I agree that ‘hard work’ does not precisely capture that which high morale systems reward. ‘Effort’ might be closer, but rewarding someone who is effortlessly friendly or effortlessly smart (when either is required for the job) would not hurt morale.
I would perhaps phrase it as the alignment of perceived incentives of the individuals to the goals of their employers. You get what you reward.
For example, a terrible workplace in which it is common knowledge that promotions are the result of having sex with your superior might seem low morale, but strictly speaking is not. Over time, you will attract a lot of people who are highly motivated. Specifically, motivated to have sex with their bosses and land cushy bullshit jobs. Naturally, for most organizations this is orthogonal to their mission, so as far as advancing the interests of the org are concerned, morale would be low, just as if promotions were assigned by lottery.
I agree that ‘hard work’ does not precisely capture that which high morale systems reward. ‘Effort’ might be closer, but rewarding someone who is effortlessly friendly or effortlessly smart (when either is required for the job) would not hurt morale.
I would perhaps phrase it as the alignment of perceived incentives of the individuals to the goals of their employers. You get what you reward.
For example, a terrible workplace in which it is common knowledge that promotions are the result of having sex with your superior might seem low morale, but strictly speaking is not. Over time, you will attract a lot of people who are highly motivated. Specifically, motivated to have sex with their bosses and land cushy bullshit jobs. Naturally, for most organizations this is orthogonal to their mission, so as far as advancing the interests of the org are concerned, morale would be low, just as if promotions were assigned by lottery.