Question

Explain the relationship between morale and productivity.

Answer 1

There can be four combinations of morale and productivity : 

High Morale-High Productivity: High morale reflects a predisposition to be more productive if proper leadership is provided. This situation is likely to occur when employees are motivated to achieve high-performance standards through financial and non-financial rewards. Complete identity between individual and organization goals can lead to this situation.

High Morale-Low Productivity: The situation arises when employees spend their time and energy in satisfying their personal objectives unrelated to the company’s goals. Faulty machinery, lack of training, ineffective supervision and restrictive norms of informal groups can also lead to low productivity on the part of employees with high morale.

Low Morale-High Productivity: Low morale cannot result in high productivity for a long period. However, this situation can occur for a temporary period due to fear of loss of job, exceptionally good supervision and machine paced work in which only a part of workers’ capabilities are used.

Low Morale-Low Productivity: This is a normal relationship. In the long run low morale is likely to result in low productivity.

Thus, there is a complex relationship between morale and productivity. This is because morale is only one of the factors influencing productivity.