Morale, engagement, and motivation at work

The relationship between organizational culture and associate engagement has been on my mind lately. I've been reflecting on a 2017 Gallup study that reported only 15% of employees globally feel engaged at work. That's both a sad and stunning statistic.

Unfortunately, when organizational leaders attempt to address this issue, I think many tend to confuse "engagement" with "morale." But these two concepts aren't the same.

"Morale" is something temporary and fleeting—something tied to day-to-day conditions in an organization. It's a measure of how content people feel at a given moment. It's also fairly easy for leaders to influence (for example, by offering a new workplace perk).

"Engagement" is something that runs much deeper. It's a measure of how invested people feel in the organization, their role in it, and the effects of their work overall. It's not necessarily an measure of how "happy" or "content" they feel at any given time. Sometimes, for example, the most engaged people are the ones who get frustrated most often—because they're invested in maintaining high standards for their team, department, or company. Engagement is tied much more directly to organizational culture, and it's therefore more resistant to sudden changes (adding a foosball table to your cafeteria won't satisfy people who feel disengaged from their work).

I think of the difference between morale and engagement like the difference between weather and climate. Weather is something much more "local," something more fickle, prone to change, and temporary. Your region's climate, however, is something more deep-seated, entrenched, abstract, and consistent. The weather in your area might change from day to day, but your climate isn't going to shift overnight.

As the Gallup report indicates, our tried-and-true strategies for fostering engagement don’t work in today’s world. That's because as the nature of our work changes, the reasons people stay invested in that work are also changing.

Additional research shows that extrinsic rewards (like bonuses or promotions) are great at motivating people to perform repetitive and routine tasks. They're excellent tools for helping maintain morale in light of the monotonous nature of the work itself.

Today, however, more roles require critical judgement and creativity more than efficiency and an ability to enact prescribed plans. Doing this kind of work well requires intrinsic motivation; it requires people to feel intimately engaged in their work. And if people aren't feeling engaged at work, they're much less likely to think innovatively.

Last May, I wrote about this at Opensource.com. I said:

Engagement is an indicator of something that runs much deeper: your organizational culture. So to begin addressing engagement issues, you'll need to focus on both the principles your organization stresses and the routine practices you enact to reinforce those principles. It starts with the much more demanding problem of people's intrinsic motivations to remain invested in their work.

I also offered three suggestions for increasing engagement, which I've gleaned from watching highly engaged Red Hatters do some amazing work.

I'm curious to know if you're sensing engagement issues in your organization. If you are, how are you addressing them?