morale is a fundamental psychological concept

7/29/2019 Morale is a Fundamental Psychological Concept

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Morale is a fundamental psychological concept.

It has been defined in many ways but the fundamentals of Morale revolve

around the attitude towards the accomplishment of organizational goals.

It is the mental health of individuals related to each other on some basis

Morale is the degree of enthusiasm and willingness with which the members

of a group pull together to achieve group goals.

It is the state of mind and spirit affecting willingness to work which, in turn,

affects organizational and individual objectives.

Nature of Morale:

Generally the term Morale is used to describe an overall climate

prevailing in the organization. It is not an absolute concept which

can convey a specific meaning.

Like the word health, the word morale by itself does not convey

any favorable and unfavorable meaning. It has to be qualified with

the degree, as high morale or low morale.

Thus it is a relative concept.

If the enthusiasm and willingness is high we say that morale is high

in the organization and vice versa.

Morale represents the collective attitude of the workers. Morale isboth individual and group phenomenon. In the latter case, high

morale is reflected in good team work and team spirit. Under

conditions of high morale, workers have a few grievances,

frustrations and complaints as they are clear about the goals-

individual and organizational, and their relationship with others in

the organization.

Morale is multi dimensional in nature. It is a long term

phenomenon. Raising morale to high level and maintaining it is a

long run and continuous process which cannot be achieved through

short run gimmicks, contests or one shot actions.

Difference between Motivation and Morale:

1) Motivation is concerned withthe needs of an individual.

2) Motivation is the driving forcewhich induces an individual to

1) Morale is concerned with theoverall attitude of the grouptowards the organization andmanagement.


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show higher productivity.3) Motivation is directly linked

with productivity. Higher themotivation, higher is theproductivity.

2) Morale is the capacity of thegroup to pull togetherpersistently for theachievement of a commonpurpose

3) High morale need not be

associated with highproductivity and vice versa.High morale may beassociated with lowproductivity and low moralewith high productivity.

morale of the employees must be kept high to achieve following benefits:

willing co-operation towards objectives of the org.

loyalty to the organization and its leadership

good discipline

high degree of employee interest in their job and organization

pride in the organization

reduction of absenteeism and labour turnover

low morale will lead to following situations:

high rates of absenteeism and labour turnover

excessive complaints and grievance

frustration among workers

friction among workers

lack of discipline

Measurement of Morale:

By observation: The managers can measure the morale of the

employees by observing their activities and behavior. Generally

managers try to measure morale by checking the extent to which the

organization is achieving the results in respect of the productivity.

By attitude or morale survey: through direct interviews or

questionnaires the attitude of the employee may be known, which in


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return could help us to know the overall environment of the

organization.

By Morale indicators: these are the factors which tend to show the

attitude among the employees towards the organization and its

management. These factors include labour turnover, absenteeism,fluctuations in output, quality records, excessive waste and scrap,

training records, accident rates and number of grievances.

Relation Between Morale and Productivity:

It is generally assumed that morale and productivity have direct

relationship with each other, i.e. they are positively co-related. Human

researchers contended that high morale and high productivity always

go together like east and west sides of an elevator. It was argued that

high productivity results as the workers are with high morale do not shirk

work, are least tardy, show good team spirit and contribute their best toattainment of organizational objectives. But this is not always true. Generally

there is some positive correlation between morale and productivity, but they

are not absolutely related, i.e., an increase of 10% in morale does not

guarantee a proportionate increase i.e. 10% in productivity. It is possible that

morale may increase with either favorable or unfavorable shifts in

productivity. Studies say that morale is not the only factor that helps in

developing a direct relation between morale and productivity; there are many

other factors responsible for increasing productivity. Therefore, it is possible

to find high morale related to low productivity and low morale associated with

high productivity. This means that workers who perform very well in their

work do not necessarily have high morale.

there are 4 possible combinations of morale and productivity

high morale and high productivity

high morale and low productivity

low morale and low productivity

low morale and high productivity


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High productivity goes with high morale when workers are highly motivated,

the supervision is considerate of workers and the workers are highly trained.

This is an ideal situation and makes the best possible use of human

resources.

High morale is associated with low productivity when employees are merely

happy and they are not properly motivated to do work. Other reasons for low

productivity may be inefficiency of supervision, faulty materials and

technology, and low degree of employee skills.

It is also possible that low morale is associated with high productivity. This

occurs in situations where an autocratic OB model is being used in an

organization.

Factors improving morale:

Two way communication

Proper incentive system

Human relations approach

Welfare schemes


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Participation in management

Improve workers training

Job enrichment

morale is a fundamental psychological concept

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