MORALE AND PRODUCTIVITY

BY

K.VIDHYA

MORALE

• Morale is purely emotional.

• Morale is an attitude of an employee towards his job, his superior, his organisation, etc..

• Morale may range from very high to very low.

• It is not a static thing.

DEFINITION

• Edwin B. Flippo defines it as “a mental condition or attitude of individuals and groups, which determines their willingness to co-operate.

GOOD MORALE AND POOR MORALE

IMPORTANCE OF MORALE

It plays an vital role in the organisation’s

Success. High morale keeps the employees loyal

to the job, profession and organisation.

MORALE RESULTS IN:

High level commitment, sincerity, employee loyalty

Reduction in absenteeism, labour turnover, grievances

Increase in discipline

Reduction in industrial conflicts

Sound superior-subordinate relations

Increase in employee pride

Team building

Employee empowerment

Easy implementation of enterprise resource planning

INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP MORALE

INDIVIDUAL MORALE

• It is a single person’s attitude towards life

• It is related with knowing one’s own expectations and living up to them.

• If one is clear of his own needs and know how to satisfy that need then, his morale is high.

GROUP MORALE

• It reflects the general “esprit de corps”(a state of well- being and an emotional force ) of a collective group of personalities.

• It must be practiced continuously .

• It cannot be ultimately achieved because, it is constantly changing.

FACTORS AFFECTING MORALERoach determined that 12 factors affecting morale:

General worker’s attitude towards the company

General worker’s attitude towards the supervisor

The level of satisfaction with job standards

The level of consideration the supervisor shows to his subordinates.

The workload and the work pressure level

The treatment of individuals by the management

CONT........

The level of worker’s pride in company& its activities.

The level of worker’s satisfaction with salaries .

Worker’s reactions to the formal communication network in organisation.

Intrinsic job satisfaction level of the workers.

Worker satisfaction with the progress and opportunities for further progression.

The worker’s attitude towards fellow workers.

MEASUREMENT OF MORALE

1) OBSERVATION

2) ATTITUDE SURVEYS

3) COMPANY RECORDS

(1)OBSERVATION:A keen observation of employees behaviour, talk, gestures should help the manager to identify any change in the level of morale. On identifying this, the manager should immediately think of a remedial action in order to restore the morale at its previous level.

(2)ATTITUDE SURVEYS

• INTERVIEW METHOD • QUSTIONNAIRE METHOD

(3)COMPANY RECORDS AND REPORTS

• Certain reports from the personnel department provides the information about labour turnover, rate of absenteeism, no of workers grievances, strikes, etc..

MORALE AND PRODUCTIVITY

On the basis of several research studies, Miller

and Form have given four combinations of

productivity and morale.

(1)HIGH MORALE-HIGH PRODUCTIVITY

o When group goals are satisfied and individual goals including freedom of work, salary, etc. are satisfied, which will lead to motivation of the employees, so standard of performance will be high, which in turn leads to high productivity and vice versa.

(2)LOW PRODUCTIVITY-HIGH MORALE

o Though the individual goals rather than causing high productivity like pleasant fellow workers, good working conditions, etc.. are satisfied, where supervisors lack technical & administrative skills, which leads to low productivity of high morale group & where workers lack adequate skills or training leading to low productivity by high morale.

(3)HIGH PRODUCTIVITY-LOW MORALE

Supervisor is only able to increase high productivity through his skills or planning ability rather than through motivation

He practices penalty method to give rise to high productivity.

(4)LOW PRODUCTIVITY-LOW MORALE

Where group goals and individual goals did not get satisfied.

It will thus be observed that there is a complexity of relationship between morale and productivity.

WARNING SIGNS OF LOW MORALE

High rate of absenteeism

Tardiness

High labour turnover

Strikes and sabotage

Lack of pride in work

Wastage and spoilage

MAINTENANCE OF MORALE

If the management feels that there is a need for

maintenance and improvement of morale, there

are two ways:

(1) preventive measures.

(2) remedial measures.

PREVENTIVE MEASURES

a) CREATION OF WHOLE JOB:

Assigning the whole job to a single worker with

a view to satisfy his need for achievement.

b)JOB ENRICHMENT:

Designing the vertical slice of the tasks into a job

and assigning it to an employee satisfy his need

for recognition, responsibility, growth, etc..

Cont.....

c)MODIFYING THE WORK ENVIRONMENT:

Creating and providing conclusive and

challenging work environment.

d)FLEXIBLE WORKING HOURS:

Development of HRM & flexible working hours

provide freedom to the worker.

IMPROVEMENT OF MORALE

Firstly, it must be decided that a particular person who is responsible for the execution of the plan.

Each executive should be told, in writing, what he should do to improve the general morale of the employees.

Specific morale duties should be outlined for every executive.

Cont...

Mangers can concentrate on supervisory styles, company policies, working conditions and other factors external to and out of the control of the work to see that such factors are employee-oriented. leadership styles that support the worker and encourage him may be applied.