HR Management essay on: Low Employee Morale: An Important Human Resource Challenge

HR Management essay on: Low Employee Morale: An Important Human Resource Challenge

Introduction            It is said that the most important resource of any organization is its human resource or people. It is the people or employees of an organization that determines its success. Although, other resources are also important like financial and technical resources; however, it is the human resource, which utilizes all the other resources in an optimal manner, and hence the most important resource of all. A high morale workforce can provide competitive edge to the organization by increasing its productivity. But, what happens in the case of low employee morale? This essay will elaborate the possible causes and consequences of low employee morale, and the solutions for the human resource managers to tackle low employee morale. The basic factors that affect employee morale are different individual traits of different employees, nature of the job, and practices adopted by the organization. The causes of low employee morale include lack of self-worth, not perceiving the job as much important, lack of organizational support and resources, inappropriate reward system, and unpleasant working environment. The major consequences of low employee morale include absenteeism, high turnover ratio, lack of competitive edge, inefficient implementation of strategies, low productivity and increased costs, and customer dissatisfaction. The HR managers should have to uplift the morale of the employees so that they can put in their best efforts for the success of the organization. For this, they should apply the need based theories of motivation into practice so that employees get enthusiastic and have a positive attitude towards their work. A proper reward system, establishing good working conditions, clear definition of expectations, and proper communication are vital in tackling low employee morale (Shortell and Kaluzny 1997).

Causes of Low Employee Morale            It is very important for any organization to keep the morale of its employees high so that they can perform up to the desired level, and thus contribute to the success of the organization. But many a times, due to a number of reasons the employee morale is low, which results in negative output. Low employee morale leads to job dissatisfaction, and consequently low professional performance. Lack of interest in performing one’s duties and responsibilities at the workplace is the main symptom of low employee morale. And at such times, employees exhibit a number of behaviors, like taking more sick leaves, unpunctuality, making complaints regarding peers on a frequent basis, not doing the job at hand on time and that too in an incomplete manner, and increasing turnover ratio (Tietjen and Myers 1998). There could be a number of causes of low employee morale ranging from internal to external causes. Internal causes could be negative self-worth, insufficient compensation, not perceiving the job as much important, having a wrong idea about work ethics, and opposition to change. The external causes for low employee morale could be unprofessional working climate, change in the nature of the job, and not having enough communication with the peers and seniors. Broadly, there are three major aspects which are the determinants of high or low employee morale – differences among various individuals, traits of the job, and practices adopted by different organizations.

            The differences between various individuals determine whether their morale will be high or low in a particular job. These differences include requirements, principles, capabilities, likes, dislikes, and attitudes that vary from one person to another. If an individual’s sole aim or requirement for doing a job is earning money, then any cut-backs in the salary or a low paying job would be a major cause of low employee morale, irrespective of the fact that how satisfying other aspects of his/her job are, like job security, good working environment, etc. Similarly, if a worker has to do night shifts against his/her liking, then the employee would suffer from low morale. Another reason could be incompatible working environment, which could range from too professional to completely unprofessional; and from very friendly and cordial to highly disrespectful towards the employee (Saari and Judge 2004).            Another major cause of low employee morale could be the nature of the job itself. There are numerous aspects to the nature of the job. First of all, if an employee does not possess the requisite skills in order to perform the various tasks related to the job in a complete manner, then he would lack self-confidence and self-esteem, and it may attribute to low employee morale. If an employee does not perceive its job as having much importance, then he may experience low morale. It can also happen in case of an employee who is working for a small firm or at a lower level position, and aspires to work in a much bigger firm or at a higher position, and feels dissatisfied. The level of autonomy that an employee enjoys in his job also determines the degree of his morale. An employee with very little or no autonomy could experience low employee morale as he has to take permissions for every action that he takes regarding his job. If an employee receives negative performance feedback for the duties performed by him on a continual basis, then he could be subjected to low morale as he could suffer from low self-esteem, and therefore, would have less interest in doing his job (Corpuz 2006).

            Yet another cause of low employee morale could be unfavorable organizational practices. The system of rewarding the employees, policies related to human resource, kind of management, and general rules and regulations cover organizational practices. If employees are not rewarded adequately or in timely manner for the tasks performed, then it leads to low morale among the employees. Another reasons related to low morale because of the reward system include rewards being perceived as inappropriate, bias in giving rewards, and less chances of getting rewards (Sison 2000).            Often there is a situation, wherein the employees do not have a complete understanding of the expectations from the job profile, thus not able to perform their duties effectively. There are no clear goals, lack of proper job description, the standards on which performance is to be measured, and poor evaluation of performance. The employees are not provided orientation on a regular basis so that they could perform their duties effectively. Therefore, it can be said that lack of clearly defined expectations is also a cause of low employee morale. Sometimes, employees experience low morale because of difficulties in performing their duties, like barriers created by the working environment in terms of incompatibility among the group members because of different cultural backgrounds, educational qualifications and personality differences while working in a group; and lack of organizational assistance and resources (Shortell and Kaluzny 1997).

Consequences of Low Employee Morale

            The consequences of low employee morale can be quite damaging to an organization. Reduced productivity and the resultant cost repercussions are the main consequences of low employee morale. Due to low employee morale, a negative thinking develops among the employees; and this gives rise to a demoralizing attitude. All the departments and even the whole organization can get affected by such a negative attitude, which is detrimental to the overall growth of the organization (Motowidlo and Packard 1986). The sales of the company start declining and it starts losing customers as well, all due to poor employee morale. Low morale makes the working environment of an organization unpleasant, making it difficult to achieve the targets. As a result of all this, the financial performance of an organization starts deteriorating and the profits get shrunk (Spiers 2003).

            Low employee morale leads to apathy towards the work and employees become disinterested in performing their tasks, which leads to decreased productivity and increased operational costs. As a result of low morale, employees become irregular as either they are searching for a new job outside or simply not interested in coming to the office because of unpleasant working environment. Low morale due to poor working conditions may lead to workplace stress, which directly affects the general health of the employees, and the number of sick days taken increases. Therefore, absenteeism is yet another major consequence of low employee morale. In case of industrial workers, low employee morale could even lead to accidents at the workplace as workers are not careful enough while handling machines due to lack of interest (Bowles and Cooper 2009).

            In case of mergers and acquisitions, there are chances that there is a low morale among the employees due to job insecurity as at times many employees have to lose their jobs at the cost of rightsizing. At such times, because of low employee morale a smooth amalgamation of the two organizations does not happen and it affects the overall operations and profits (Keys and Gutknecht 1993). Low employee morale leads to poor performance, which eventually results in reduced customer satisfaction, especially in case of service sector organizations where the employees have a direct contact with the customers. In case of low employee morale because of safety concerns, compensation issues, or poor working environment, it becomes difficult for an organization to deal with the demands of employee unions as the employees are dissatisfied over some issue, and it is hard to convince them to stop strikes.

            Another very important consequence of low employee morale is that the turnover ratio is too high in organizations where the employees do not have high morale. The ill-effect of high turnover is not only that people leave an organization in large numbers, but more so that talented people leave the organization in higher percentages too. An organization with low employee morale not only fails in retaining talented people but also unable to attract new and fresh talent. Nobody likes to work in or join a company that does not care for its employees, and is known for employees with low morale. The image of such a company becomes far worse in the eyes of the potential employees at least as far as the working conditions and employee benefits are concerned.

            Another major ill-effect of low employee morale is that an organization cannot implement any strategy in a successful manner, no matter how good the strategy is. This is because for implementing any strategy, it is crucial to have a workforce full of enthusiasm and positive outlook, which only comes from high morale. In addition to this, an organization also cannot gain a competitive edge if its employees are suffering with low morale since a dedicated workforce which is ready to put its hundred percent efforts can only achieve the desired results necessary to attain a competitive advantage (Bowles and Cooper 2009).

Solutions for HR managers to tackle the Low Employee Morale            In organizational setup, when there is a problem of low employee morale, it often does not happen due to a single reason and does not get resolved by a single solution either. As per the latest research and theory, motivational approaches which are mutually supporting in nature should be integrated to develop effective employee motivation strategy so that their morale could be lifted successfully (Ramlall 2004). If low employee morale is because of the reason that employees do not perceive rewards as sufficient when compared against the performance, the technique of behavior modification is quite effective, through which the reinforcement theory concepts can be applied in the organizational setup.  It starts with the specification of the human resource manager to increase or decrease behaviors. It is followed by the measurement of these target behaviors for setting standards, so that it can be evaluated as to what degree the behaviors have been changed, by comparing the results against the set standards. After that, the situation is being analyzed by the human resource manager to determine as to which rewards are perceived as most precious by the workers, and in which best possible manner, those rewards and desired behaviors can be attached. Further, it must be ensured by the manager that positive rewards are distributed for the target behaviors and consequences would be undesirable for the employees in case they do not exhibit the desired behaviors. And in the end, there should be a repeated measurement of the target behaviors so that the worth of the program could be established.

            As far as resolving the problem of low employee morale caused due to not defining the performance, goals, and job description in a sufficient manner is concerned, it can be resolved by clearly and explicitly defining the duties and responsibilities that an employee has to perform, along with the desired standard of performance that has to be achieved by establishing well-defined goals, and providing constructive feedback on the performance given by the employees so that they could know in what areas and how should they can improve, which would keep them motivated for future tasks.  Their low morale due to lack of support from the management, lack of adequate resources to effectively perform their tasks, inadequate skill-set to perform the tasks, and working environment related problems could be addressed by enriching their job by redesigning it, and making it more doable by matching the tasks with the skill sets of the respective employees or by providing additional and effective training, so that their morale could be lifted up, and they can contribute their fullest towards the success of the organization (Shortell and Kaluzny 1997).

The employees’ morale can be increased by providing better hygiene factors which include secure and comfortable environment to work in, good pay and incentives, security of the job, comfortable working hours, and sufficient resources to complete the job in an effective manner.  In order to keep the morale of the employees, it is very important they are sufficiently motivated. As per Maslow’s Need Hierarchy theory, a person gets motivated by his physiological needs, security needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. The motivation comes from the need to satisfy these needs; and money is one way of satisfying majority of these needs. In fact, it is the very reason for a large percentage of people to work. Through money, one can satisfy the physiological needs like hunger, sex, etc. Apart from this, money also provides shelter, recreation, strength, and status; and therefore satisfies some other needs as well. Therefore, it is clear that the managers must not ignore the money factor, and should compensate the employees well in accordance to their job performance, and better than their competitors, if they have to keep a high employee morale (Corpuz 2006).

Some other solutions in the hands of the manager to enhance the morale of the employees are providing autonomy and meaningful job to them. If the employees are given autonomy and are allowed to exercise control over the tasks they are doing, it would instill a sense of responsibility in them, and they are more likely to do the job with greater care and in a timely manner. All employees want to do a job that appears to be important and worthwhile or meaningful. The aspects through which a job becomes meaningful are identity of a task, range of skills required, and importance of the task. It is very important for the morale of the employees that they know exactly when and how the task gets completed, in other words they must have knowledge regarding the explicit existence of the task. The employees feel more empowered if the task requires the use of a number of skills possessed by them, and the task when completed makes an important contribution to the overall functioning of the organization.

On the basis of evaluation of need theories of motivation, which are Maslow’s need hierarchy theory, Alderfer’s ERG theory, McClelland’s theory, and Herzberg’s theory, the managers should understand the individual differences that exist among employees, and understand their different needs. The employees have different perceptions regarding different rewards, which arise from their different needs; therefore they should be rewarded differently keeping in mind their needs and their perception regarding the value of rewards (Ramlall 2004). The managers can adopt different modes of communication to assess these needs and perceptions, which can be both formal as well as informal. Both financial and non-financial rewards can be given to the employees as long as they address their primary needs. It should be well understood by the managers that different employees have different motivators. Morale of the employees could also be kept high by redesigning their jobs by incorporating dimensions like control over tasks, freedom to make decisions, accountability, challenge, etc (Shortell and Kaluzny 1997).

Conclusion            The overall growth and productivity of the organization is directly related to the morale of its employees as evident from the analysis of causes and consequences of low employee morale, and its possible solutions for the HR managers. From the thorough analysis, it can be concluded that there are three main factors which affects the morale of employees – individuality of the workers, the nature of the job, and the general practices followed by an organization. Low employee morale is characterized by disinterest of employees in performing their duties. Its main causes could be – deficient self-worth due to inability to perform one’s tasks in a proper and timely manner, improper performance feedback, working climate not being pleasant, lack of communication, not having a desired reward system, and inadequate definition of the expectations regarding the responsibilities and duties that are to be fulfilled. As described there could be a number of adverse consequences of low employee morale. The firm may not be able to compete effectively against its rivals; and it may not be able to execute the otherwise well formulated strategies as employees would not have been sufficiently motivated to carry out the implementation. Absenteeism and high turnover are other consequences of low employee morale, and all these lead to decreased productivity for the firm. The concepts of need based theories of motivation are the best solutions to tackle low employee morale. There should be an appropriate reward system in place in accordance to the individual needs of the employees, with clear linkage with the desired performance. There should be clear and explicit definition as to what is expected of the employees; they should be provided good working environment, and adequate support and resources for completing their tasks; and there should be proper communication.

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