Maintaining morale in difficult times: discovering employee motivators through effective management.

• Author: Brown, Andy
• Position: HR MATTERS

There was a phase in the development of American business where "efficiency" was the buzzword du jour. Businesses poured their resources into consultants and researchers in order to discover the most efficient way to conduct their specific business. The driving idea behind this was that the more efficient a business ran, the greater the operating margin and therefore the greater profit realized.

Two researchers, Elton Mayo and FJ. Roethlisberger, conducted what are now known as the Hawthorne studies trying to discover the optimal length of work productivity. They would have the employees work for different amounts of time and then have them take breaks of different duration, but they found no measurable difference so they started testing other factors like lighting and temperature.

What they found confused them. When they checked the productivity of the workers after raising the temperature, they found productivity increased. Lower temperature also increased productivity. Both increased and decreased lighting resulted in higher productivity as well. Worker productivity increased regardless of the altered condition.

Finally they began to realize the employees were not responding to the change in work environment, but to the perceived increased level of interest their employer gave them. In essence, the workers were saying, "This attention is gratifying to me."

Today's economy presents employers with challenges that can be addressed by understanding the results of the Hawthorne studies. Maintaining morale in difficult economic times can be problematic at best and frequently morale is the least of an employer's concerns. When times get tough, many employers simply start cutting everything from perks to personnel, and frequently, the result is a precipitous change in morale to which the boss replies, "Employees should be happy just to have a job." While technically accurate, such an attitude does little to change the office atmosphere for the better and often simply makes it even worse.

Other employers implode because they equate happy employees with higher salaries. These employers are usually pushed into this belief by strong personalities who are looking for more. The problem with this situation is that workers who are motivated primarily by money will never be satisfied with whatever salary they receive. This circumstance is only exacerbated when times get tough.

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