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Workplace Morale: Reasons, Applications, & Methods

Jessica Albright

MGT 364-002 (11:00amT/TH)

Dr. Denton

21 February 2016

Workplace Morale: Reasons, Applications, & Methods 2

Research Outline

Intro: What is Morale?

Thesis: Higher Morale is correlated with the success of a company, and throughout I will

analysis trends to making teams/organizations more productive through increased morale.

I. Is morale important?

a. Student Interviews

b. Industry Insight

c. Scholarly Research

d. My Overview

e. Conclusion: Morale is important because it leads to higher productivity

II. Whose responsibility is it to boost morale?

a. Student Interviews

b. Industry Insight

c. Scholarly Research

d. Overview

e. Conclusion: It is everyone’s responsibility for morale in the workplace.

III. Approaches to Boost Morale in Management

a. Managers carry on the morale of the organization and give a positive example for

employees to follow.

b. Student Interviews – Team Managers

c. Industry Insight

d. Scholarly Reserch and Theory

e. Servant Leadership by Robert Greenleaf

f. Conclusion: Methods management can use to effectively increase morale

IV. Approaches to Boost Morale in Employees

a. Employees share the morale amongst themselves.

b. Student Interviews - Employees

c. Industry Insight

d. Scholarly Research

e. Conclusion: Methods employees can use to boost morale within their organization

V. Approaches for General Company Practices

a. Company practices enforcing policies and procedures influence morale

b. Student Interviews - CEO’s

c. Industry Insight

d. Scholarly Research

e. Conclusion: Ideas companies need to implement to increase organizational morale

VI. Overview of Four Specific Recommendations

a. More than “Just an Employee”

b. Managers Become a “Servant Leader”

c. The Employee and Manager Relationship

d. Communication does not need to be instantaneous, it does need to have substance.

Conclusion: Higher Morale is correlated with the success of a company. It is the responsibility

of employees, management, and the company. These methods will increase morale and in return

increase productivity.


Abstract

Morale in the workplace is desired in most businesses, but rarely achieved for many

circumstances. The reasons for increasing morale in the workplace vary from employee retention

to increased productivity. However, there are things standing in the way of achieving high

morale in the workplace such as unclear mission or values between employees and management.

The purpose of this research paper is to analyze the responsibility of morale in the

workplace. I will break down the different roles individuals hold within an organization, and

what each one can do to further the morale. In the end, the reader will realize that morale is, in

fact, the responsibility of every individual within the organization, and should not just be bestow

due to a person’s title.

Applications of reasoning and methods to increase morale will be through Dr.Denton’s

Operations Management Airplane Game, in which teams of students construct paper airplanes.

Each of the groups is comprised of responsibilities similar to a company. One individual is

assigned CEO, then there are middle managers featuring specifics in accounting, sales,

marketing, and human resources. Lastly, there are employees, or line workers, that are

responsible for the actual construction of the paper airplane. Creating paper airplanes, a

seemingly simple concept, is actually broken down into requirements that need to be fulfilled, as

well as restrictions that need to be followed. The teams generate strategies and methods to

increase their money, which in return gives them a better grade. Their strategies can vary from

cutting cost by outsourcing, to saving time in production by creating materials beforehand

(which comes at a cost). Through these strategies, teams compete to win over the client’s

business after their production runs, and then analyze how to better themselves for the next run.


By considering morale a major factor in their success, and applying my strategy to their

practices, teams will see a significant increase productivity and employee contentment.

Introduction: What is Morale?

The first question we need to address is what exactly morale is, and more importantly,

why is it important? A standard dictionary definition would supply you with something like this:

“Workplace Morale are the emotions, attitude, satisfaction, and overall outlook of employees

during their time in a workplace environment.” (Business Dictionary) However, we are going to

dig a bit further and apply it to real life circumstances, such as the signature Airplane Game of

Dr. Denton’s Operations Management course. Morale is anything that increases the motivation

of employees and in return makes them more productivity and efficient. Therefore, morale can

be increased be a variety of things from employee recognition, to communication, to

compensation. However, when trying to increase the morale of a team, it’s important to analyze

what can be done, and at which levels, in order to avoid adverse effects.

I. Is morale important?

With so many different strategies for success, and missions to pursue, it’s easy to put

employee morale on the backburner. However, morale, a seemingly insignificant thing can have

a huge impact on our organization. To back up this assertion, I interviewed students, gathered

input from industry leaders, and cited scholarly articles. In conclusion I will provide my own

interpretation and insight from experience to conclude that morale is important to an

organization.

Seventeen students from Dr. Denton’s class were surveyed on various implications of

morale. 100% of the students responded that morale is important to the success of the group.

However, only 64.71% of the students were actually satisfied with the overall morale of their

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/attitude.html

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/satisfaction.html

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group, which means 35.29% of students surveyed agreed that there could be room for

improvement in the morale of the group. I dug a bit further and asked each of the students to rank

one through five, the level of importance (one being highest) they perceive the following topics

to be vital to the success of their group. The five topics were: Ethics, Morale/Motivation,

Communication, Productivity, and Responsibility. Not a single participant ranked

Morale/Motivation as number one, most important. However, three students ranked

Morale/Motivation as five, being least important when compared to the other four options. While

it was not an overwhelming majority of responses, it was an inquiry to be investigated. Of these

three students ranking morale/motivation as fives, they all agreed that it was vital to the success

of their group in a previous question. Moreover, two of those three respondents were satisfied

with the current level of morale within their group. Lastly, two of those three respondents are

managers, and one is an employee. In the conclusion of the survey, I asked students to point a

finger at a specific title of a person who is deteriorating the morale of the group, not a single

finger was pointed. Which brings to the question: who is responsible for motivation and morale?

This will be addressed further in section “II. Whose responsibility is it to boost morale?” of this

research paper.

Greg Neely, District Chief of the Tulsa Fire Department, concluded in his research project

that there is a relationship between employee morale and employee productivity. (Neely, 1999)

Mr. Neely starts his report claiming, “Morale has long been debated on our department as

intangible, indefinable, and even as a choice one makes whether or not to have high moral. The

issue of morale and its relationship to employee productivity has never been quantified within

our department.” However, through his extensive research, he was able to make the declaration


“morale as an independent variable has a direct impact on the dependent variable productivity.”

Productivity is vital to success, therefore making it important to the organization.

Jason Shaw, MBA students at Naval Postgraduate School, applies morale and productivity

to employment in the department of defense. He found that while there is a direct correlation,

there will need to be individualized methods to meet the needs of specific circumstances,

similarly to what I will be addressing further in my research paper. In his conclusion, Mr.Shaw

makes recommendations to the fiscally constrained department of defense. The department of

defense must ensure “Each service member must maintain his or her highest potential

productivity” and in order to do so, they must avert their focus. “Instead of only relying on

service member ability, experience, or training as factors of productivity, the Department of

Defense should include employee morale as a force multiplier influencing productivity. […] The

Department of Defense can have more control over its return on investment by injecting positive

morale factors, and thereby increase productivity.” (Shaw, 2015)

Morale is important to the Department of Defense who implications are used to increase

productivity. The Tulsa Fire Department found morale vital to their operations. Nonetheless, the

students of Dr.Denton’s Operations Management class should seize the opportunity to further

develop their morale within their groups to create optimal success in their Airplane Game.

II. Whose responsibility is it to boost morale?

America is an individualistic society with clearly defined roles and responsibilities within

organizations. This being said, it is commonly a concern to address whose responsibility is for

the morale of the organization. Would it be the Human Resource department, the Chief

Executive Officer, or even the seemingly unimportant role of the line worker employees?


Of the seventeen students surveyed who are participating in the Airplane Game, 4 of

them (23%) claimed it was the sole responsibility of the CEO to boost morale within the

organization. Only 1 student (8%) said it was the sole responsibility of the middle management.

Not a single student declared the responsibility to rest upon the employees, but the remaining

students (12 or 70%) proclaimed it is “all of the above” (CEO, managers, AND employees) to be

responsible for overall workplace morale. These results interested me to look further at the

positions each of the respondents held and if it correlated with their response. The four students

who claimed it was the responsibility of the CEO were Kyle McCormick (CEO), Brittney Smith

(CEO), William Tyler McCullough (Manager) & Meagan Campbell (Employee). The student

who claimed it was the responsibility of the manager was Abigail Gregg (Manager). It can be

inferred that most of these students (with the exception of Mr.McCullough and Ms.Campbell)

take responsibility for their teams achievements, but also put pressure on themselves of the

overall success/failure, especially relating to morale. Moreover, the majority of participants

agreed that the responsibility of morale is distributed to all members of the organization.

Erroin A. Martin, a consultant in business coaching and leadership, obviously claims

morale lies within the leadership of an organization. (Martin, 2010) He goes on to outline

successful strategies that leaders can take boost morale, which I will address in section III.

Approaches to Boost Morale in Management. However, we need to get insight from industries

known for their employee morale, such as Google or Facebook. Jamie Tolentino compared the

practices of these two companies in her article “How the happiest companies in America boost

morale and the bottom line” In short, these companies have the “happiest” employees, which

results in retention and higher productivity. Their practices include employee empowerment and

autonomy, which means there is some responsibility of morale bestow upon employees; As well

http://vongehrconsulting.com/author/erroin-martin/

http://vongehrconsulting.com/category/business-coaching/

http://thenextweb.com/author/jamietolentino/


as managers through recognition and compensation. Not to mention the company as a whole has

a responsibility of morale through their culture and mission. (Tolentino, 2015) In the end,

industry leaders know that morale is the responsibility of everyone, not just one individual or set

of individuals based on title.

David Kendall, alum of Dr. Denton’s Operations Management class, analyzed success

strategies to be utilized in The Airplane Game through his research paper titled “Employee

Involvement: Success and Paper Helicopters” . He advised organizations to “Listen to their

employees”, which in other terms means employee empowerment. Employees should be instilled

responsibility and autonomy, thus making them vital to the morale of an organization. He goes

on to elaborate that everyone needs a productive work environment, thus making it the

responsibility of everyone, more so, the company and CEO’s to ensure this. Lastly, he makes

recommendations towards managers to communicate more effectively to employees, therefore

emphasizing that managers play a role in morale through how they communicate with

subordinates. (Kendall, 2013)

At this point, it’s clear who needs to take responsibility for workplace morale. Everyone.

Of the students interviewed, 70% understand this already. Facebook and Google, industry

leaders in the “happiest workplaces” are living proof. Mr. Kendall agrees that the shared

responsibility of morale can be implemented into the Airplane Game. With this concluding

evidence and reasoning, we shall proceed to techniques and applications of morale as regarded

per role and title.

III. Approaches to Boost Morale in Management


Manager’s carry a large portion of the morale as they set the example for employees to

follow. This includes communication, relationship building, and praising, also known as

employee recognition. Americans, being a low-context culture, naturally do not build

relationships at work. They try to keep personal and work lives separate, which in most cases

seems more appropriate and professional. However, to truly build morale, you have to open up to

your coworkers and subordinates. While such technique might make you feel vulnerable, it also

welcomes others to better flow of communication and constructive criticism.

I interviewed Airplane Game team managers to gain insight on how they are making an

effort to establish morale within their group. I was very excited to hear the feedback of manager

Abigail Gregg, as she declared it is the sole responsibility of a manager to promote morale within

the organization. However, ironically enough, she decided not to comment how she is promoting

morale, nor did she comment on how she plans to improve the morale for the future. I

interviewed two of her employees, Candy Roller and Erich Isringhaus, who both agreed there

was definitely room for improvement on morale within their team (team 6). This is an example

of a team and individual who I hope will benefit from the findings of this research paper. I went

on to interview managers from other groups and their findings were insightful and even

surprising. Jessie Kilbourn, manager on team 4, ranked morale and motivation as the lowest

factor influencing the success of his team’s performance. However, he still believes in boosting

morale, and says he personally contributes by “Constantly giving feedback to the group. We are

all always improving, and it feels good to be noticed.” This is an example of praise and

employee recognition. Millie Kingsbury, an operations manager for team 4, says she personally

contributes to the morale of the team in her quote: “During our production run today my main

focus was to encourage everyone and keep the energy positive so the employees would not feel


stressed.” She emphasizes the energy and vibes of the team, but also goes on to state that

relationships are equally important, as their group maintains them through constant contact: “Our

group stays in contact all the time with GroupMe, that way everyone stays involved and is aware

of everything going on. We also have met up several times in small groups for practice runs,

buying supplies, etc. These activities have created friendships among us. We are also planning

on bringing pizza to our next group meeting to celebrate doing well on our first production run.

The best method in this project to boost morale is to create friendships - it has made everything

10 times easier.” I’m sure it comes as no surprise that she ranked communication as her number

one priority in determining a group’s success!? Alex Hudson agrees that communication is top

priority as she gives her tip in “Promote themes and provide feedback consistently! Also, open

communication is key” William Tyler McCullough, an accounting manager for team 5, states his

number one tip for manager’s to promote morale is “singling out people's efforts” in attempt for

employee recognition. Tyree Davis ranked morale as the least important for success, ironically

he is the HR manager for his team! He promotes morale through “Games, snacks, competition

against the other groups” Jacob Bresse, an operations manager says he personally contributes to

his group morale by “listening to the employees and keeping them happy and keep giving

everyone a constant reminder they are doing a good job.” Mr.Bresse is also utilizing an approach

to employee recognition. These managers are using different morale techniques whether they

realize it or not. Employee recognition, positive energy, building relationship and

communication are all vital parts of workplace morale, and it’s prevalent in these managers

efforts. They are using GroupMe, a mobile messaging platform for groups, to stay connect,

which in return builds stronger relationship as well as increases efficiency in communication.

Employee recognition, sometimes a difficult morale strategy, is being implemented by verbal


encouragement and rewards for successful production runs. You will see that industry leaders

recommend similar practices for their organizations.

Consultants who provide leadership coaching to companies are insightful in their

direct methods to boost morale. Mr. Erroin A. Martin, from Von Gehr Consulting claims that

“Morale is the responsibility of the leader and leadership." (Martin, 2010) He then proceeds to

explain 3 main things that leaders and managers are responsible for. The first being: “Realize

that your decisions – even minor ones – can impact the morale of your team." This, seems like

somewhat a lot of pressure to direct to the middle managers, but its nonetheless true.

Occasionally middle managers will feel like only the decisions of CEO's can make a big impact

on their team's morale. However, the employees are directly in contact with the managers on a

near day to day basis. Rarely do employees come in contact with CEO's. Therefore, while the

decisions CEO's do make an indirect impact on the morale of the organization, as I will further

elaborate in section V. Approaches for general company practices, it’s important to realize that

managers are making a direct impact. Decisions such as procedure, recognition, form and

methods of communication all influence how the employees feel about their work. The second

thing Mr.Martin states managers should do is, "Seek to build a team that rallies to you and each

other. Build a culture of high standards." This goes back to leading a positive example for the

subordinates, but also you interactions with them. The manager must take the initiative to build a

culture for the organization, whether it be strengthening their communication channels, or

implementing programs for employee recognition. Lastly, Martin's third advice for managers is,

"The buck always stops with you." Simply said that a responsibility of a manager is occasionally

a hard one, as they must discipline their employees and give them constructive feedback when

operations are not aligning with the mission of the company. Similarly to what the student

http://vongehrconsulting.com/author/erroin-martin/

http://www.vongehrconsulting.com/Coach/BCP/business-coaching-programs.html


interviews uncovered, when strong relationships with managers and employees exists, it makes

communication, recognition, and feedback that much easier.

H. C. Ngambi researched the relationship between morale and leadership within higher

education. However, her findings are applicable to our business concepts. She explains that in

order for the workplace to have morale the employees must have trust in their management. The

importance of morale is also emphasized throughout her findings, but then proceeds to illustrate

how a manager can develop morale within their organization. Her advice is servant leadership.

The managers must show the employees how they got to their role of manager though

completing tasks similarly to those of the employees. (Ngambi, 2011) She refers to this practice

published by Robert K. Greenleaf. Other scholars have researched his theories and applied them

to their own situations. While many scholars criticize the theory, stating that its simple just that,

a theory, Carol Smith supports it and claims that this approach to leadership focuses on the

weakness of employees, which is unique. (Smith, 2005) Therefore, I decided to evaluate it

myself.

Greenleaf has turned into more than just a theory. Rather, Greenleaf is form of corporate

identity and branding. People can purchase Greenleaf membership, they can buy a Greenleaf

membership, attend Greenleaf Conferences, become a Greenleaf Scholar, the list goes on.

Greenleaf making such a name for itself and having cult following must regarded

highly.(greenleaf.org) However, finding an exact definition on the concept was a challenge. I

was finally able to find Greenleaf’s 25th anniversary book (originally published in 1977), in

which he defines servant leadership as, “It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve,

to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. The difference manifests itself

in the care taken by the servant first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are


being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: do those served grow as persons; do

they while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely

themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will

they benefit, or at least, not be further deprived?” (Greenleaf, 2002) He is basically saying that

inorder to be an effective leader, you must relate to your subordinates, which means you must

have gone through what they did. Through that, you will be able to determine what allowed you

to grow as a person, and you can inspire that to others.

In conclusion, management carry a huge responsibility for the morale of the team. While

they might not be the sole influencers, they provide an example for subordinates to follow. As

the student interviews brought to light, managers realize their actions are detrimental to the

groups morale and are trying to make a positive impact through employee recognition, such as

positive reinforcement for successful production runs, stronger communication through

GroupMe, and building relationships with their teammates. One more thing I would like to

encourage the teams to do is implement service leadership. A lot of the respondents admitted that

they would like to see stronger relationships within their teams. They think they are going to

achieve this by bringing pizza to meetings or talking on GroupMe. While these are solid

approaches for acquaintance unipersonal relationships, I would recommend the groups seek

professional relationships strengthened between roles of management. For example, Candy

Roller, an employee stated, “I feel there is slack in our CEO and Marketing positions. I'm not

sure they are aware of how much there involvement can/would help.” This employee objection

could be overcome by a group who practices service leadership, and whose purpose is ensure

their employees needs are being met every step of the way.


IV. Approaches to Boost Morale in Employees

Employees are rarely viewed as having an impact on the morale of the team. In fact, not a

single respondent said that the morale lies solely on the employee, whereas there was a few

respondents who lies solely on management or CEOs. This is exactly the perception that will be

combatted with the findings of this paper. Morale within an organization is the responsibility of

every single individual, regardless of rank, title, or position. Which mean, even the employees

are responsible for morale and there are methods they can use to strengthen the morale within

their cohort of employees which will ripple through the rest of the organization.

First I went to students who are employees on their Airplane Game teams to see if they

feel like they are contributing to the morale of their team. I asked Candy Roller, an employee on

Team 6, if she feels like she is personally contributing to morale and her response was, “I do. I

make all the meetings. We also have small employee meetings on our own. I try to do anything I

can to help the overall group. I also take on more responsibility then expected for my position,

which I hope helps the overall morale since the project is much harder than I expected.” Ms.

Roller brings morale to her employee group in hopes that it will help the overall group. She does

this by taking on more responsibility that she feels is allocated to her position, and attends the

meetings for employees. However, I continued to ask Mr. Roller if she feels an aspect of morale

could be improved apon, and she agreed that “I fell morale would be better if I was more

confident in our product. I not confident that the CEO and Marketing department are keeping in

contact with Maggie and Denton the way I expected. I find myself talking to them about things

that probably should not be an employee’s concern. Which brings down my morale due to lack

of confidence in what’s happening with the other departments. I do have to say the morale

between the Operations Manager and the employees is awesome, we work well together and get


stuff done!” Which shows that relationships are vital to the morale of the employees. The

relationships they have with their managers, and the confidence they have in their competence

contribute to the overall employee morale. Other student employees, such as Erich Isringhaus

and Jenifer Fitzpatrick emphasize that constant and clear communication among employees and

team members is what’s needed to boost morale. Erich Isringhaus said he helps out the morale

by, “stay[ing] active in every group activity even if it’s not in my department to let group mates

know we're a part of a team.” This shows a desire to be involved and contribute. All of the

students interviewed followed a central theme of being involved with their group even though

they are “just an employee”, taking on responsibility even though they are “just an employee”,

and not sure if they can communicate with management in the way that they desire because, yet

again, they are “just an employee”. Based on these interviews, if there was one thing I would

want the employees to change within each of their teams, it would be to change the perception

they have for the gap that exists between managers and CEO’s. There was not a gap perception

between manager’s and CEO’s… but for some reason employees feel lesser than their managers,

and don’t have the confidence to question the mission of the team. I believe the employee

meetings are a great strategy to build employee empowerment.

Mark Bevans, a blogger on the topic of workplace morale explains that “. It’s a team-

wide concern so why shouldn't it be a team-wide effort. […] ‘Management’ aren’t a mystery

force who should be responsible for every process and experience that a business encounters. As

employees, creating a morale-rich workplace is just as much up to you as your leaders.” (Bevans,

2014) He goes on to give advice for a successful collective view between employees. Employees

cannot have the mentality of every man for himself. As Truman famously quotes during his time

in office “The Buck Stops Here”, and employees cannot “pass the buck” (as the saying goes) if


they want to work in a place with good morale. Bevans gives three main tips for employees to be

an active role in the motivation of the team. First rule he titles “Maintain the status quo” in which

the employees push the team further and don’t just rely on management for motivation. Second

rule is “Sing your collective triumphs” in which the team celebrates team accomplishments.

Lastly, “Ask them what they want” which is making sure you are well connected with you

teammates and are on the same page. These three tips can be implemented through the

employees of an organization, and effect will be morale throughout the entire company and team.

The American Psychology Association wrote an article on the importance of mental

health and relating it to employee morale. One part of their advice is aimed directly at

employees, they state “Employees must take the initiative to use such workplace practices as flex

schedules wisely and find effective coping strategies — such as exercise and relaxation

techniques — for their specific on-the-job stressors.” (Novotney, 2010)

Lin Bian, Jeong-Yeon Lee, Tae-Yeol Kim and Shung J. Shin, a team of scholars,

researched the factors of a team and employees that make it successful in their article “Cognitive

Team Diversity and Individual Team Member Creative: A Cross-Level Interaction” Their

findings included that diverse teams were more successful than less diverse teams. (Lin Bian,

Lee, Kim, & Shin, 2012) While this might not directly a role of an employee to create diverse

teams, it is the role of an employee to accept and encourage them. Employees should be an

active part of a diverse team by contributing with diverse ideas and thoughts, as well as being

accepting of team members who are diverse either by race, religion, ethnicity, gender type,

sexual orientation, and other means of discrimination. By being accepting, employees are not

engaging in stereotyping, slander, or discrimination. They are seeing every individual employee

for the talents and skills they bring to the table as an employee and nothing further. The scholar


team’s research goes on to explain that with diverse team, it allows creativity to run more freely

which leads to more productive teams. Employees desire to be productive, and therefore they

should try to be accepting of diversity from others and providing diversity through their ideas.

V. Approaches for Company Practices

While employees and managers have an influence on morale in a personal, more direct

manner, company practices still play a large role in enforcing procedures and policies which are

detrimental to workplace morale. Everything from incentives, benefits and compensation to

workplace atmospherics, programs, and training all influence morale, and are responsibilities of

the companies top decision makers. When making the decision to cut a program, CEO’s, CFO’s,

and other like titles must consider more than just the cost as their loss. At the same time, CEO’s

make decisions to increase morale, which is critical to productivity and employee retention.

I interviewed two students who are representing the CEO role within their Airplane

Game teams to see how they feel there are contributing to their overall teams morale and how

they could be better benefiting their team in the future. Kyle McCormick, says that the morale of

a team is the sole responsibility of a team. When I asked him if he is personally contributing to

the morale of his team, since he is the CEO, he stated “I feel that I am. With our group I have

supported every idea and been suggestive on outside group activities. For our last meeting I

brought four large pizzas for everyone to sit down and eat and try and remember it's not just

about building our planes. We're all friends here. Sometimes that gets lost in communication and

it's good to remember to relax every now and again.” I think it’s great that Mr.McCormick is

taking the initivte to encourage team members to relax in-between production runs, and tries to

build a stronger relationship between group members, but one thing that could be improved as a


CEO is to provide more guidance. As a CEO you cannot be everyone’s friend as Mr.McCormick

seems to desire. You cannot “support every idea”. There will be ideas as a CEO that you will not

support, and that is because its for the benefit of the team which you represent. I would like to

see Mr.McCormick view of his responsibly within his team change after presenting the finding

of my research paper. I asked him what he would improve in the future to boost his teams morale

and he replied with “Group activities outside of meetings, bring food/candy/ or even go out for

drinks…” Once again, an incentive based approach to morale, which you will see later in my

findings is not always the best approach for CEO’s and upper management decision maker.

Brittney Smith was the second CEO I interviewed. She also regarded the CEO position to

be the sole responsibility of the morale in a team. When I asked her how she is personally

contributing to her team’s morale, she answered “My group knows that I care about our success.

I have brought Japanese candy to our meetings and let everyone know when someone does a

good job. I encourage positive criticism within our group to help us get better each time we

practice.” Ms. Smith also uses incentives to show appreciation, but different than

Mr.McCormick, she provides criticism to help the group get better. I believe this is a step in the

right direction. If there is going to be one overseeing individual within a team who can provide

insight and ways to improve for the future, it’s the CEO. While the manager is more concerned

with specific operations, the CEO can see what aspects of their team can be improved on, and

more importantly, communicate that with subordinates.

Since both of the CEO’s I interviewed touched on the importance of employee

recognition, I found an article for ideas on how to better motivate employees and recognize their

accomplishments. Robert Half, named by Fortune magazine as “World's Most Admired

Companies” provides three tips for recognizing employees. First, he advises “Say it Like You


Mean It” which might seem redundant, however when put into perspective is very important. If

you words do not have sincerity, then the employees will not take you seriously. On the same

token, if you praise too much, or don’t have a legitimate reason to praise, the employees will not

see your praise as appreciation. Relating to Mr.McCormick, who brought pizza to meetings

without there being a reason to celebrate. It would have been more effective, and better use of his

CEO authority to use the pizza as an incentive for reaching a certain goal. Second word of advice

is, “Publicize achievements” either by recognizing them at a meeting or through an email.

Ms.Scott says she lets everyone known when someone does something good. This is an example

of this. Last word of advice is to “Explain the bigger picture” which means even bottom line

employees will work harder if they understand the importance of their work. It translates into

taking pride for their efforts, and knowing that their work is important. Ms. Scott somewhat does

this by telling her team how they can improve in the future. She must also tell them why their

work is meaningful. (Half, 2016)

It is the goal of the organization to retain their productive employees and gain more

productive employees. How they do this is dependent on factors directly relating to employee

morale. George Mrope and Yustin I. Bangi, PhD scholars, examined the influence on

management practices to employee morale. While they focus more on employee retention, their

methods can be translated to all aspects of employee morale. Through their research, they found

fifteen things upper management do that has a significant, and negative, impact on employee

morale. Among those, the top three that had the most respondents in agreement with were:

“Incentives cut and the cuts of allowances and per diems” as number one; followed by “Failure

to creating good relationship with colleagues” and the third one being “Under-utilization of

employee skills” (Bangi & Mrope, 2014) Therefore, what can be taken away from their extensive


research project and applied to the Airplane Game is that it’s essential for CEO’s to also

maintain good relationships with their subordinates. It’s hard to do this considering CEO’s are

distanced from the working line employees, however they can still form good relationships

without direct contact or communication. Through the training, motivation, and collaboration

with managers, this will have an impact on employees as well.

Company decision makers, such as CEO’s, are a significant influencer for the

organizations morale. The choices they make effect everyone within the team, which puts a lot of

pressure onto those individuals. After evaluating the current trends within the student CEO’s and

comparing it to the research from industry leaders and scholars, I see an underlying theme -

relationships. This surprised me, because I was looking for a recipe for success, multiple steps

you need to follow in order to become a successful CEO. However, if I would give one piece of

advice to the student CEO’s, it would be to build a relationship with their teams. By relationship,

I mean understand their feelings, what frustrates them, what motivates them, their goals for the

future. Through this relationship, communicate with everyone the goals of the organization, what

the mission is, and how each individual is important for the organization to reach those goals. By

having a well-connected organization, where everyone is striving to achieve the same goal, the

rest of the decisions will be easier to make because the CEO will have a better idea of the needs

of his subordinates.

VII. Overview of Four Specific Recommendations

Through my extensive research of scholarly articles and industry evaluation, I have found

that workplace morale is vital to the success of an organization. It is clear that every individual

has a responsibility to contribute to workplace morale, in a way specific to their role in the


organization. Therefore, I have analyzed four specific recommendations to make to the

participants of the Airplane Game.

1. More than “just an employee”

First I will start with the commonly overlooked employee. Through interviewing and

surveying, I have found a significant portion of the employees don’t feel like they are directly

contributing to workplace morale. While it was not explicitly stated, I could tell in their answers

that they thought it doesn’t matter because they are just an employee. There were some responses

of employees being disappointed in their management, but they didn’t say or do anything

because they thought it would be out of place. I actually have noticed personally, a real world

application of this through my employment at various places, especially in fast-food chains. One

thing I want to tell employees everywhere is this: “You are more than just an employee. You are

an individual with thoughts, feelings, motivations, and considerations, who needs to be heard -

make yourself heard.” When it comes to improving the operations of a job, it’s for the

employees, to increase efficiency or production. Noone knows the operations better than the

employees, and while they didn’t “earn” their role of manager or get the degree needed to be a

CEO, they still have insight that is valuable to the managers and CEO’s of the organization.

Therefore, a piece of advice to employees is to take advantage of the opportunities to voice your

constructive contribution and relate to the morale of the workplace. I have found one team

employee’s felt that she was a part of her team because the team had separate employee meetings

in which they discussed things directly related to employee’s needs. This is one way to get

employee’s to provide their insight. The bottom line is that employees are responsible for the

workplace morale and they can personally contribute through their diverse views. Whether it be

an after action report proceeding production runs, or analyzing things that can go better through


employee meetings, the employees need accept responsibility for workplace morale and start

playing a bigger role in it.

2. Managers become a “servant leader”

Through evaluation of the managers in the Airplane Game, I found several areas of

improvement, but realized I could not address them all unless I found a central theme. Servant

Leadership, a theory introduced by Robert Greenfield, encompasses a lot of the values I wanted

to address. Servant Leadership is the idea that managers were not just simply given their role as

manager, they earned it by achieving the same things employees do. Even after promoted to the

role of manager, they are still expected to occasionally participate in the same activities as

employees to ensure production and conditions are appropriate for employees. I recommend the

managers follow the theory of Servant Leadership because it allows them to understand the

employees better. The employees involved in the Airplane Game felt disconnect between

themselves and the managers. Several of the employees had valuable advice and insight, but

didn’t share or contribute to the team because they didn’t have a good connection with their

managers. Moreover, employees blamed managers for incompetency’s and not doing what they

should be doing. All of these things contribute to poor workplace morale, but can be largely

eliminated with servant leadership because it allows managers to show they are competent. Not

only that, but managers will form better relationships with their subordinates. Employees want to

see a manager they can trust and are confident in their capabilities. Managers can show this

through servant leadership.

3.) The Employee and Manager Relationship

Once servant leadership is in place and employees are confident in their manager’s

capabilities, it’s important to maintain a good relationship between the two roles. Employees are


responsible for contributing to the team by bettering themselves and bettering the team. They can

only do this by means of communication of opportunity and constructive criticism. Managers

need to be open to the employee’s insight. In most cases, employees will not come straight up to

a manager to explain a deficiency they see. It’s the responsibility of the manager to give

employees the opportunity to voice concerns that could lead to improved operations. This can be

done in one of two ways. Either have meetings centralized to employees. You see meetings for

executive members, you see meetings for managers, but you rarely see meetings addressing the

needs of employees. At these employee meetings be clear of the expectations desired from the

team or organization. Be sure to emphasize the mission of the organization and elaborate on how

employees play a key player in achieving objectives. The meetings will allow employees to

provide insight on factors of production that can make things better for the team, thus improving

morale. For matters more sensitive, and not capable of being addresses in a meeting, such as

employees being dissatisfied with the manger, there should also be a “middle man” who can

address these concerns. In most cases, the HR manager should be representing this cause.

4.) Communication does not need to be instantaneous but it does need to have substance

Most groups are utilizing communication applications such as GroupMe to provide

constant contact between group members. While this might prove helpful given the time

constraints of meetings and direct communication, it is not contributing to my advice of

communication. Communication does not need to be instantaneous to be valuable. Through my

evaluation of employees, managers, and CEO’s, a large portion of respondents desired better

communication and relationship building between team members. One way to achieve this is by

providing communication that has substance.


Employee recognition is sought after by teams, but achieved by the wrong means. One

team’s CEO brings his group pizza after production runs regardless if they met objectives, if he

even set objectives. The CEO wants to befriend his group members, but only agrees with what is

being said and doesn’t offer constructive criticism for future improvement. I’ve found that

employees actually desire the feedback. They are hungry for improvement, not just the pizza!

You can improve the communication and the recognition of the team in a way that some might

feel as negative- through criticism. Through this honesty, everyone will have a means to improve

on and together they will see the team become more successful, thus boosting morale. I

encourage CEO’s to set goals and expectations for their organizations. When those objectives are

met, reward the group with positive reinforcement. If one individual does something

extraordinarily well, applaud their achievement in front of the whole group who will also

recognize the significance of that task. At the end of the year you can gather everyone together,

and give them pizza then, as you reflect upon the achievements they accomplished throughout

the time. However, by providing them with incentives not correlated with achievement, you lose

credibility. Your word and feedback soon loses its value, so be sure that every time you send

praise, its meaningful and has substance.

Conclusion: Everyone Within Your Organization Has the Responsibility to Improve Morale.

It is evident that every individual within an organization has responsibilities that improve

workplace morale. Employees have a responsibility to communicate and improve their

processes. In order to do so, they must see themselves as a valuable part of the organization and

trust in their management. Through managers who engage in servant leadership, employees will

see them as reliable and competent. Managers will form better relationships with employees

which will lead to more fluent communication. Through this communication it is important for


managers to emphasis the mission of the organization, and set goals on how to achieve

objectives. Everyone deserves recognition and praise, however it also must be deserved. While

getting together and having fun might seem like a way to build relationships, it inadvertently

leads to loss of credibility. Workplace morale can be strengthened by means that frequently have

a negative connotation, such as criticism. However, through my research I have found that the

employees desire the constructive feedback to not only make themselves better, but to better

contribute to the team. It is my intention that participates of the Airplane Game review my

research and apply it to their teams. These strategies and ideas have been tested and analyzed

through industry leaders and academic scholars, and therefore I will attest that implementation of

the advice can lead to higher success for future production runs.


Research Citations and Credits (APA formatted)

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http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/employee-morale.html#ixzz3yYLDOdxH

Bangi , Y., & Mrope, G. (2014, September). Examining the Influence of Management Practice and

Attitudes on Employee Turnover: A Case of Kibaha District Council . THE INTERNATIONAL

JOURNAL OF BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT , 2(9), 8. Retrieved from www.theijbm.com

Bevans, M. (2014, August 13). We Love 9am. Retrieved from Staff Morale - Whose responsibility is it

anyway?: http://welove9am.com/blog/detail/staff-morale-whose-responsibility-is-it-anyway

Greenleaf, R. K. (2002). Servant Leadership : A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and

Greatness (25th Anniversary Edition). New York: Paulist Press.

Half, R. (2016, March). Employee Recognition Tips to Boost Morale and Productivity. Retrieved from

https://www.roberthalf.com/employers/hiring-advice/employee-retention/corporate-

culture/employee-recognition

Kendall, D. (2013, November 21). Employee Involvement: Success and Paper Helicopters. 21. Springfield,

Missouri, USA. Retrieved from https://blackboard.missouristate.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-4014085-

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Lin Bian, B., Lee, J.-Y., Kim, T.-Y., & Shin, S. (2012). COGNITIVE TEAM DIVERSITY AND INDIVIDUAL TEAM

MEMBER CREATIVITY: A CROSS-LEVEL INTERACTION. Academy of Management Journal, 55(1),

16. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.0270

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Branford, Connecticut, USA. Retrieved from http://vongehrconsulting.com/business-coaching/a-

debate-who-is-responsible-for-morale/

Neely, G. H. (1999, July). The Relationship Between Employee Morale. An Applied Research Project

Submitted To The National Fire Academy As Part Of The Executive Fire Officer Program, 22.

Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. Retrieved March 8, 2016, from

http://fi.ge.pgstatic.net/attachments/f62e366953b64d57802309419def883c.pdf

Ngambi, H. C. (2011, Febuary 4). The relationship between leadership and employee morale in higher

education. African Journal of Business Management , 5(3), 15. Pretoria, South Africa: College of

Economic and Management Science, University. Retrieved from

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Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/2010/12/morale.aspx

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Leadership: https://www.greenleaf.org/

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Shaw, J. (2015, June). Morale and Productivity. Calhoun: The NPS Institutional Archive These and

Dissertations, 56. Monterey, California, USA: Naval Postgraduate School. Retrieved March 8,

2016, from

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bottom line. Future of Work. United Kingdom: TheNextWebNews. Retrieved from

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boost-morale-and-the-bottom-line/#gref

Student contributions and

interviews provide by:

Abigail Gregg

Alex Hudson

Brittany Smith

Candy Roller

Elissa Kuhn

Erich Isringhaus

Jacob Bresse

Jenifer Fitzpatrick

Jessie Kilbourn

Kyle McCormick

Meagan Campbell

Millie Kingsbury

Monica Vallez-Solis

Tanner Bennett

Tyree Davis

William Tyler McCullough


Appendix Items

(1) Sample questions asked to student participants - Preliminary Research

What is your full name?

Which team are you on?

What position are you within your group?

-Options: CEO, Manager, or Employee

Who, in general, would you say is responsible for maintaining the motivation in a

group/organization?

-Options: CEO, Manager, Employee, or All of the above

Morale is important to the success of our Group

-Options: Yes or No

What will be most important in determining your groups success?

-Options to Rank: Communication, Morale/Motivation, Responsibility, Productivity, Ethics

Do you feel like you are contributing to the morale and motivation of your group? If yes, please

explain how.

Is there someone in your group who is having a NEGATIVE impact on the motivation of your

group? If so, how & what position do they hold? (You do not have to mention the specific name

of the individual if you do not want to, just include activities/attitudes/what is making the impact

& their position)

What are some methods you would use to boost morale for your group?

How would you rank the overall morale and motivation of you group?

-Options: Very High, Somewhat High (Room for Improvement), Somewhat Low, Very Low

workplace morale: reasons, applications, & methods jessica ... · morale/motivation as five,...

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