Moral health

Moral health is the extent to which the mix of individual and situational factors that characterise an organisation encourages its members to behave on the whole pro-socially, or invite them to do the opposite. Behaviour that is pro-social is – all things considered – more beneficial than harmful to others, apart from the acting individual. It is the kind of behaviour that takes full account of the interests of others. Those others include colleagues, the organisation itself, customers, end users, business partners, society in general, and all other life on planet Earth.

The purpose of Orea is to improve pro-social behaviour in the workplace by individual employees, by giving stakeholders a deep understanding of the state of all causal factors leading up to the intention to perform that behaviour. This in turn makes it possible to improve the moral health of the organisation. To benefit all.

The benefits of moral health

Moral health refers to pro-social behaviour in the workplace that goes beyond what is required by law or contract. Such behaviour, which is also referred to as Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB), has been found to be associated with higher organisational effectiveness, employee retention, task performance, productivity, efficiency, and customer satisfaction, and lower costs, turnover, and absenteeism.

Factors that contribute to pro-social work behaviour often also relate to greater work performance. Such contributing factors include feelings of fairness and justice, the perception that the organisation contributes to a sustainable environment, the feeling that top management behaves ethically, and the quality of the interaction between co-workers and between the ranks of the organisational hierarchy.

The difficulty of promoting pro-social behaviour

You can enforce pro-social behaviour only up to a point, and then soon enough it is likely to backfire. Sam Walton famously ordered his employees to smile the moment a customer comes within ten feet. What could not be enforced is whether the smile is sincere, or the help subsequently offered is genuine and in the customer’s best interest. The trick (which Orea aims to perfect) is to create the circumstances that invite pro-social behaviour that is self-chosen, and autonomously perceived as being desirable.

The importance of knowing the reasons for pro-social behaviour

To make sure pro-social behaviour is a defining and lasting quality of an organisation, we need to concern ourselves not only with the behaviour as such, but also with the reasons for that behaviour. For instance, people can engage in pro-social behaviour to gain purely personal benefits or to avoid sanctions. Such behaviour is then not likely to last very long. 

To measure the factors that invite or obstruct pro-social behaviour is the first step towards taking charge of the aspects of an organisation that underlie such behaviour. Only by digging into the reasons for behaviour can you effectively limit the risks of anti-social behaviour and foster an atmosphere in which pro-social behaviour is natural.