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Copyright ©2011 Published by IJMRR. All rights reserved

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT RESEARCH

AND REVIEW

Sept -2011/ Volume – 1/Issue- 2 / Article No -5/50-63

STUDY AND ANALYSIS OF EMPLOYEE MORALE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH

PERFORMANCE, WORK LIFE AND HOME

Rashmi Shahu1*

1 School of Management Studies, SRKN Engg. College, Nagpur, India.

*Corresponding author : e mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Employee morale is an important trait of any employee. In today’s competitive world it is very

important for an employee to have high morale because then only he will be self motivated to

perform better. In the same way it is equally important for an employee to perform well to

survive the tough competition. To survive the constant pressures of the competitive world, an

employee also needs to have a good work and home life. Thus this paper aims to find out how

the employee morale affects his work performance and how his work life and home life affects

his morale, This project is a research done to find out the level of morale and work performance

and the quality of work life and home life of an employee, thereby suggesting ways to improve

the employee morale.

Key Words: Morale, work performance, productivity

INTRODUCTION

Morale, also known as esprit de corps when discussing the morale of a group, is an intangible

term used for the capacity of people to maintain belief in an institution or a goal, or even in

oneself and others.

According to Alexander H. Leighton, "morale is the capacity of a group of people to pull

together persistently and consistently in pursuit of a common purpose".

Studies have proven that the morale of a company's workforce is directly linked to profitability.

Low morale - low profits. High morale - high profits. This is because workers who are happy in

their job and with their employer perform better, resulting in higher and improved productivity

and profitability. Employees and managers need to feel emotionally attached to their work and

their employer in positive and uplifted ways. Senior management needs to convey optimism and

send that down the line, with a message that conveys strength and security. They need to

encourage and show frequent appreciation of every employee's efforts, and find ways of helping

employees work in jobs that utilize natural talents. Both employees and management need to

know that what they are doing is highly appreciated, that opportunities for advancement and self-

growth are available within and by the company, and they need to come to work in a happy and

positive environment. When everybody goes to work and loves what they do and where they

work, their performance is high which produces the profitable results for the business. The

challenge is matching employees to roles in which they can and will shine - sometimes it is


possible to modify existing roles to bring out the best in the employee, and other times it may

require a transfer to a different position or department. In any case, consultation with the

employee is important. It is very important to keep the morale of the employees high because the

work performance of the employee depends on their morale. Work performance means the way

an employee performs at the tasks given to him. He will perform better if his morale is high, that

is, he is in high spirits. Thus work performance of an employee is dependent on his morale.

Now the morale of an employee depends on various factors. Two of the most important ones are

the Work Life and the Home Life of the employee. The environment at work and at home plays

a vital role in determining the employee morale. If an employee is happy with his work and

home life then his morale is going to be high and this high morale will be reflected on his work

performance. An employee will be happy with his work environment if he gets a healthy work

environment and a positive work culture. If he has an encouraging superior, friendly peers and

growth opportunity at work, his morale is bound to be high. Similarly if an employee is happy

with his home life, he will stay in high spirits. An employee will be happy with his home life if

he has all the basic necessities of life, has a sound social network and enjoys a respectable

position in the society. This project looks into these aspects of an employee’s life and determine

how and to what extent is the morale of an employee related to his work performance, work life

and home life.

Literature Review:

It’s easier to describe it as a “state of mind, a mood, a mental condition” (Bennet & Hess 1998),

when these things are all positive and upbeat. It’s the idea that work is not really work, it’s

enjoyable, a source of pride. But, this is perhaps too mentalistic of a definition. A more

theoretical definition would be “positive affective orientation towards membership “(Price

1972), which is the equivalent of the sociological concept of ‘group cohesion”. In this sense,

morale is the behavior of employees wanting to belong to the organization. But, there are many

other reasons for this kind of behaving in the behavior definition. The morale problem or what is

commonly defined as the “morale problem” of the employees is as variously defined, as is

professionalism, with a tendency to settle for rather superficial explanations; for example, that

the morale problem is largely a matter of money.

How does a person learn who he is? Psychologists tell us that an individual discovers a large part

of the answer to this question in the feedback he gets from others. To illustrate this point, we

may say that people harbor certain attitudes regarding what a person does- his job or calling.

This is what is meant by ascribed status. Some jobs have high status, other low status, depending

upon such attitudes. The status of a person’s job or occupation is an important factor in the

satisfaction he gets from it, but it is, of course, not the only factor.

What a person does for a living is one basis of feedback for his self-image for learning who he is

and how he rates in the status hierarchy of a given society. The feedback process means simply

that each of us governs his actions according to the estimate he believes others are making of

him. This may be tabbed to social self. An individual discovers who he is be seeing himself in


the actions of others towards him. A University of Michigan social psychologist, Charles Cooley,

long ago tabbed this process “the looking-glass self.”

We have said that occupation is one source of personal identity. Possession, where we live, what

we do for recreation, and what we wear are others. However, we tend to screen or filter the

information that comes to us in the feedback process, to be selective in what we perceive and

accept about ourselves. We tend to see and accept what is pleasant about ourselves and provides

a positive image, to reject what is negative, and often to project on others what we cannot accept

in ourselves. Some psychologists say that the closer our self-image is to the image that most

people hold of us, the nearer we are to good mental health. Achieving this realistic appraisal of

ourselves is the process and goal of personality maturation

PARAMETERS OF MORALE

The various parameters used to find out the morale of the employee are as follows:

� Job Satisfaction

If an employee is satisfied with his job, then it means that his level of morale and enthusiasm is

bound to be high.

� Job Rotation

If an employee is given opportunity to do different types of work, it not only enhances his skills

but also keeps monotony and boredom away, thereby keeping his spirits high.

� Responsibility & delegation of authority

Handing over responsibilities to the employee and delegating authority to him helps to boost his

spirits.

� Target achievement & reward

Another parameter to find employee morale is to find whether targets and rewards encourage the

employee or not.

� Motivation

An employee is having high morale if he is self motivated to improve and perform better in his

work.

� Work environment

The type of work environment that an employee has is also judgmental in finding out the

employee morale.

� Relationship with peer and superior

Cordial and healthy peer and superior relationship ensures high employee morale as it means that

he is in good spirits when at work.

� Healthy interpersonal relationship


Healthy interpersonal relationships at work and home ensure that the employee is in high morale.

� Recognition for work and appreciation

Another important parameter for employee morale is whether he is recognized and appreciated

or his work or not.

� Career plan & growth

The kind of growth that an employee achieves in his career is also a reflection of his morale

level.

PARAMETERS OF WORK LIFE & HOME LIFE

The various parameters that determine the work and home life of an employee are based on the

Maslow’s Need Hierarchy.

Physiological Needs, Safety Needs, Needs of Love, Affection and Belongingness, Needs for

Esteem, Needs for Self-Actualization.

Based on the above five needs the questionnaire to determine the work and home life of an

employee has been designed.

� Method of Survey: Personal Survey, Interview and Questionnaire

Personal Survey research provides a wide scope; detailed information can be obtained from a

large population.

� Data sources: Primary & Secondary data.

� Research instrument: Questionnaires is the method of collecting first hand data by asking

directly. The questionnaire used is structured-non-disguised.

� Sampling technique: Convenient sampling.

� Sample – size: 100 {Executives & Management Staff}

� Universe to be studied: Management Staff of Unit-Automotive

Manufacturers Private Limited, Nagpur

The survey was conducted in the office time by meeting the employees face to face, the language

used in the Questionnaire was explained to the respondents at the time of interview and if need

assistance was given to all the employees for any query that they had. Apart from Primary data

through Questionnaires, Secondary data was also collected from corporate brochure and news

letters of the organization. The data for research is collected through the following ways:

Primary Data

Survey questionnaires

Interviews with Employees

Interview with the Assistant HR Manager

Secondary data


News Articles on Employee Morale

Websites on Employee Morale, Work Performance, Work Life and Home Life of employee

Journal on Employee morale

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

Statistical analysis is the most important part of any research, without appropriate statistical

analysis no accurate inference can be drawn on the research. Based on the response of research

appropriate statistical techniques are used to get the desired results. There are following

statistical tools that I have used in this research:

Regression and Correlation analysis

Bar graphs, Pie charts etc.

REGRESSION ANALYSIS BETWEEN WORK PERFORMANCE AND EMPLOYEE

MORALE

Regression Statistics

Multiple R 0.839679074

R Square 0.705060948

Adjusted R

Square

0.702051366

Standard Error 3.31288754

Observations 100

Y = f (x), Where y = Work Performance of employee; x = Employee Morale

y = 0.7074x + 13.672, R2 = 0.7051, This shows that there is a strong positive relation between

work performance and employee morale.

Coefficient of correlation (r)between Work Performance and Employee Morale

r = 0.8397, This shows that there is a strong and intense positive correlation between work

performance and employee morale.

REGRESSION ANALYSIS BETWEEN EMPLOYEE MORALE AND WORK LIFE AND

HOME LIFE OF EMPLOYEE

Regression Statistics

Multiple R 0.634538586

R Square 0.402639218

Adjusted R

Square

0.396543699

Standard Error 5.596773503


Observations 100

Y = f (x), Where y = Employee Morale, x = Work Life & Home Life

y = 0.7169x + 16.821

R2 = 0.4026, This shows that there is a positive relation between employee morale and work life

and home life of employee but the relationship is not intense.

Coefficient of correlation (r)between Work Performance and Employee Morale:

r = 0.6345, This shows that there is a strong and intense positive correlation between employee

morale and work life and family life of employee.

MAJOR FINDINGS

Pie Chart 1

Inference: It is visible from the pie chart above that 44% of the employees have Average

Morale and 56% of the employees have High Morale. No employee has Low Morale.

Pie Chart 2

1. LEVEL OF MORALE OF THE EMPLOYEESS

0%

44%

56%

LOW MORALE

AVERAGE MORALE

HIGH MORALE


Inference: We can infer from the above pie chart that 49% of the employees are satisfied with

their work life whereas 51% of the employees are happy and contended with their work life.

No employee is unhappy with his work life.

Pie Chart 3

Inference: We can infer from the above pie chart that 53% of the employees are satisfied with

their home life whereas 47% of the employees are happy and contended with their home life.

No employee is unhappy with his home life.

Pie Chart 4

2. QUALITY OF WORK LIFE OF EMPLOYEES

0%

49%

51%

EMPLOYEES NOT

HAPPY WITH WORK

LIFE

EMPLOYEES

SATISFIED WITH WORK

LIFE

EMPLOYEES HAPPY

AND CONTENDED

WITH WORK LIFE

3. QUALITY OF HOME LIFE OF EMPLOYEES

0%

53%

47%

EMPLOYEES NOT HAPPY WITH

HOME LIFE

EMPLOYEES SATISFIED WITH

HOME LIFE

EMPLOYEES HAPPY AND

CONTENDED WITH HOME LIFE


Inference: From the above pie chart we can see that 52% of the employees are Average

Performers whereas 48% of the employees are High Performers. No employee is a Low

Performer.

MAJOR PARAMETERS AFFECTING THE EMPLOYEE MORALE, WORK LIFE &

HOME LIFE OF EMPLOYEE (Bar Graph 1)

Inference: It is clearly visible from the above bar graph that the parameter that influences the

Morale of the Employee the most is Job Satisfaction.

4. WORK PERFORMANCE OF EMPLOYEES

0%

52%

48%

LOW PERFORMER

AVERAGE

PERFORMER

HIGH PERFORMER

1.MAJOR PARAMETERS AFFECTING EMPLOYEE

MORALE

814

568

754

669

692

729

693

707

736

661

0 500 1000

1

PARAMETERS FOR EMPLOYEE

MORALE

TOTAL SCORE

CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND

GROWTH

RECOGNITION AND

APPRECIATION FOR WORK

HEALTHY INTERPERSONAL

RELATIONSHIP

RELATIONSHIP WITH PEERS AND

SUPERIORS

WORK ENVIRONMENT

MOTIVATION

TARGET ACHIEVEMENT AND

REWARD

RESPONSIBILITY AND

DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY

JOB ROTATION

JOB SATISFACTION


Next important parameters are Responsibility & Delegation of Authority pertaining to work and

Recognition & Appreciation for work.

The least influencing parameter of Employee Morale according to the bar graph above is Job

Rotation of the employees.

Major Parameters affecting Employee Work Life (Pie Chart 5)

Inference: The above pie chart shows that the most important parameter influencing the quality

of Work Life according to Maslow’s Need Hierarchy is Social and Self-Esteem Needs at 21%.

Next to these needs, the most important needs influencing the Work Life of an employee are

Physiological and Safety & Security Needs at 20%. The least important parameter that

influences the Work Life of an employee is the Self-Actualization Needs at 18%.

Major Parameters affecting Employee Home Life (Pie Chart 6)

Inference: The above pie chart shows that the most important parameter influencing the quality

of Home Life according to Maslow’s Need Hierarchy is Safety and Security Needs at 22%.

2. WORK LIFE PARAMETERS ACCORDING TO

MASLOW'S NEED HIERARCHY

20%

20%

21%

21%

18%

PHYSIOLOGICAL

NEEDS

SAFETY AND

SECURITY NEEDS

SOCIAL NEEDS

SELF ESTEEM NEEDS

SELF ACTUALIZATION

NEEDS

3. HOME LIFE PARAMETERS ACCORDING TO

MASLOW'S NEED HIERARCHY

20%

22%

18%

21%

19%

PHYSIOLOGICAL

NEEDS

SAFETY AND

SECURITY NEEDS

SOCIAL NEEDS

SELF ESTEEM NEEDS

SELF ACTUALIZATION

NEEDS


Next to these needs, the most important needs influencing the Home Life of an employee are

Self-Esteem and Physiological Needs at 21% and 20% respectively.

The least important parameter that influences the Home Life of an employee is the Self-

Actualization and Social Needs at 19% and 18% respectively.

ANOVA

The morale was significantly high in happy home and work life group (M=74.65) in comparison

to the morale of unhappy group (M=63.19), F = 33.41, p < .01.

� The performance was seen greater in high morale group (M=71.35) in comparison to the

performance of low morale group (M=66.49), F = 5.87 p < .05.

� Interaction effect between home life & work life was found to be non-significant F = 0.16, p <

.05, p < .01.

ANOVA analysis

Source SS Degree

of

freedom

MS F

A (morale) 403.2 1 403.2 5.87

B (home

and work

life)

2292.68 1 2292.68 33.41

A X B 11.06 1 11.06 -0.16

Within 5832.8 85 68.62 NS

88

CONCLUSION

From the analysis done in the project we can infer that there is a strong positive relation between

employee morale and employee work performance. Similarly we can also infer that there is a

positive relation between employee morale and employee work life and home life.

Thus we can conclude that the work performance of an employee depends on his morale and his

morale depends on his work life and home life. Thus to improve the work performance of the

employee we need to improve his morale and to improve his morale we need to improve the

quality of his work life and home life.

Improving employee morale benefits everyone involved in a work place. Boosting employee

morale means that people will take more pride in their work, call in sick less often and be more


productive. Happier employees mean happier employers, since the employer will not lose money

due to inefficiency and lost time.

RECOMMENDATIONS (10 Keys of keeping Employee Morale up)

� Let employees express their feelings about the difficulties and changes that are going on. If

you try to curtail this and tell them they need to “move on”, these feelings will only fester and

turn into anger and resentment, or result in employees becoming disengaged.

� Don't focus all of your efforts on getting buy-in to the changes you seek. Remember "Seek

First to Understand". People need to know you understand their perspective and their feelings

before they will listen to your exhortations.

� Support constructive criticism. Make it safe for employees to express dissent or criticism

without being labeled as not being a "team player." If you don't, you will miss out on important

information and will create a workforce that learns not to care.

� Give employees as much opportunity as possible to solve problems and take constructive

action. Taking constructive action is perhaps the strongest antidote to fear and the feeling of

helplessness. Thus, engaging employees in constructive action plays a central role in keeping

morale up in times of uncertainty and difficulty.

� To facilitate employees taking constructive action and feeling like winners during difficult

times, establish and communicate clear short-term goals and objectives. Not only does it build

confidence and a sense of purpose, it also channels employees' attention in a useful direction,

rather than on feeling sorry for themselves and scared.

� Amp up your communication. Make sure employees know what is going on each step of the

way. When people are feeling vulnerable, their tolerance for ambiguity decreases dramatically.

To feel safe and secure, they need to know as much as possible about what is going on. To

increase the efficacy of your communication, get employee input about what information and

what forms of communication would be most useful.

� When you talk about your vision and the challenges you are facing, use as many stories and

analogies as possible, rather than PowerPoint slides filled with statistics and facts. Great leaders

are masters at inspiring people through compelling stories and analogies.

� Make sure you are "wired into the voice of your internal customers" through Employee

Advisory Groups, presidents breakfasts, team meetings, focus groups, etc. During times of

uncertainty, this is of paramount importance. By having a vehicle for ongoing conversations with

employees, you get valuable "customer feedback" that allows you to come up with the most

effective strategies for executing and communicating changes. Getting employee feedback also

helps you avoid making huge morale damaging blunders. Soliciting input and engaging

employees in ongoing conversation, also communicates respect - a significant factor in employee

morale, and keeps employees engaged. Keeping employees engaged not only increases buy-in,


as everyone knows, it also enables employees to take constructive action, and thus prevent them

from feeling helpless and then demoralized.

� When asking for employee input and ideas, clearly define the parameters of employee input

and involvement. If you don't, employees will feel "set up" if their input is not used. Also, make

sure you keep employees apprised of the status of their ideas and requests, as well as the final

outcome.

� Celebrate victories and examples of excellence both formally and informally. During times of

difficulty, it is especially important for employees to feel like winners.

SUGGESTIONS

Following are some suggestive steps to improve Employee Morale

Entrepreneurs may have some ideas why morale is poor, and may call in external consultants to

help solve the problem. However, the easiest and fastest way to determine at least some of the

sources of the issue is to simply ask the employee. Ask what the cause of poor morale is and

what the employee believes can be done to turn it around. Obtaining information directly from

the person who's experiencing the poor morale can often be an important key to solving this

mystery. Additionally, these people will receive a sense of pride and worth that their boss asked

them for their input. Some ways to improve Employee Morale are:

Show concern: If the employee believes the boss doesn't care about the task at hand or doesn't

care about the employee, then the employee probably won't care about the task, the employer or

the company. Start showing concern by using the person's name. Large or small,

every business should have names on desks, work stations or cubicles to show that a real person

with worth works there, not just a machine. Next, ask their opinion whenever an opportunity

arises rather than always telling them what to do or the way to do it. This allows employees to

add their own creative thoughts to the work process, which then can lead to more of a feeling of

ownership. Finally, ask how they are. Without wanting to know deeply personal data, the boss

can easily show an interest in the individual worker.

Provide appropriate feedback:The employee needs to know two crucial variables in this

morale equation: what's expected of them and how well they’re doing. Without this crucial

information, the employee will inevitably overwork or under work, think of their work as above

average or below average, and may stray from achieving the supervisor's goal. In any case, the

consequences may be dire and not what the supervisor would want.

Create goals:Create mutually acceptable goals. As they say, if you don't know where you're

going, you'll probably end up someplace else. An employee without a clear understanding of the

goals or without a sense of how thier work fits into the overall goal of the unit, department or

section, can easily waste time on tasks that aren't consistent with the boss's objectives. The result

is squandered time and resources, plus a reprimanded employee who doesn't understand why the

boss disapproves of their efforts. Once the supervisor can sit with the employee and explain in


clear, action-oriented terms what the task at hand is about, the employee will feel better and

perform more effectively. If given a chance to moderate, modify or discuss the goals and reach a

mutually acceptable conclusion, the employee's performance will usually skyrocket. Morale will

definitely improve as a result.

Offer recognition for the employee's efforts:It takes but a few seconds to say, "Nice job,"

"Well done," "Marked improvement," "You're on the right road," or any number of other phrases

that communicate to the employee that you care about the job and about them, and that you

recognize an improvement in productivity. Also, employees can be given performance awards or

have their name mentioned at staff meetings, posted on a bulletin boards or in employee

interoffice e-mail to say that someone did a noteworthy job. All of these simple modes of

pointing out individual, team or group behavior serve as very strong methods of improving

productivity, self-worth and morale. Another strategy for identifying the cause of poor morale

and turning it around is to determine if the work load is sufficient or too pressured, challenging

or boring, professionally satisfying or not. As long as the current job isn't overly taxing, provide

more challenging tasks--either in breadth or depth to spark an interest in employees. When

completed, the employee will discover a sense of accomplishment, feel increased self-worth, and

be more productive. And as a result, productivity and morale will increase. The next step, and

one that often follows more challenging tasks, is to promote people for their achievements.

When employees see that their boss recognizes and rewards accomplishments, they'll be more

satisfied, and their self-esteem and prestige will increase along with the amount in their paycheck.

This method of attacking poor morale can be extremely productive for all parties involved.

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