Why morale matters

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8688e398-c634 ... fd2ac.html

The only kind of morale that is held to matter much is that of the troops. Battle morale must be kept up at all costs, lest the armed forces lose the stomach to fight and kill. But, otherwise, morale is one of those soft or subjective entities that can't be quantified precisely and so seems less important than crunchable items such as productivity. "Country suffering poor morale," would clearly be laughable as a headline, whereas "Medium-term growth forecast drops by a percentage point" is perfectly respectable.

On the other hand, nothing matters more to you and me as we live our lives than morale. If our morale plummets, that means that life loses its savour, its joy, its meaning. Not only that, if our morale is low, we are more likely to make mistakes that may affect others. We don't want our postman or our surgeon to be suffering from low morale: the one may fail to deliver the letter expressing the long-awaited change of heart, the other may remove the wrong kidney.

For these reasons, I take seriously reports such as one on Newsnight in May last year: "Doctors are better paid and work fewer hours than ever before - but according to James Johnson, who has just resigned as the chair of the British Medical Association, morale has never been lower." Or this from The Guardian, on the ominous date of September 11 2007: "Morale at Britain's main security vetting agency has plummeted to 'dreadful' levels after two years of abrasive management . . . Civil servants at the Defence Vetting Agency (DVA) are intimidated and scared to speak out, according to the agency's former acting head, who is claiming constructive dismissal from his post." The DVA is not a household acronym but it is clearly important: a crucial bulwark against terrorism.

The former acting head of the DVA makes a connection between "abrasive management" and "plummeting morale". A certain, prevalent style of management seems more or less designed to engineer low morale. Take the management of the Royal Mail in the UK, which has involved paying the chief executive Adam Crozier £1.25m a year while closing post offices and systematically demoralising the workforce (average salary £16,796). Only 29 per cent of the staff, according to Royal Mail's monthly barometer of staff satisfaction, believe they are valued by management.

Morale has been chronically low in many of the UK's public services and industries for years now. When the university system was massively expanded during the 1980s and 1990s (surely a good thing in itself), there was no corresponding increase in staff numbers and pay. I witnessed the exodus of some of the brightest and best. These days, university lecturers are paid a risibly small fraction (around a fiftieth) of Crozier's salary. If that is the way the highest academic and intellectual ability is seen to be valued, no wonder, first, that philistinism stalks the land and, secondly, that - as FT Weekend discussed two Saturdays ago - so many people are either seeking or have sought a permanent route out of the UK.

So, at the start of a year marked by forecasts of economic misery, how can we raise our morale? What are the reliable morale-boosters? The first that comes to mind is pride in work well done. I don't know how much joy or savour there would be in my life if I could not take pride in my work. Two young German architects I spoke to the other day told me that in their experience only about one in 10 firms of builders in London took pride in work well done. The situation was quite different in Switzerland and Austria, where builders still regard their work as a satisfying craft. Now there's a challenge for Gordon Brown.

Is it hopelessly naive to imagine that posties also might recover the pride in their work, the sense of being valued? For several years after joining the Post Office in the 1840s, Anthony Trollope was intensely miserable, hating his work and seeing no escape from a London life of poverty and debt and the failure to achieve his literary ambition. But after he was sent as a postal surveyor to Ireland, his life turned around. He liked Ireland and the Irish, earned much more money (through bureaucratic fluke), met the girl he would marry, started to write novels and came to like his day job. "The Post Office at last grew upon me and forced itself into my affections," he records in his autobiography. "I became intensely anxious that people should have their letters delivered to them punctually."

Trollope never made it quite to the top of the Post Office, but you can be sure he would have deployed a management philosophy different from that of his boss Rowland Hill, who regarded employees as "so many machines who could be counted on for their exact work without deviation, as wheels may be counted on which are kept going always at the same pace and always by the same power." Trollope went on to boost everyone's morale by writing novels of humanity and warmth that still give rich pleasure.

[jemima]

"Posties might recover their pride in their work"?

I already have that. I'd feel uncomfortable if I didn't do my work well, by my own high standards. But, I'm unhappily aware that my standards are not shared or valued by Adam Crozier or Allan Leighton or even by the government of this country. £££ are their only concern and they don't care about doing a job properly if it can be done cheaply instead. It's not me that needs to change; it's those at the top whose values need to be readjusted.

[saru]

"Posties might recover their pride in their work"?

I already have that. I'd feel uncomfortable if I didn't do my work well, by my own high standards. But, I'm unhappily aware that my standards are not shared or valued by Adam Crozier or Allan Leighton or even by the government of this country. £££ are their only concern and they don't care about doing a job properly if it can be done cheaply instead. It's not me that needs to change; it's those at the top whose values need to be readjusted.

Well said, jemima!

[rhino49]

"Posties might recover their pride in their work"?

I already have that. I'd feel uncomfortable if I didn't do my work well, by my own high standards. But, I'm unhappily aware that my standards are not shared or valued by Adam Crozier or Allan Leighton or even by the government of this country. £££ are their only concern and they don't care about doing a job properly if it can be done cheaply instead. It's not me that needs to change; it's those at the top whose values need to be readjusted.

I doubt that anyone on here could have put it better Jemima

[pinstripe]

"Posties might recover their pride in their work"?

I already have that. I'd feel uncomfortable if I didn't do my work well, by my own high standards. But, I'm unhappily aware that my standards are not shared or valued by Adam Crozier or Allan Leighton or even by the government of this country. £££ are their only concern and they don't care about doing a job properly if it can be done cheaply instead. It's not me that needs to change; it's those at the top whose values need to be readjusted.

I agree, and here I thought it was only me that felt the whole country had to change instead of me. The emphasis on profits over service are disgusting, even the NHS has customers now, where will it end? One thing for sure, Gordon Brown, Leighton and Crozier won't give a **** after they have screwed this company and country into the ground as long as they made their money out of us. You are 100% spot on Jemima, £££ is all they care about, as long as it is going into their pockets. Oh, how I hate them!

[axeman]

It's been said in the past that Britains is run by accountants we have the higest ratio of these in the world apparently. Goes to show just what is of more importance to the chumps that sit on our directors board. The only quest they have is for maximium profit at any cost even if it means screwing your workforce but the major thing they forget is you need your workforce 'on side' otherwise your best laid plans become fruitless.
And maybe the 'yes' vote was secured but the implementation of it will be a hard fought process. I welcome the challenges this is going to bring and the many confrontations along the way as i'm not one who will pander to any managers whim thats for sure