Preview

Morale and Motivation in the Workplace

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1729 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Morale and Motivation in the Workplace
How Motivation and Morale Affects Productivity in the Workplace

Coming from a military background morale and motivation were 2 key words that were ingrained in my head day after day while in serving in the armed forces. The command and control leadership style used fear of punishment for not performing your job vs. awards and recognition for doing it right. Even though my leadership always talked about change and ways to improve, morale and motivation were always issues. Organizations have goals whether it be the countries defense or to grow and make profit for its owners and shareholders. However none of these goals can be achieved by ordering people to do what we want. In the military this approach might have worked for short term goals, but over time it can destroy morale and stifle motivation in the workplace. Experience has shown that helping people realize their full potential can lead to attaining goals that would be impossible to reach under a command and control leadership style. Recent surveys have found that employee motivation is sagging throughout the world and morale has fallen at almost half of all companies (Quast, 2011). In order to successfully motivate your workforce you must first focus on overall morale.
Morale can be defined as an attitude or emotional state of a person or a group of people (Lee, 2004). When you have low morale you come to work thinking your job is boring and monotonous. Your behavior directly affects your productivity and indirectly affects your peers as well. When your morale is high you come to work on time, your productivity is high, and motivated easily to boost production for your department and your business.
There are a lot of successful ways to boost morale. One of my previous employers used to provide free sodas, candy, tea, and coffee in all the break rooms. Even though this was something minor it made the employees feel like they were liked and respected and each day we started work in a



References: Hartog Lea. (2008, April 28). 15 Ways to boost employee morale. Retrieved from http://www.hrworld.com/features/15-ways-boost-employee-morale/ Inc, Staff (2010, APRIL 20). 7 Tips for motivating employees. Retrieved from http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/04/tips-for-motivating-employees.html Lee David. (2004, April 26). 8 Ways managers can improve morale. Retrieved from http://www.humannatureatwork.com/employee-morale-article-3-partII.htm Robbins, S., & Judge, T. (2010). Motivation: From concepts to applications. In Essentials of Organizational Behavior (pp. 80-95). Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall. Spreitzer, G. & Porath, C. (2012, January 1). Creating sustainable performance. Harvard Business Review, 90(1/2), 92-99. Quast Lisa. (2011, March 07). The best ways to motivate people (and it isn 't with money). Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/lisaquast/2011/03/07/the-best-ways-to-motivate-people-and-it-isnt-with-money/

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Motivational Methods Paper

    • 1084 Words
    • 31 Pages

    References: Heathfield, S. M., (2011). Top Ten Ways to Show Appreciation to Employees. From food to favors for employee and coworker appreciation. Retrieved from http://humanresources.about.com/cs/rewardrecognition/a/appreciation.htm Palmer, B., (2007). Leadership/Management. Employee Motivation. Retrieved from http://www.businessballs.com/employeemotivation.htm…

    • 1084 Words
    • 31 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Employees have different needs and different desires which create different motivational problems for all employees. A manager must resort to different means of motivating employees based on diversity, culture and goals. Motivation is defined as the processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal (Robbins & Judge, 2007). I am personally motivated by advancement…

    • 1859 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Electrologic Case

    • 390 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Raising the overall effectiveness of the firm will be accomplished when the employees’ morale are raised. But in order to raise the morale of the employees in the company, all the pressing problem that are currently experienced by the employees should be addressed first.…

    • 390 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Irhr 1001

    • 1944 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Herzberg, F. 1968. One more time: how do you motivate employees?. Harvard Business Review, vol. 46(1), pp. 53–62.…

    • 1944 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Huczynski, A., & Buchanan, D. (2010). Organisational Behaviour, 7th edition, FT. UK Prentice Hall, Harlow…

    • 1795 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Motivating Employees

    • 1591 Words
    • 7 Pages

    There was a point in time when employees were not valued by their managers or the company. Employees were perceived as just a small factor in the equation to produce goods and services. Elton Mayo led a study from 1924 to 1932 that was referred to as Hawthorne Studies, and the research that was attained changed the way employees were viewed (Lindner, 1998). Since an employee’s attitude has a direct effect on their performance, employees went from being viewed as something of minimal importance to a top priority (Lindner, 1998). Motivation has a major influence on an employee’s attitude; therefore, also influences their performance.…

    • 1591 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Olufemi, O. (2010) How manager can motivate employees [online].Available from:http://www.scitopics.com/How managers can Motivate their employees.html [Accessed:21/08/2010]…

    • 3466 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Encouraging social interaction between employees and immediately resolving conflict is another way to improve employee morale. Social events such as office picnics and softball games create a sense of camaraderie between employees.…

    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Motivating employees has been one of management’s most important and most difficult duties. Successfully motivating employees is becoming very more difficult as organizations continually downsize, reorganize and reengineer themselves. What makes it even more difficult is the increases in workplace diversity. This paper will focus on Chrysler engineering and how fear is currently used to motivate employees, whether it is or is not realized by management. It will describe the issue of employee motivation. It will use a combination of motivational theories to explain the problem. The paper will also use a combination of theories to describe and actions that will be used to change the behavior of Chrysler engineers and increase their motivation. Finally it will provide an insider’s view of how the motivation inside the organization is working.…

    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Employee morale in the workplace is one of the most important factors when dealing with improving chances of success within any business. When defeating poor employee morale the, opportunities for team motivation increases substantially. When a business fails to prevent or repair indigent employee morale, there assumes the risk of worker burnout and discontent at the workplace. The issue can lead to poor productivity, increased absences and could become very expensive with operational costs.…

    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    L J Mullins (1985) The process of Motivation; Indistrial management and data systems, vol 85, no. ¾.…

    • 1777 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    In military science, there are two meanings to morale. Primarily it means the cohesion of a unit, task force, or other military group. An army with good supply lines, sound air cover and a clear objective can be said to possess, as a whole, "good morale" or "high morale." Historically, elite military units such as special operations forces have "high morale" due to both their training and pride in their unit. When a unit's morale is said to be "depleted", it means it is close to "crack and surrender", as was the case with Italian units in North Africa during World War II. It is well worth noting that generally speaking, most commanders do…

    • 992 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Motivation (Atkinson, 1964) can be defined as the will to do, the urge to achieve goals, the drive to excel. There are many way to the study of motivation, but the most studied are ”Content” and “Process” theories emphasizing respectively the what and how of motivation. These factors are also critical component to increase the employee morale (Baehr & Renck, 1958) during the recession period. During recession period, one of the way that the company practice is to downsizing the organization. This kind of downsizing can affect the employee morale.…

    • 1803 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Workplace Motivation

    • 3206 Words
    • 13 Pages

    Motivation; Organization behavior work motivation; motivation and engagement in workplace; Intrinsic motivation; Motivation at workplace; Motivation at workplace; organization motivation.…

    • 3206 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    As humans, we tend to go towards places where we find happiness and comfort. So, the happiness of an employee at work plays a major role in the performance generated by him or her.…

    • 310 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics