Improving morale

Tom Breur

10 April 2016

According to Peter Drucker, management’s duty is to maximize the output from all available resources. When I look around, I sometimes get the impression that gets interpreted as setting (arbitrary) deadlines, assigning responsibility (“surely we must be able to blame someone!”), and whipping employees so that they will work harder. I’ve written about the phallacy of “fake” deadlines before, and instilling a fabricated sense of pressure is yet something else.

Nobody wants their employees to cut corners, skirt compliancy, close an eye to ethics, etc. At least, that’s what I always imagined. Which leaves me wondering: why do managers feel they need to “add pressure”, in order to maximize productivity? Either employees are drawn to your corporate mission, or not.

Exerting undue pressure does little to “make” people believe in shared goals or purpose. It also implicitly discourages people to take a step back from time to time, to rethink planned solutions. It is in these minutes or hours of contemplation, that days or weeks of work can be saved! In a frantic rush, things may get expedited, but expediting always comes at a cost. And to me, instilling a sense of urgency, without a sense of purpose, chips away at my morale. But I guess otherwise “the beatings will continue until morale improves” J