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After reading this article you will learn about: 1. Meaning and Definition of Morale 2. Methods of Raising Morale.
Meaning and Definition of Morale:
Group cohesiveness is one of the most important factor which unites together the members of group. Group morale equally is a major factor to bind the group members together. Morale refers to team spirit or unity of the group.
Each and every group has a social structure. It develops when people lead a social life, make friends and enemies, meet socially after working hours, exchange ideas and confidences. By doing this they consciously or unconsciously form groups.
These groups atleast become the central point of morale formation. The difference between the organisation or group that cooperates and the one that does not, is surely due to the difference in morale. According to A.L. Kress morale deals with how the members of the group regard their jobs, their supervisor, the company, their loyalty and affection towards it etc.
Morale is a group phenomena, it function at the level at which the group functions. According to Blum, morale is a byproduct of the group and is generated by the group. Morale can be said to be the individuals acceptance of the goals of the group.
Allport has defined morale as an individuals attitude in a group endeavour. Morale, thus, involves both social and personal features. The importance of morale in team work, in community action, in group behaviour, in class room situation, in management association, in trade union and in military and army etc. is observed.
Morale is the possession of a feeling on the part of the members of a big or small group of being accepted or belonging to that group through adherence to common goals and confidence in the desirability of these goals.
A group morale, thus, consists of three different aspects:
(i) Feeling of being accepted by one’s own group
(ii) Feeling of belongingness
(iii) Showing common motivation or common goals with group in which one works
(iv) Having confidence and faith that these goals are actually needed and desirable.
A sense of belongingness and the feeling of oneness develop when the group morale is high.
According to Guien (1958) morale indicates:
(a) Absence of conflict
(b) Feeling of happiness
(c) Good personal adjustment
(d) Ego involvement in one’s job
(e) Group cohesiveness
(f) Combination of group related attitudes.
According to Stagner (1958), morale must always be defined in terms of individual group relationships. The state of an individual member’s morale is gauged from the morale of his specific working group. High morale exists when an individual member of the group perceives himself as a member of the group and intentionally speaks to achieve the goals of the group as they are important, meaningful and relevant to him.
The group goal infact acts as a cementing agency which keeps the morale of the group binding and the goal of the group must be specific, desirable and more important is that it must be attainable. If a goal is impossible to attain, it cannot keep the members of the group united.
Maier (1970) states “poor morale is generally and is more often than not characterised by an attitude of apathy and resignation. Either interest in the goal is absent or the obstacles between the individual and the goal are regarded as insurmountable.”
The determinants of group morale are either situational or incidental. However, the morale of a group is generally determined by need for a common goal, attitude, type of leadership and supervision, feeling of solidarity, identification and belongingness, experience of observable progress towards the goal, tolerance and freedom, friendly criticism and correction, feeling of mutual sacrifice, group cohesiveness and meaningful nature of the task and finally communication among the members of the group, security and status.
Several experiments conducted in the area of experimental social psychology and industrial and organisational psychology do reveal the fact that adequate communication and various interpersonal relationship among the group members and recognition of status of each worker etc. are very important determinants of group morale.
The finding of Bank observation Room study coming under the famous ‘Hawthorne Studies’ indicate that the workers position in his group, the standard, values or norms of the group and interpersonal relationship were more important to increase the morale of the group than material or financial incentives.
Of course the role of financial incentives like money, perks and bonus etc. cannot be neglected as determinants of morale.
Lewin (1942) conducted a classic experiment on children and found that autocratic and democratic leaders lead to different types of group formation. Lewin, Lester, Coch and Bevlas view that the type of supervisor or leader in the group determines morale. Jenkins (1947) conducted a study using the method of group dynamic and reached at the same conclusion.
The leader of the group is pivot around which many things revolve. The type of personal contact which he builds obviously makes or breaks morale.
Though in places like public sector undertakings and government organisations where people work in groups, group morale is not given much importance, in small or big informal and psychological groups, group morale helps greatly in smooth working of the group.
Morale can be measured by Moreno’s Sociometric technique, and Jenkins’ nominating technique which is a modification of Moneno’s technique. In this technique every member of the group is instructed to name a person in the group whom he considers the best member.
Each individual is represented on a diagram by a circle, an arrow is drawn to the circle representing the person he names. The person who is selected by the largest number of people is called the leader. Those members who are never selected by any member except themselves are called the insolates and if such persons are dropped out of the group, the structure or morale of the group would not change.
Figure 1, 2 and 3 below are simple sociograms that illustrate some of the various types of group structures. Besides sociograms through survey techniques and interviews morale can be measured. Morale can also be measured subjectively from strike, labour turnover, absenticism, grievances and performance of the members.
Methods of Raising Morale:
One of the pressing problems in groups today is to increase the morale of its members. After measurement of morale when it is found to be low or when low morale is subjectively suspected, steps should be taken to increase the morale of the group.
The following four methods may be used to raise morale:
(1) Expert approach
(2) Spy approach
(3) Counseller approach
(4) Member-Problem approach or Employee Problem Approach.
Low morale among the members being due to internal tension, dissatisfaction and conflict besides other factors, steps may be taken to raise the morale of the group when it goes down.