Vol. 58, No. 7 — July 1977 —
About Building Morale
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Morale is one of the most precious elements
in a business.
In time of war, morale is the ability to endure hardship
and to show courage in the face of danger. In peace time,
it means willingness to serve faithfully, to get together
with others in solving problems, and to work harmoniously
in getting the work done.
Good morale is expressed in the creed suggested by His Grace
the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury at the Duke of Edinburgh's
Study Conference on the Human Problems of Industrial Communities:
"I believe in the work this factory is doing and in the fellowship
of those who work with me in it, and in what it produces."
No firm whose employees feel like that will ever be riven
asunder by internal conflict, or worsted in competition because
of slackness of its workers. The management of such a firm
will be made up of executives who are leaders of people, co-ordinators
of jobs, and the source of inspiration.
The basic fact in morale is that it applies to a group of
people who share goals in common. To attain their purpose
they plan enthusiastically and work efficiently as a production
team. Morale is a way of co-operative living.
No one will deny the emotional benefits of being one of
a group that has high morale, but there is more to it than
emotional pleasure. High morale generates thinking and planning,
it stimulates initiative and enterprise, it is a most important
ingredient of efficiency and only in its atmosphere are people
inspired to seek the best. High morale pays off in earnings
and job satisfaction, and in the effective operation of the
factory or office.
Indeed, high morale spreads outward from the workshop. The
workers who are happy in their jobs, with confidence in their
management and co-operative relations with their working team,
will spread their contentment throughout the community, and
will win friends for the company. What workers say about the
company is a potent force in public relations.
Consider, now, the situation when morale is low. Workers
feel no great responsibility for the success of company operations;
there is a big turnover of employees and there is excessive
absenteeism, the workshop or office is plagued by disobedience,
slow-downs, unconcern about quality; friction; abuse of privileges,
and all-round tension that is bad for the health of everyone
in the firm.
Management's responsibility
With whom should the human relations practices that make
up good morale start? With top management. Executives get
to the top because of their ability as leaders, and building
morale is first of all a leadership problem and job.
Successful business managers take pride in the teams of
which they are captains. Morale and team spirit are the product
of consistently high executive character displayed over a
period of years. Loyalty and efficiency are not created overnight
by some code or appeal or promise or hand-out. They arise
out of the personality of the executives, managers, and supervisors.
The character of leadership includes forethought in the
interest of employees, fairness and impartiality, willingness
to listen to complaints and suggestions, liberality in giving
credit where it is due, honesty in living up to promises.
But to all these necessary qualities the executives who are
most successful in building morale have added something special:
they are considerate of their workers in minor matters.
Great men and women are careful in dealing with people.
The fact that they take greater care than lesser men and women
is at once a cause and a symbol of their success. They know
that only through other people is it possible for them to
progress. They do not boast only an "open door" policy by
which employees may reach them: they go out through the open
door to reach their workers.
The executive will lay out broad plans of operation, assign
them to subordinates, insist upon the fulfilment of not only
the letter of the law but the spirit in which he laid it down,
and then devote attention to exceptions - the gremlins that
can ruin any plan if they are not watched out for.
Supervisors' responsibilities
What supervisors do with the good plans of the executive
will make or mar the morale of the company.
People in supervisory positions are not doing their best
for the company if they are content to administer rules. Fairness,
consistency, and demonstrated interest in employee problems
are the backbone of supervisory morale building.
The supervisor is charged by management with taking a group
of human beings, every one different in temperament, emotions
and skills, and developing them into a satisfactory work unit.
An important ingredient in that development is the reflection
by the supervisor of the high principles of executive officers.
Morale, it has been said, doesn't start at the bottom of an
organization, but trickles down from the top.
Every supervisor has some job that is his special bit of
the bigger job. He may set up a machine, lay out blue prints,
check accuracy, or prepare reports. But while he will do that
part of his work well, it is not the part out of which he
gets his greatest satisfaction.
The joy of leadership and the thrill of being in charge
of men and women consists in spending the last ounce of your
management talent so as to see the people under you fulfil
their greatest abilities in their jobs and raise their stature
as efficient workers.
It will pay every person who is in charge of workers, both
for his own sake and for the sake of his firm, to make a personal
inventory along these lines: Am I developing good human relations
with my people, or am I content with casual daily contact?
Have I some guiding principles in dealing with men and women
in my department, or am I going along from day to day, doing
the best I can according to how things look? Do I always seek
the positive factor in a problem or a situation, or is my
negative attitude putting a wet blanket on morale? Have I
given thought to the fact that all these workers have the
human instincts and emotions that I have, perhaps differently
emphasized, or do I look upon them as "hands" hired to make
the machinery run?
The supervisor who expects employees to be perfect is due
for disappointment. No matter how carefully workers are selected,
they bring to the workshop all their imperfections, peculiarities
and limitations. You can't hire just the fine points about
a person: you have to take all of him.
This, of course, gives the supervisors their great opportunity.
There is little glory to be had in jotting down on charts
the hour-by-hour performance of a smoothly-running machine,
but to keep one operating that is given to break-down, that
needs gentling under load, that has to be carefully lubricated
in particular places and at certain times: that is, indeed,
a triumph and a satisfaction.
The supervisor's self-analysis should go further than merely
listing things one should or should not do. Any man or woman
in the shop could prepare a list like that: don't be arbitrary,
don't discriminate, don't treat your workers as if they were
parts of their machines, don't play favourites, don't give
an order when a request will serve as well, don't brush off
suggestions, don't say "no" as your first reaction to every
request, don't put off decisions, don't pass the buck, don't
be niggardly with your praise of a job well done.
The good supervisor will be aware of all these, but will
wish to go behind them to seek the basic acts and attitudes
that can be made to contribute to improving team-work in the
department, thereby enhancing his stature as a manager.
Co-operation
Co-operation is one of our misused words. Ignorant people
"demand" co-operation. They say: "Your co-operation will be
appreciated" when they really mean: "Do it - or else."
Co-operation must be practised by everyone, by those who
are supervising as well as by those who are supervised. It
is a voluntary thing, a two-way street, a way of living in
which people work together to get something done. A fair index
of a person's efficiency in management is the degree of working
together that exists in his unit of the factory or office.
When people become a team, their capacity for production
is astonishingly increased. "Teamwork," said Dr. J. F. Johnson
in Business and the Man (Alexander Hamilton Institute,
New York) "is achieved through voluntary effort pooled in
a common cause."
The best team-work will be organized by the supervisor who
allots to every member of the team the special task for which
that person is best fitted, and who sees to it that everyone
knows, sees, touches, and appreciates the importance of the
finished product to which his hands and skills have contributed.
Everything supervisors do in intercourse with their workers
must be done sincerely. False attitudes can be spotted quickly.
Then results a loss of faith that is hard to re-establish,
and a weakening of the team spirit.
Expediency has come to mean too much in today's living.
We are inclined to give in too easily to the idea that the
immediate purpose justifies the means. But a supervisor who
does what is expedient for the day without reference to what
it will mean tomorrow is digging a grave for the department's
team spirit.
Since supervisors are not managing inanimate things but
are developing people, they must really like people. But because
they are in positions of authority they must be careful not
to show their liking for some of their people to the extent
of playing favourites.
What workers want
Many executives have come a cropper because they thought
they knew all the answers whereas what they really did know
was what they thought the answers should be. That is not good
enough in the building of morale. Eugene J. Benze underscores
this principle in his textbook Office Administration,
one of the Alexander Hamilton Institute library. He says:
"Morale, in a nut-shell, is determined by the degree to which
employee 'wants' are satisfied. The satisfaction of employee
'wants' therefore creates morale. It is as simple as that."
People are free to think in terms of job satisfaction. They
are free to judge jobs critically. They are free to seek satisfaction
of their wishes for recognition, security and comfort.
It is not many years since "security" headed the list of
workers' wants, but polls indicate that other wants rank above
security and even above the amount of wages. Workers want
to be treated as members of a team, to be kept informed of
company matters that might affect them, to have their suggestions
received with attention, to be promoted according to their
merit, and to work under supervisors they can respect.
These are social and emotional needs. They can't be played
around with as things to be extended by grace of the management.
They are at the core of morale.
The work that men and women do is an essential part of their
lives, not only because by it they earn bread but because
a person's job gives stature and binds him to society. The
belief that money is the most important motive for working,
says J. A. C. Brown in The Social Psychology of Industry
(Pelican), "is so foolish that anyone who seriously holds
this opinion is thereby rendered incapable of understanding
either industry or the industrial worker."
No intelligent person will deny the need for good physical
working conditions, wise personnel policies, and stable employment,
but we need to go on from there to build a pattern that will
meet the needs of workers' social nature.
Satisfactory performance of the social function leads to
higher production, reduced absenteeism and reduced turnover
of labour. It is not spoon-fed welfare that men and women
desire, but a chance to fulfil themselves in the way most
satisfactory to them.
Status and environment
Every workshop and office has its status system, in which
the worker has a place and rank. People are concerned not
only with getting the necessities of life but also with getting
them in a way that maintains their self-respect.
Every one of us hungers for recognition as a unique individual.
Supervisors seeking to build morale will do a better job if
they know what the symbols are of this recognition. Trivial
though they may appear to one who has grown beyond them, they
are of vital importance.
However humble a job may be, a person is entitled to be
given the assurance that it is important and that ability
in it is highly regarded. He needs the assurance that he is
wanted and that he belongs on the team.
At a conference of the Unemployment Insurance Commission
officers in Ottawa it was said: "The severest criticism that
can be given to any man is not to find fault with him but
to ignore him completely. He doesn't know where he stands;
he doesn't even know whether or not he's on the team."
What are the facts?
An industrial organization is a social unit. When everyone
is contributing what he or she has to give, work becomes a
social activity, yielding individuals respect and approval,
and a feeling of fellowship in making a contribution to society.
Within this social unit there will be smaller groups. We
should not condemn "cliques" out-of-hand. Be angry, if you
wish, about plotting cliques, rumour-mongering cliques, catty
cliques, subversive cliques, and all that sort. But there
are certain normal groupings that arise in any plant. The
foursome that sits at the same cafeteria table every day is
most likely there because it is made up of congenial spirits
with similar interests. That lunch-time meeting is part of
their ego-building satisfaction with their jobs.
It is commonplace for executives or supervisors to say about
their staffs: "We're just one big happy family." But there
are secrets in the best of families. An article in the Harvard
Business Review told of a group of workers and supervisors
who had harboured resentment for fifteen years without knowledge
of it reaching the ears of the executive.
So no matter how heavenly the conditions seem to be in a
factory or office, it is just as well to make sure. Conducting
employee research is imperative as a preliminary to building
morale. The desires of workers must be uncovered.
Such an inquiry offers some bonus dividends. Employees are
given the opportunity to say what they think about the company,
and self-expression of that sort is in itself good morale
building. Supervisors are put on their toes and top management
learns wherein faulty reasoning is leading into practices
detrimental to good morale.
We need particularly to learn whether the employees are
sold on the company: do they believe that there is a good
working team upstairs? If there is criticism of management
it is better to learn about it than to let it smoulder, and
better to listen to it with respect than to brush it off.
All this does not mean that management is giving up its
sovereignty. A business firm is not a debating society. There
needs to be an authority. But management can listen with interest,
bring its wider perspective and expert knowledge to bear on
criticism, and then tell its decision and position. A procedure
like that will drain off bitterness, bring the workers into
participation, and inspire exploration of constructive plans.
A vital ingredient in good morale is the sense of belonging
in an important way.
Go on record
A significant part of morale building is keeping employees
informed of all matters that directly or indirectly concern
them. As the Supervisory Human Relations Source Book of
the Michigan Civil Service Commission puts it: "Discuss impending
actions with them instead of suddenly dropping an action-bomb
in their midst."
The destructive grape-vine works hardest in organizations
where management fails to provide necessary information to
the people involved. It is a childish, but often damaging,
characteristic of people in every supervisory rank to hold
back information so as to feed their ego with the thought
"I know something you don't know."
Once upon a time management's maxim was: "Don't tell employees
anything unless you have to." Enlightened management of today
says: "Don't hold anything back unless there's a good reason."
The autocratic manager tries vainly to control communication.
All he can do is cut off his own voice. He cannot stop workers
from talking among themselves, or from listening to broadcasts,
or from hearing the opinions expressed by politicians, union
leaders and workers' wives. Because the autocratic manager
withholds his own information, all of these people are incompletely
or wrongly informed. The manager has cancelled out his own
influence.
Some points to consider
When communicating with employees, here are some points
to keep in mind: the message must be so presented as to gain
attention of the group for which it is intended; it must be
tied in with the work and responsibilities of that group;
it must be specific and understandable; it must give attention
to the human element in management-employee relations.
The management that deals in evasions, half-truths or misrepresentation
is subverting the fundamentals of morale building. Only a
little less objectionable is the use of propaganda instead
of factual information. Another fault is delay in issuing
facts, sometimes to the point where ill-wishers can say that
management didn't say anything until it was forced to do so.
Truly, as John Perry says in Human Relations in Small Industry
(Small Business Administration, Washington, D.C., booklet
No. 3): "Maintaining good communications is like maintaining
a good business reputation. One abuse casts a long shadow."
Besides information down, there needs to be information
up. Workers have important things to tell supervisors and
executive officers. Only when there is a two-way flow can
there be the unity of thought that is an evidence of good
morale.
Listening to what people say is the starting point toward
understanding them. The supervisor who listens with an open
mind, giving thought to the significance of what is said,
is a bigger person than the supervisor who rebuffs workers.
As for top management, it is all too often lacking in awareness
of its workers' thoughts and feelings because the upward communication
channel is clogged on the supervisory level.
When executives have sufficiently impressed their assistants
with the importance of knowing what is brewing in the cafeteria
and wash-room conferences of workers, and in their out-of-the-plant
social contacts, and of passing along what is significant,
then executives will no longer learn about impending crises
in their own plants from whispers on the street. Both executives
and supervisors will become better administrators in accord
with the attention they give to subordinates' ideas.
An exercise for managers
Whether or not you think you have a staff morale problem
and whether you are manager of a great plant, supervisor of
a department, or a gang boss, you will gain something from
this exercise.
Brain-storm the proposition: I can contribute something
toward improving morale among my people. Take an hour
in solitude, a pencil and a supply of paper. Write down as
quickly as possible all the questions you can think of that
you would like to have answered about your assistants and
your workers. Don't worry if the questions flooding upon you
seem to be trivial or irrelevant.
Then imagine that you are a supervisor or a workman, and
write down all the questions you would like to have answered
about the company and about the top executive.
What a splendid start toward solving the problem of building
morale! Now you know what you need to learn about your people
in order to understand their wants, and you know what you
have to tell them so that they will become aware of the sort
of company they work for and the sort of person you are. The
exercise will blow away the cobwebs from your thinking about
morale building.
Of this be certain: the losses caused by failure to develop
the human resources in your business are not all inscribed
in the ledger of this year's business. They are in a large
shadowy area which must be penetrated by creative thought.
And unless you penetrate to them, and do something about them,
they will show up in the bookkeeping of future years.
Published by RBC Financial Group. All editions from the RBC
Letter collection are available on our web site at www.rbc.com/responsibility/letter.
Our e-mail address is: rbcletter@rbc.com.
Publié aussi en francais.
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