The Foreign Service Journal, February 2004

comforts” and affect quality of life, and therefore has a strong effect on post morale. More substantial than manage- ment style is the actual ability to man- age properly. Talking about ways to build morale, Levinson says: “The real cures for morale problems are the practices of good management. That means managing an organiza- tion, or a work group, so that it can perpetuate itself (which includes adapting to the future), rather than managing for immediate profit alone.” This is brought up regularly, and it is my impression that “poor management style” is often used as a euphemism for incompetent man- agement. Fortunately, the depart- ment has recently devoted some attention to management training and “customer service.” Some of the management blun- ders that come to my attention violate the most basic principles of human relations, such as the right to privacy and the right to be treated with respect. I believe the problem here is a poor fit between the person and his/her characteristics or personality and the position they are given; i.e., people in managerial positions who do not have the attributes or training to do the job well. Mismanagement has a demoraliz- ing effect and teaches disastrous approaches to management to more junior officers who see it is accepted or ignored at higher levels. This per- petuates the problem. External factors . External fac- tors can have a strong effect on morale and tend to vary more from post to post. Many are determined by culture, others by geographical location or degree of development of the country. There is usually also a great deal of variability in the degree of personal tolerance to these factors with some people preferring to serve in hardship posts, posts in underde- veloped countries or certain cultures. This is one reason why a good match between the employee and the job is quite important. A mismatch often leads to job burnout. After 9/11, the risk of a terrorist attack has become a worldwide morale factor. As time passes and additional security measures are taken, the risk is described as “an awareness” rather than a worry at most posts. But for those posts at higher risk or that have received spe- cific threats, there is a direct effect on morale. This issue will continue to evolve and, unfortunately, to affect morale for the foreseeable future. A Simple, Workable System Does the system produce a “pre- scription” for good morale? The short answer is no. With the com- plexity and variability involved in the morale of our missions, this simple system could not produce a prescrip- tion to remedy all problems. On the other hand, once the factors that affect morale adversely are identified, some of the remedies may become evident. Also it may make clear that other factors cannot be changed. Referring to empowerment as a factor to improve morale in mid-level management, A. B. Fisher suggests following three steps: First, find out what people are thinking, what they believe the problems in the organiza- tion are. Second, let them design the solutions. Finally, get out of the way and let them put those solutions into practice. I believe a similar approach is appropriate in our situation. If this system can provide a fairly objective and comparable measure of morale and identify the factors that influence it, it has succeeded in its objective. How this information is used is for management to decide, but I believe we do our job by providing the infor- mation. How does this system for evaluat- ing morale measure up? “In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king,” goes the popular saying. Maybe this is the case here. I do not know of other systems that could be used for comparison, but personal observation and feedback received from the posts visited indicate that the system seems to be accomplish- ing its objective. In a lucky coincidence, two of the extended assessments I carried out using this system were followed by inspections of the posts. As part of the inspection, the OIG team looked at some of the same factors I explored in the morale assessments. In both cases I was told that their findings were basically the same. This, in my opinion, validated my findings, as the inspectors obtained theirs through a different approach and not necessari- ly from the same sources. Several posts have been surprised by findings they did not expect. Morale is a vital indicator of the overall state of emotional or psycho- logical well-being of work groups and reflects how well an organization is managed. It is important to look at morale systematically, in a way that allows the estimated level of morale and the factors that affect it to be compared in repeated visits or at dif- ferent posts. I believe this system allows us to do that and to gather information that can be helpful to management in addressing morale issues.  F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 61 For those posts at higher risk or that have received specific threats, there is a direct effect on morale.