Spotting And Resolving Morale And Productivity Issues

By Dr. Larry Baker, CSP

Have you observed increasing and alarming levels of high turnover, low productivity and vandalism in your company? They are some of the severe consequences of low morale. By the time these become serious problems affecting performance, solutions are more difficult, but possible.

Low morale is a company culture issue, for which primary responsibility resides with the top executive. Whether an executive, manager, or supervisor, you must be sensitive to spotting the early symptoms of deteriorating morale. If spotted, you need to act quickly to report it and discover the company’s policies and practices that have led to the morale problem. Then, you must take, or help take, the steps needed to correct those practices and ensure they do not happen again.

Low morale creates stress, and dealing with stress at work is a responsibility of management. If you discover low morale is a major issue in your company, put its elimination on your personal goals list.

If you are not the top executive and have limited control, at least do what you have the authority to do to resolve the morale issues in your function, division, department or work team. Then, do all you can to insolate your employees from the broader morale issues.

Symptoms of low morale

Here are some symptoms of deteriorating morale for which you should keep a continuous vigil. . .

Lack of direct response: You ask for input from employees to solve problems or make plans; and they say or do nothing, and volunteer nothing.

Acts of intentional omission: employees omit taking actions important to the company that they know would save money, goodwill and time - not correcting a mistake in a customer order or invoice, knowingly use broken or inferior parts in an assembly process, not reporting a leaky water line, ignoring evidence of needed equipment maintenance, not reporting an inoperative safety or alarm system.

Angry behavior: Employees use abusive acts and/or language.

Negative body language: employees cross their arms, lean against the wall with a look of resignation, Sit back from the conference table, look up at the ceiling, appear to have little energy and smile little. Their expressions convey boredom and/or indifference.

Passive resistance: employees are intentionally absent, excessively; appear to forget to do things; or slow down, take excessive time.

What about employee morale makes companies so vulnerable, and morale of employees at all levels such a potentially volatile issue? Review the above symptoms of low morale. Many are passive behaviors and acts of omission, their consequences often slow to unfold and their root causes difficult to unveil and pin down. It is not always clear what company policies and practices have caused low or high morale. But, it is a symptom of poor management, and a management problem to resolve.

To understand how company policies and practices lead to low or high morale, and to discover the related causes of low productivity and take the right corrective action, there are eight interrelated factors involving the company’s culture that must be understood. These eight factors form the Morale-Productivity Cycle. A breakdown in morale can occur with one or more factors in the Cycle. Likewise, the resolution of morale problems may be started at one or more factors in the cycle.

Morale-Productivity Cycle

1. Employees’ levels of productive and non-productive work behavior have positive or negative consequences for management.
2. The positive or negative consequences for management lead to management’s policies and practices used to direct and control employees’ work behavior.
3. Management’s policies and practices used to direct and control employees’ work behavior have positive or negative consequences for employees.
4. The positive or negative consequences for employees lead to their perceptions of management’s attitudes toward them.
5. Employees’ perceptions of management’s attitudes toward them lead to employees’ attitudes toward management.
6. Employees’ attitudes toward management lead to employees’ policies and practices toward management. (NOTE: These can be formal – labor union policies and procedures or informal – tacit agreements communicated through the “grapevine.”)
7. Employees’ policies and practices result in employees’ levels of productive and non-productive work behavior.
8. Employees’ levels of productive and non-productive work behavior have positive or negative consequences for management. (The Eighth factor is the same as the First factor; the cycle has come full-circle.)

Morale Analysis

The morale analysis challenge becomes apparent when you review some of the terms used in the descriptions of the eight items in the Morale Cycle. These are terms that will be a part of any analysis of employee morale. Think about how difficult it is to “put your hands around” the meanings and interpretations that different managers and employees might express as personal attitudes and perceptions.

Formation of attitudes and perceptions is open to bias and interpretation. Managers and employees observe the behavior of each other, “what the others do” and “say”; and from the overt behavior they observe, they form attitudes and perceptions. Both are difficult to verify because they are “mental constructs” that cannot be touched, seen, heard, tasted or smelled.

If you ask managers and employees about these things, be sure to notice if what they “say” is consistent with what they “do.” It is easier to send false signals with words than with body language and actions. When mixed signals cause doubt, put less faith in repeated words than in repeated behavior.

There are two levels of issues presented in the Morale Cycle to consider.  Some are overt and others covert. 

Overtly, management practices must result in fare salaries or wages, good benefits, reasonable work hours, good working conditions, participation and non-abusive approaches to managing.The absence of any of these is troublesome for employees at all levels.

Just as damaging to morale are the covert issues, the cognitive – the mental constructs -- what management and employees believe attributes to the behavior and practices directed at each other. Covert factors, about which managers and employees draw conclusions, are each others’ values, perceptions, attitudes, feelings and beliefs about the other. With low morale comes employee perceptions that management hold them in low regard - employees are lazy, incapable of making decisions, need close supervision, and are socially less acceptable. It is what employees believe about management’s perceptions of them that take the greatest toll on employees’ hearts and minds - on their morale.

Getting employees to talk about the “real” morale issues may not be accomplished, easily. When morale is low and employees are approached for information, employees may not trust management, or its motives and sincerity. Employees may raise “phantom” issues, not the “real” issues. If employees experience what they believe is threatening or inappropriate probing, it may “turn them off,” completely; they may refuse to talk about what they believe are threatening issues.

Managers and employees in different work settings determine the relationships they will have with each other based on ideas, impressions and feelings about the other gained from past and current employment experiences. Those experiences have created a “mind set” that preconditions their attitudes, perceptions, intentions and behavior toward each other.

Some managers “just know” employees will have low morale, lack motivation, have to be prodded to work, and have to be watched. Some employees “just know” managers are dictatorial, pushy, and indifferent -- and see themselves as superior to employees. On the other hand, there are always some managers and employees who hold each other in high regard as a result of many positive work experiences. They relate to each other with understanding, respect and commitment.

In every company there is a current culture and climate that can be placed on a scale representing low to high levels of management-employee compatibility. A company’s position on the scale has predictable outcomes for management practices and employee morale.

Low Compatibility

Low compatibility pits managers and employees against each other in open conflict. Low employee morale likely prevails when there is conflict, unless employee morale is heightened by successfully obstructing management and impairing company performance and productivity. This employee morale is based on revenge - “getting even” with management, the enemy. The negative employee attitudes and behaviors directed at “getting even” with management simply reinforce management’s negative attitudes and practices toward employees - Throughout the Morale Cycle, negative begets negative in a downward spiral that reinforces incompatibility and low morale.

High Compatibility

High compatibility fosters management-employee communication, consensus, coordination, cooperation and commitment. This kind of company culture and climate are most likely to result in high morale that leads to high performance and high productivity. Throughout the Morale Cycle, positive begets positive in an upward spiral that reinforces compatibility and high morale.

Analyze Your Company

How are things in your company? What symptoms of high or low morale do you see? Read through the eight items in the morale cycle; where do you see the origin of any morale strengths or morale issues your company is, or should be, trying to resolve?

Discover and resolve morale issues by asking questions based on the eight factors in the Morale Cycle. Here are some example questions …

Does the problem lie in management’s negative perceptions of employees’ willingness and commitment to work?

Are management’s motives and practices positive, but poorly communicated or misunderstood by employees?

Is management misunderstanding employees’ questions and comments about operations and results as attacks on management’s authority and competencies, rather than as attempts to play a fuller role in getting the best results and sharing in company success?

The value of using the eight factors in the morale-Productivity cycle is the systematic approach it provides for identifying and analyzing positive and negative attitudes, perceptions and behaviors that are the causes or symptoms of high and low morale, respectively. Management and employee behavior is interpreted as reflections of their perceptions, motives, intentions and emotions.

Is it time you take a deeper look into your company’s manager’s and employees’ attitudes, perceptions and practices that influence employee morale? If morale is low in your company’s productivity is suffering, take action now!

Low morale can cause a drop in productivity. And, studies have shown that workplace issues that restrict productivity can cause low morale. Most employees want to be more involved in making decisions, make greater contributions and work for a successful company.

In a recent Microsoft world-wide research project for which Dr. Baker was the chief consultant, four factors were identified as the major impediments to the survey respondents’ productivity.  They were unclear objectives, unclear priorities, poor team work and ineffective meetings, all management created problems. 

You can discover within the next hour if ineffective Time Management Skills influencing these four productivity issues are contributing to your creating low morale and low productivity.  If so, you can discover hundreds of Dr. Baker’s Time Management tools and practices to begin resolving those issues.

Discover the power of a performance improvement program that will help you and others in your company eliminate these four causes of low morale, as well as others.

Also, opt-in to receive Dr. Baker’s free, one-page monthly e-newsletter, Time Talk. Your bonus for opting-in to receive TIME TALK will be a free copy of Dr. Baker’s newest booklet titled – DISCOVER THE POWER OF ORGANIZED WORK: Roles of Strategies, Objectives, Projects, Activities in Planning and Scheduling.

If you want consulting, coaching or professional development programs, call Dr. Larry Baker for assistance. He will help you discover what is keeping employees from making a full commitment to their jobs. His professional experience and expertise will be blended with yours to resolve the morale issues impeding employee performance. Call him, today, at 770-218-8122.

(SOURCE: The inspiration for this article, and a small part of its content came from a short article in The Bureau of Business Practice Management Letter, additional publisher, author and date unknown. Giving proper credit is preferred. Please if you know how he can reach the publisher or author.)