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23
PUBLICATION REVIEW: MORALE AND SATISFACTION
Yu Liu, Ph. D.
Co-Director of Confucius Institute
University of Trinity Saint David
And
Professor
Tourism College
Beijing Union University
Department of Economy and Tourism
Tourism College
Beijing Union University
Beijing, China
E-mail: [email protected]
ABSTRACT
In order to gain a perspective about morale and satisfaction, the publications Recreation
Management and Employee Service Management were reviewed for typical statements that
would give an indication about the status of these factors. The focus of the review was to find
representative statements that are reflective of employee service programs.
Key Words: Critical Incident, Morale, Satisfaction, Recreation Management, Employee
Services Management
24
INTRODUCTION
The focus of this article is to review statements about employee morale and satisfaction from the
publications Recreation Management and Employee Service Management. This is not a
compilation of all the statements in the publication. Only representative descriptions were
selected. It must be noted that that some of the comments are not politically correct but are
representative of the time period from which they were chosen. These types of statements were
selected only to illustrate the changes that have occurred within the society. The records
provided are from the actual text and only are a snippet from the full transcript. The text selected
is only meant to be a representative of the many reports that were identified. The statements in
the publication were from the 1940s until the early 2000s. Comments were randomly selected
and interpreted by content experts. In the data section, the first item is the statement and the
second item is the interpretation from the content experts. The page number is a reference where
the statement can be found in the archive of the publications:
https://archive.org/details/1958and1959vol.1and2rm/page/n10
METHOD
A critical incident approach was used in the identifying of the statements. This is a methodology
in which statements were isolated that is reflective of significant curriculum comments that had a
direct influence upon program outcomes. These are reports that are outcome oriented based
upon morale and/or satisfaction. These results may be intuitive or quantitative. Most of them
were intuitive but it must be remembered that the individuals making the comments have direct,
clinical observation experience.
DATA
Page -45-
The money spent by 3M at its main plant in St. Paul for recreation has been returned
immeasurable amounts of high employee morale. Also, the program has helped to sharpen or
25
increase the skills of our employees. And, for the older employees, recreation is a subtle way of
preparing them to adjust to hobbies especially suited to old age.
Investment in programs has a good return in terms of employee morale as well as job skill
development. There is also a subtle outcome about retirees and their adjustment to life after
work. Skill development helps with adjustment at work and at home.
Page -61-
The great convenience to employees, such as working mothers, of being able to obtain finest
quality greeting cards on company premises. This creates good will and increases employee
morale.
Company stores have an impact upon employees. This shows that the company cares for the
employee by providing native services. It also helps employees and their neighbors to invest in
the company’s products. There’s a sense of pride when they can see the final product of their
efforts.
Page -62-
Recreation Oasis—American Potash & Chemical Corporation's Valley Wells, California
recreation area is located in one of the most out of the way areas in the country. An interesting
report on the value of recreation activities in raising employee morale under adverse
conditions…
Services in remote areas is essential to maintaining employee morale, therefore, fighting
boredom.
26
Page -124-
Employee’s organizations of many well-known companies have taken advantage of TWA Group
Tours — Bell Telephone. .. General Electric ... Champion Paper and numerous others. They
found group travel a great morale booster. So will you! Plan now. Contact your nearest TWA
office or mail the coupon below.
Suppliers have knowledge of how to create programs that have an impact. Companies can learn
from suppliers because they have worked across many different industries and situations.
Page -164-
J. W. Wilson, divisional manager of the Cooleemee Plant, says: “The benefits of a recreation
program in a location such as Cooleemee cannot be measured in dollars. The program is
completely financed by the company, which is an investment in recreation that pays ample
dividends. Our recreation director plays as important a part in the building of employee morale
and job satisfaction as any of our production supervisors in the plant.”
The employee service director is a bridge between management and employee.
Page -209-
Recreation benefits…attraction and holding of good employees, its contribution to good
community relations, its importance as the greater equalizer, its value in orientation, its
democratic principle and its contribution to plant morale, so that the plant is good place in which
to work.
Employee service programs attract quality employees. The democratic principles provide a good
atmosphere for the development of positive outcomes.
27
Page -259-
League bowling and family bowling are both sure to provide sound, morale-building recreation
with many substantial benefits.
Employee service programs provide for a vehicle for involving families in company affairs.
Page -266-
With its operations split between the home office in Wichita and a refinery in Potwin, Kan., a
small town 35 miles northeast, morale and personal communication between management and
employee groups had always been difficult.
Communication is an outcome because programs provide for the mixing of perspectives of the
differences between management and employees.
Page -274-
Better telephone manners, a more well-modulated voice, better appearance, more self-
confidence—all these assets can belong to the women workers. And—the morale of the male
employees should increase, too.
Politically incorrect statements but shows or illustrate the times of these types of programs.
Page -420-
Nothing builds employee morale like a friendly team spirit—and nothing builds a team spirit like
bowling—the sport that can be enjoyed by everyone. Bowling helps new employees get
28
acquainted, helps all workers build lasting friendships. And bowling’s healthful exercise—keeps
workers looking trim; feeling fit—makes them happier in their jobs. And, it’s fun for the whole
family.... Men, women, and youngsters enjoy bowling right from the start.
Activities that are simple to participate in provide involvement by all members of the employees
and their families. These develop strong company identity and spirit. Competition also helps
develops team spirit.
Page -462-
When properly used, a planned travel programs can be just as great a morale booster to the
employees of the small organization as it is to the employees of the largest! Why not employ this
form of industrial relations in your operation? Send in the reply coupon today for full
information and details!
Travel programs provide incentive and cut across company size. It is a simple program that
provides a broadening of employee perspective.
Page -523-
As it involves those elusive factors that we speak of as morale and esprit de corps, recreation
serves to cut across the reserve and formality of daily business life. Recreation activities do not
follow a company organization chart, but bring together management and labor on an equal
basis. No communications media can create the same degree of harmonious understanding.
Employee service programs allow for the mixing of all levels of the organization and provide a
vehicle that affords for greater harmony through better communication.
29
Page -578-
Altruistic motives aside, industry recognizes that important values are to be derived from
company recreation programs. Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain an annual expenditure
of more than $1 billion by management. Attraction of better workers, reduction of employee
turnover and absenteeism, increased worker efficiency and morale, accident reduction, company
name advertising and promotion of community good will represent some of the more tangible
business benefits of an effective employee recreation program.
The intangible mechanisms of employee services provide tangible benefits to the company.
Hard dollars spent on programs is a way to achieve indirectly outcomes that cannot be done in
the other way.
Page -582-
If we believe recreation can play an effective part in maintaining the morale of employees, then
we must have a range of activities that will appeal to all employees. Handicrafts, we believe, fill
an important gap in most programs that we shouldn’t overlook.
Program diversity is essential to meeting the needs of all employees.
Page -597-
• 59% said vending machines were a morale builder.
Convenience services are mechanism that provides for a more comfortable atmosphere at work.
Page -597-
30
The employee morale factor was especially important to small plants with food facilities (64%)
and to plants without food facilities (67%).
Food services provide a mechanism building relationships through providing a way of reducing
the cost of meals. This shows the company’s dedication to every day needs of the employee. It
also provides for a meeting place to discuss company and family issues.
Page -617-
Employee recreation programs pay big dividends in promoting efficiency, morale and a strong
sense of company loyalty.
Efficiency and loyalty are difficult outcomes to achieve, but the proper services and programs
can indirectly bring long-term outcomes. These programs are intervening variables that have a
wide-ranging influence, if properly applied.
Page -617-
It is also an important feature of our overall employee relations program, which has paid
dividends in promoting higher efficiency on the job, good morale and a strong sense of company
loyalty.
Comprehensive programs have a better value and a better opportunity for developing positive
employee outcomes.
31
Page -620-
The industries which have shown the greatest postwar strides are also the ones with the most
extensive recreation programs, pointing up a fact American recreation directors have long
realized: Recreational programs help create better employee morale and productivity.
Extensive employee service programs illustrate the commitment of the company to the
employees and thereby a very positive image to the community.
Page -637-
Meetings build morale, and they should be encouraged to discuss all programs. A part of every
meeting should be reserved for the safety aspects. At these meetings the employees make the
suggestions since they are often closer to the program than the recreation director who is
coordinating many efforts. Although many of these ideas may appear insignificant one may be
the bud that could blossom into something important.
Employee input is essential to achieving program effectiveness.
Page -637-
The best morale builder is for the leader to set a good example in thought, word and deed.
Leaders who do what they say provide visible evidence for employees to follow and develop
trusting relationships.
32
Page -638-
Like you, we too have company sponsored athletic programs. We have these for the normal
morale building purposes, but we also have them because one of the important divisions of our
company is the Pennsylvania Athletic Goods Division, if you’ll stand still for a commercial.
Public relations are a very important part of programs. If a company has a product, it must be
consistent in the development of policies for programs in communities.
Page -658-
Recreation in industry may properly be classified as an important and sound morale-building
practice, and morale building is a human relations problem.
Group dynamics and how it is used is very important in developing maximum effectiveness in
terms of outcomes.
Page -661-
Travel, both domestic and foreign, is a recognized, accepted form of recreation in industry and is
being used very effectively by industrial management in controlling production and stimulating
interest among fellow employees and ensuring a high standard of morale and industrial relations.
Extrinsic motivation is an important part of developing outcomes through incentives.
33
Page -664-
We feel that by helping our employees plan their trips, we not only are saving them money, but
we also are creating good will and improving morale throughout the organization.
Saving money is a goodwill effort but it shows that the company understands the employee
perspective.
Page -665-
League players may play anytime during a seven day period, but each league must come up with
a winner. Dow Chemical leagues use stroke play on a handicap basis, use USGA rules, and
frown on match play. Scheduling is most important—the number of weeks of play must be
determined. Dow Chemical feels golf affords an excellent means for its employees to work and
play together, hence enhancing their over-all morale.
Those that play together are individuals who develop a team approach. Rules for participation
provide a structure for the development of company procedure.
Page -671-
From the point-of-view of employee-management relations, particularly as it involves those
elusive factors that we speak of as morale and esprit de corps, recreation serves to cut across the
reserve and formality of daily business life.
Employee service programs help remove the formality of company atmosphere and help develop
a lubricant to understand each other’s perspective and position.
34
Page -36-
RETIREMENT can be a time of increased activity and fuller satisfaction if the retiree makes the
right emotional adjustment. This factory worker developed an avid interest in wood working
during his years of employment. Today, he uses this hobby to satisfy his own recreational needs
as well as utilizing his skills in teaching others.
Employee service programs provide a way to help integrate retirees into company operations.
Page -80-
Generally speaking, women like to serve. Remember this in programming. Hostessing at
veterans hospitals, children’s hospitals, state institutions, and service clubs offer excellent
opportunities for women to meet this desire to serve others. For the older unmarried employee or
widow this type of activity may be a lifesaver. For the younger girls, it occasionally offers them
a very satisfying evening’s activity and they recognize a degree of personal satisfaction for
having done it.
Even though this is a politically incorrect statement, it shows the power of service and the
building of skills and employees as ambassadors of the company.
Page -327-
There are many rewards which grow out of recreation beyond the invaluable gain of achieving
personal satisfaction.
Personal satisfaction is an important element for growth and development.
35
Page -331-
Things such as reading programs, sculpturing, art, ceramics, and the like are coming in for more
and more attention. The reason is, these things tend to give our employees CREATIVE
satisfaction off the job, which they may be getting to an increasingly lesser degree on some
repetitive types operations on the job.
The development of creative skills is important to the growth of the employee. It is also an outlet
that allows employees with boring jobs to find ways to relieve stress and tension. Creative outlets
also provide ways to stimulate input into company suggestions for improvement of operations.
Page -395-
Virtually every Boeing employee can find something of interest in the program; Art Scott built,
whether it is the realm of hobbies, athletics or the arts. We can estimate the hours of
entertainment and satisfaction his efforts have made possible?
Program diversity allows for the development of new skills. This in some companies is seen as a
form of entertainment and diversion.
Page -403-
Rules will make every match you play a fairer test of golf and will give you greater satisfaction
in playing.
Rules provide structure that can be transferred to the workplace.
36
Page -487-
Missing in these photos, however, are the expressions of enjoyment and genuine satisfaction
beamed by the adults who served as day camp counsellors particularly Summers Jarrett, CERA
director, and Frank Johnson, Children’ Activities chairman, whose efforts were so richly
rewarded.
Often employees develop a closer relationship to the company because of children’s programs,
especially in a summer camping. It also provides an opportunity for employees to volunteer and
develop a sense of giving back to other employees within the company.
Page -523-
To work towards the satisfaction of these needs is in management’s self-interest at the same time
that it performs a social service. People are the most essential components of any business
enterprise, and their productivity is directly related to their health, happiness and ability to work
together in an atmosphere of cooperation and harmony. Viewed in this light, industrial recreation
is not a form of welfare work, but, realistically, a profitable business investment bringing about
both spiritual and material gains.
Employee service programs can bring about spiritual gains which have the greatest lasting
influence with employees. These programs provide perspective and develop a sense of the
company culture.
Page -549-
We do this selfishly because we know that, in our technological world, we must learn or perish,
and we have chosen to learn. But it is pleasing to reflect that, while serving our corporate
interests in espousing the cause of education, we are also achieving a new pattern of industrial
life that brings increased satisfaction and greater enrichment to personal living. To the
individual, education no longer stops at the school door. His work at Lockheed is, in a real sense,
an extended post-graduate program or a lifelong extension course in adult education.
37
Employee services provide the opportunity for educational programs sponsored by the company,
which helps the individual understand that the company has an investment in them and in their
future.
Page -582-
Perhaps the best time for your annual show would be a month or so before Christmas, since
much of the work is done with Christmas gifts in mind, and there will be more works of art
available for display and competition than at any other time. Everyone enjoys the spirit of
competition and the satisfaction of having their work judged better than a competitor’s.
The timing of programs is essential for extrinsic motivation. Competitive programs provide a
chance for recognition. This recognition is a very important as part of a company socialization
process. It must be realized at this point that if the program is not done in the proper atmosphere
it can cause dysfunctional outcomes.
Page -605-
Yet the burden of these long hours is eased by the fact that he enjoys his job greatly and likes to
mull over its problems more or less constantly. All signs point to his getting the greatest
satisfaction and excitement from the job—not from off-the-job activities.
Employee services are an enrichment process. This enrichment transfers to the job by developing
a point of satisfaction beyond work.
38
Page -630-
Drama in industry could mean a more specialized activity with training in speech, acting and
allied areas. The primary objective in this case would be gaining satisfaction through perfecting a
play to perform for an audience outside of the organized group. This type would call for a
director with ability to develop the participants to the level of producing a semi-professional play
and still keep the activity in the area of recreation.
Drama programs provide an opportunity for the person to develop communication skills. These
performances often serve as a recognition program for the participants. Programs are often open
to the community and represent a public relations effort.
Page -635-
Plan, promote and publicize. Although a great deal of preparation is required for a handicraft
program, the satisfaction and positive results are well worth the effort.
Often, programs are successful because of the thoroughness of planning and marketing. These
programs reach specialized populations that have had previous experiences in an activity. It also
provides the opportunity for individuals with certain talents to learn leadership skills.
Page -636-
Handicraft also possesses creative powers in that a person can find mental, emotional and
physical satisfaction in the joy of accomplishment. Take the woman who suddenly finds she has
reached the ripe age of 65 and must retire, but doesn’t want to. Many times a person such as this
can find mental and emotional satisfaction in being able to knit or sew.
Activities provide as sense of accomplishment that has lifelong impact. This fulfillment of self-
worth translates to greater satisfaction in the employees work and life experiences.
39
Page -649-
3. An opportunity for personal development and pride of accomplishment. By all means, do not
make the mistake of underestimating the very human feeling of satisfaction which comes to an
employee from the fact that his suggestion has been accepted and is being used. He is definitely
proud of the fact that he has been able to point out improvements to management.
Participation in the development of changes in an organization is a sense of pride and
accomplishment but most importantly it is a motivational factor. This motivation has many
benefits to the individual as well as the organization.
Page -667-
To work towards the satisfaction of these needs is in management’s self-interest at the same time
that it performs a social service. People are the most essential components of any business
enterprise, and their productivity is directly related to their health, happiness and ability to work
together in an atmosphere of cooperation and harmony.
It is important that both the company as well as the individual goals must be achieved. When
both of these are accomplished the company and individual will achieve a maximum potential.
Cooperation and collaboration with mutual respect is important in achieving the full potential of
both the company and the individual.
CONCLUSION
Most of the statements are based upon the use of intuitive processes by Employee Service
Directors and Suppliers. Their experiences provide guidance to the development and execution
of successful programs. These are the secrets boiled from the above statements. These are only
examples and much further analysis is needed to analyze statements like these on a
comprehensive basis.
40
There is little doubt that Employee Service Directors understand the value of employee services
and its relationship to employee morale and satisfaction. The primary question raised several of
the comments is the cost of the program and not being able to measure its impact. This is a theme
through most of the data and presents a barrier to those who do not have direct experience with
programs. A couple themes through the comments were:
Bridge the gap between management and employees
Development of better communication
Skill development
Create respect within the organizational culture
Develop team spirit
Helps develop positive organizational culture
The question being raised is how employee service programs can be applied to achieve the
outcomes identified. Employee service directors have learned the secrets to the program
application. These outcomes are not guaranteed but the mechanisms of employee services have
to be isolated to analyze and prescribe services that have maximum impact upon employees. This
begins with the understanding of the needs of employees and how meaning is developed in one’s
life.
RESOURCES
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Creating a Can-Do Culture, Conference Proceeding Book (ACCA), Rio Hondo College,
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pp 1-4.
41
Editorial Staff 2016 Give Employees a Sense of Achievement, Successful Supervisor, Vol. 21
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Editorial Staff 2017 Happiness on the job? Beware 'second-year slump', HR Specialist, Vol. 15
Issue (4), pp 5-8.
Gray, A. 2018 Instill Passion in Your Workers, Westchester County Business Journal, Vol. 54
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