morale is crucial for successful operations, akin to physical health for an organism. It is a feeling somewhat related to spirit, enthusiasm, or zeal.

Distinguishing Morale from Motivation:

While both are cognitive concepts, morale and motivation differ significantly. Morale is a composite of feelings and attitudes contributing to general workplace satisfaction. Motivation, however, is the process of stimulating individuals to action to achieve desired goals, driven by needs.

Morale is a function of freedom or restraint towards a goal, while motivation concerns the “mobilization of energy.” Morale is about the “mobilization of sentiments.” Motivation can lead to high potential for morale, and morale, in turn, reflects motivation.

Impact of Morale on Organizations:

High morale is a vital ingredient for organizational success, reflecting members’ attitudes towards the organization, its objectives, and policies, which directly affect productivity and satisfaction. It represents the total satisfaction a person derives from their job, workgroup, boss, organization, and environment.

High morale helps management overcome labor problems like turnover, absenteeism, indiscipline, and grievances, fostering cooperation for higher production and reduced waste. It is an indicator of positive human relations within an organization.

Categories of Morale Definitions:

1. Classical Approach: Focuses on the extent to which individual needs are satisfied from total job satisfaction (e.g., Robert M. Guion).
2. Psychological Approach: Views morale as a mental and emotional state affecting willingness to work and alignment of individual drives with organizational objectives (e.g., Edwin B. Flippo, E. F. L. Breach).
3. Social Approach: Describes morale as a social process, emphasizing attitudes of individuals and groups towards their work, environment, and voluntary cooperation, often rooted in Hawthorne experiments (e.g., Elton Mayo, Keith Davis).

Morale is both a personal feeling and a group phenomenon, an inner impulse shaping an employee’s attitude towards various aspects of their work life. High morale is evident in zest, cooperation, and satisfaction, while low morale manifests as passive cooperation, indifference, hostility, and apathy.

Concept of Employee Morale

Key aspects of the concept of morale include:

1. Fundamental Psychological Concept: A sum of psychic qualities like courage, fortitude, resolution, and confidence.
2. Multidimensional Concept: A complex mixture of elements, recognizing the influence of job situations on attitudes and the role of human needs as motivators.
3. Group Phenomenon: A pattern of attitudes among group members, reflecting the organization’s spirit and managerial climate.
4. Different from Teamwork: While good morale can lead to teamwork, they are distinct. Morale is an attitude, teamwork is a condition.
5. Long-Term Condition: Morale represents organizational balance and health, requiring continuous, long-term efforts rather than short-term fixes.
6. Degrees of Morale: Can be “high” or “low.” High morale signifies a sound behavioral climate, while low morale leads to inefficiency, waste, and indiscipline.
7. Distinct from Motivation: Morale describes complex attitudes about work situations, while motivation concerns the propensity for specific behavior patterns. They are interconnected; morale reflects motivation, and motivation provides potential for morale.
8. Contagious: Both favorable and unfavorable attitudes can spread, and morale can deteriorate rapidly during adverse events.

Nature and Features of Employee Morale

Morale is dynamic, reflecting workers’ attitudes and sentiments. Its multidimensional nature acknowledges the impact of job situations on individual attitudes and the motivational role of human needs.

Other features include:

• A composite of employee feelings, attitudes, and sentiments.
• The degree of enthusiasm and willingness employees contribute to organizational goals.
• Distinct from job satisfaction (morale is a group concept, satisfaction is individual).
• Can be estimated through labor absenteeism and turnover rates.
• Both an individual and group phenomenon, with high group morale reflected in good teamwork.
• A primary concern for management due to its direct link to high production and productivity.

Characteristics of Morale

Six important characteristics of morale are:

1. A state of mental health linked to loyalty, egoism, and enthusiasm.
2. A densification of group interest, organizational interest, fellow workers, and job requirements.
3. The subjective feeling of employees.
4. Affects behavior, performance, and discipline.
5. Assessable through productivity, employee discipline, absenteeism, and turnover.
6. An index of good industrial relations.

Importance of Employee Morale

Management seeks high production and productivity, which stem from positive worker attitudes. Understanding and maintaining high morale is crucial for several reasons:

• Higher Productivity: Directly linked to positive worker attitudes, requiring management awareness of policy impacts.
• Indicator of Workplace Climate: High morale signifies enthusiasm, optimism, a sense of mission, and friendliness; low morale indicates dissatisfaction, irritation, and pessimism.
• Organizational Success: The success or failure of an organization heavily depends on employee morale.
• Problem Resolution: High morale helps management address labor issues such as turnover, absenteeism, indiscipline, and grievances.
• Governmental Recognition: Governments implement welfare and social security measures to improve worker morale, recognizing the long-term damage of low morale.

Need for Morale Study

Promoting morale is a primary management responsibility, rooted in good human relations. The modern factory environment, with its specialized and fragmented tasks, has diminished the personal connection workers once had with their products and employers. This depersonalization, especially in large organizations, leads to a lack of interest in accomplishment and a focus on arbitrary authority and wages.

The loss of personal contact, identification with the firm, and the erosion of “esprit de corps” necessitate the study of morale. Personnel managers must identify factors contributing to a happy and successful organization to counteract these challenges and foster employee well-being.

Factors Influencing Employee Morale

Factors affecting employee morale can be grouped into two categories:

A. External Factors (Exogenous Factors):

These are external to the organization and largely beyond managerial control. They include an employee’s personality, psychological makeup, intelligence, physical health, family background, and social relationships. While managers cannot directly change these, they acknowledge their influence on employee perceptions and attitudes, which in turn affect morale.

B. Internal Factors (Endogenous Factors):

These factors are within the control of management:

1. Organizational Goals: Worthwhile, valid, and useful goals foster positive feelings. Employee participation in goal-setting significantly boosts morale.
2. Organizational Structure: A sound structure with clear authority, defined responsibility, and candid communication promotes high morale. Decentralized structures generally lead to higher morale.
3. Nature of Work: Challenging tasks can increase morale, while dull, monotonous jobs can depress it. However, individual skills, competence, and willingness must be considered.
4. Working Conditions: Clean, safe, comfortable, and pleasant environments are crucial for high morale. Congested or uncongenial surroundings negatively impact morale.
5. Managerial Philosophy: The treatment of subordinates and leadership style (e.g., participative vs. directive) profoundly influence morale.
6. Compensation: Adequate financial and non-financial rewards are essential. Inadequate compensation leads to low morale and job dissatisfaction.
7. Group Dynamics: Social forces and work groups strongly influence individual perceptions and attitudes, thus affecting morale. Management should prevent conflicts between group and organizational goals.

Types of Morale: High and Low Morale

1. High Morale:

High morale exists when employee attitudes align with group and organizational objectives.

• Advantages: Team spirit, enthusiasm, zest, loyalty, dependability, decreased frustration, cooperation, better discipline, employee interest in the job, employee initiative, and voluntary conformance with rules.
• Features of High Morale: Loyalty to the organization and leadership, good discipline, interest in jobs, employee incentive, team spirit and cooperation, and confidence in competence.

2. Low Morale:

Low morale exists when employees lack enthusiasm and zeal for their work, and their attitudes are detrimental to group and organizational objectives.

• Reasons: Too many supervisors, improper organizational structure, repetitive jobs, and improper personnel selection.
• Results: Apathy, pessimism, jealousy, disloyalty, and disobedience of orders.
• Features of Low Morale: Lack of loyalty, indiscipline, lack of interest in jobs, lack of employee initiative, lack of team spirit and cooperation, and missing employee confidence.

Methods Used to Evaluate Morale

Evaluating morale, a qualitative factor related to feelings and attitudes, often requires quantification and interpretation of behavior. Methods include:

1. Observation:

Supervisors observe employee behavior (conversations, expressions, work habits, resource handling, movements) to identify deviations from normal behavior, inferring morale levels. Success depends on the supervisor’s keen observational skills.

2. Attitude or Morale Survey:

This method assesses employee feelings about their jobs, supervisors, co-workers, and the organization. It can be conducted via:

• Interview Method: Face-to-face interviews allow for detailed questioning and clarification, providing reliable insights into employee feelings, opinions, and experiences. However, it can be uneconomical for large groups.
• Questionnaire Method: Employees complete questionnaires with objective (yes/no, agree/disagree) or descriptive questions about their job, company policies, and the organization. This method is economical for large groups and allows for free expression if anonymity is assured. Limitations include potential monotony and low response rates.
• Suggestions for effective questionnaires: Foster a positive and trusting attitude, use carefully structured questions, avoid personal identity questions, and share results with employees.

3. Company Records:

Personnel department records, supported by supervisors and departmental heads, offer valuable data for morale evaluation, including:

• Absenteeism rates
• Employee turnover
• Grievances reported and resolved
• Abnormal production losses (waste, scrap)
• Customer complaints about product quality
• Information from exit interviews
• Employee suggestions

Analyzing this data can provide useful insights into morale.

4. Counseling:

This method involves identifying dissatisfied employees and their causes of dissatisfaction, then taking remedial action. Counseling helps gauge employee morale and address issues proactively.

Research on Moral Development

Moral development, explored by psychologists, philosophers, and anthropologists, holds implications for business and politics. It describes the stages of individual integrity from infancy to adulthood. Key researchers include Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, and Carol Gilligan.

i. Jean Piaget (1896-1980):

A Swiss developmental psychologist known for his theory of cognitive development (“genetic epistemology”). He emphasized education and studied children’s application of rules in games to understand their beliefs about right and wrong. Piaget believed morality, like all development, emerges from action and interaction with the environment.

ii. Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987):

An American psychologist who extended Piaget’s work, creating the field of “moral development.” He proposed that children develop ways of thinking about moral concepts through experience. Kohlberg identified three levels of moral development, each with stages:

Level 1 – Pre-Conventional Morality:

Purely self-centered concern for physical consequences.

• Stage 1 – Punishment-Obedience Orientation: Avoidance of punishment and unquestioned respect for power (e.g., “Heinz should not steal because he might go to jail”). This stage is inadequate as it disregards ethical value and can lead to blind obedience.
• Stage 2 – Instrumental Relativist Orientation: Action is right if it satisfies one’s own needs or involves a fair exchange (e.g., “Heinz should steal so his wife can cook for him”). This stage is inadequate as it highlights conflicting needs.

Level 2 – Conventional Morality:

Conformance to societal rules and norms.

• Stage 3 – Good Boy-Nice Girl Orientation: Good behavior is defined by peer, societal, or family approval; judged by intention; aims to please others (e.g., “Heinz should steal so his in-laws think he’s a good husband”). This stage is inadequate due to conflicting expectations based on different roles or groups.
• Stage 4 – Law and Order Orientation: Conformance to societal rules for maintaining law and order (e.g., “Heinz has a duty to save his wife, but stealing is wrong, so he must accept the penalty”). This stage is inadequate due to unquestioning obedience to potentially unjust laws and the existence of varying societal rules.

Level 3 – Post-Conventional Morality:

Societal rules and norms viewed from a vantage point, with dynamism and public interest as the base.

• Stage 5 – Social Contract Orientation: Rules maintain social order but should be established and changed by social contract for the greater good, protecting individual rights (e.g., “Heinz should steal because everyone has a right to life, and the law against stealing needs reinterpretation”). This stage is inadequate due to challenges in achieving consensus and potential for majority imposition.
• Stage 6 – Universal Ethical Principle Orientation: Action is right if consistent with self-chosen ethical principles of justice, reciprocity, equality, and human dignity (e.g., “Heinz should steal because preserving human life is a higher moral obligation”). This stage is inadequate as conscience is not infallible, and the determination of universal principles is complex.

Kohlberg focused on the reasoning behind actions, as reasoning, when acted upon, becomes motivation. Moral content, circumstances, situations, and legal/ethical codes must also be considered in moral development.

iii. Carol Gilligan (born 1936):

An American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist, known for her work in contrast to Kohlberg, arguing his theories were biased against women. She proposed a “morality of caring and responsibility” based on nonviolence, distinct from the “morality of justice and rights” based on equality. Gilligan suggested girls develop a morality of care due to their early connection with mothers, while boys develop a morality of justice in coordinating autonomous interactions.

Morale and Productivity

While it is commonly believed that high morale directly leads to high productivity, the relationship is not always straightforward. Prof. Keith Davis suggests there isn’t always a positive correlation. Managers can achieve high productivity through scientific management, even with low morale, though this combination may not be sustainable. Conversely, high morale can exist with low productivity if employees are satisfied but not committed to organizational goals.

Rensis Likert’s research identified different combinations of morale and productivity:

1. High Morale and High Productivity: The ideal scenario where motivated workers and effective supervision create a circular relationship, leading to optimum resource utilization.
2. Low Morale and High Productivity: Occurs when management is highly production-oriented, using technology and penalties to drive output, often disregarding employee feelings.
3. High Morale and Low Productivity: Arises when employees are satisfied with working conditions but lack commitment to goals.
4. Low Morale and Low Productivity: A common outcome of a lack of proper motivation and morale, creating a downward spiral.

Ultimately, managers must strive to improve employee morale, as high morale enhances the work environment, facilitates goal attainment, and contributes to overall organizational well-being.

Measures to Promote and Improve Morale

Promoting and improving morale is a continuous and gradual process requiring administrative steps. Here are several suggested measures:

1. Sound Wage Structure: A fair and just wage system, including incentives and bonuses, that accounts for qualifications and efficiency, boosts morale and encourages productivity.
2. Security of Job: Ensuring job security for competent employees allows them to focus and work with devotion, increasing efficiency and morale.
3. Delegation of Authority: Empowering subordinates fosters a sense of importance and responsibility, improving work quality and efficiency.
4. Grievance Procedure: Establishing a fair and impartial grievance procedure builds employee confidence in leadership and loyalty to the organization.
5. Suggestion Scheme: Inviting and rewarding employee suggestions for improvements promotes participation and boosts morale.
6. Joint Consultation: Forming joint committees with worker and management representatives to discuss employee-related matters improves industrial relations and morale.
7. Sound Promotion Policy: A consistent and transparent promotion policy (based on seniority, merit, or both) heightens worker morale by offering advancement prospects.
8. Employee Counseling: Executives engaging with workers to discuss problems, grievances, and provide guidance fosters togetherness and increases morale.
9. Recognition of Achievements: Acknowledging and crediting workers for their achievements, even with a simple word of appreciation, significantly boosts morale.
10. Sound Communication System: Maintaining effective communication through bulletins or other channels keeps employees informed, satisfying their ego and maintaining high morale.
11. Inspiring Credos and Mottos: Using inspiring messages and organizing events (like exhibitions) to give workers a sense of importance and credit for their contributions can boost morale.

Other Measures Adopted to Improve Morale:

• Leadership Style: Adopting positive motivational and democratic leadership styles can significantly improve morale.
• Organizational Structure: Flat structures, with closer manager-worker relationships and effective communication, enhance morale.
• Job Enrichment: Providing opportunities for advancement, recognition, and growth through challenging and interesting jobs increases morale.
• Job Security: Eliminating job insecurity allows employees to concentrate on their work and boosts morale.
• Effective Communication: Clear and open communication fosters cooperation, motivation, and higher morale.
• Worker’s Participation: Involving employees in decisions affecting their interests (e.g., personnel policy, wage determination) significantly increases morale.
• Employee Counselor: Utilizing psychologists or behavioral scientists to identify and address causes of dissatisfaction can improve morale.
• Human Approach to Management: Treating employees with respect, dignity, and acknowledging their feelings, rather than as mere factors of production, is crucial for morale.
• Remuneration: Fair, equitable, and justified remuneration based on skills and abilities enhances employee satisfaction and morale.
• Grievance Redressal: Timely resolution of employee grievances leads to satisfaction and increased morale.
• Motivation: Financial and non-financial motivators drive employees to work, thereby increasing morale.
• Proper Training: Learning new skills and methods through training boosts confidence and job satisfaction, enhancing morale.
• Assigning Responsibility: Trusting employees with responsibilities allows them to prove their abilities, increasing their morale.
• Recognition: Recognizing employee performance and achievements makes them feel valued and increases morale.