Morale Scolarium
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Morale ( , ) is the capacity of a group's members to maintain belief in an institution or goal, particularly in the face of opposition or hardship. Morale is often referenced by authority figures as a generic
value judgment A value judgment (or normative judgement) is a judgment of the rightness or wrongness of something or someone, or of the usefulness of something or someone, based on a comparison or other relativity. As a generalization, a value judgment can ref ...
of the willpower,
obedience Obedience, in human behavior, is a form of "social influence in which a person yields to explicit instructions or orders from an authority figure". Obedience is generally distinguished from compliance, which some authors define as behavior infl ...
, and
self-discipline Discipline is the self-control that is gained by requiring that rules or orders be obeyed, and the ability to keep working at something that is difficult. Disciplinarians believe that such self-control is of the utmost importance and enforce a ...
of a group tasked with performing
duties A duty (from "due" meaning "that which is owing"; , past participle of ; , whence "debt") is a commitment or expectation to perform some action in general or if certain circumstances arise. A duty may arise from a system of ethics or morality, e ...
assigned by a
superior Superior may refer to: *Superior (hierarchy), something which is higher in a hierarchical structure of any kind Places * Superior (proposed U.S. state), an unsuccessful proposal for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to form a separate state *Lak ...
. According to Alexander H. Leighton, "morale is the capacity of a group of people to pull together persistently and consistently in pursuit of a common purpose". With good morale, a force will be less likely to give up or surrender. Morale is usually assessed at a collective, rather than an individual level. In wartime, civilian morale is also important.


Definition

Military history experts have not agreed on a precise definition of "morale". Clausewitz's comments on the subject have been described as "deliberately vague" by modern scholars.
George Francis Robert Henderson Colonel George Francis Robert Henderson, CB (2 June 1854 – 5 March 1903) was a British Army officer and author best known for writing '' Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War'' (1898).''Jersey, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 181 ...
, a widely read military author of the pre-
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
era, viewed morale as related to the instinct of self-preservation, the suppression of which he said was "the moral fear of turning back", in other words, that a willingness to fight was bolstered by a strong sense of duty. Henderson wrote:
Human nature must be the basis of every leader's calculations. To sustain the ''moral ' of his own men; to break down the ''moral ' of his enemy—these are the great objects which, if he be ambitious of success, he must always keep in view.
During the proceedings of the Southborough Committee inquiry concerning shellshock, testimony by Colonel
J. F. C. Fuller Major-General John Frederick Charles "Boney" Fuller (1 September 1878 – 10 February 1966) was a senior British Army officer, military historian, and strategist, known as an early theorist of modern armoured warfare, including categorisin ...
defined morale as "the acquired quality which in highly-trained troops counterbalances the influence of the instinct of self-preservation." Of Henderson's "moral fear", the soldier's sense of duty, it is contrasted with the fear of death, and to control one's troops required of a commander more than authoritarian force, but other strategies to be deployed to that purpose.


Military

In
military science Military science is the study of military processes, institutions, and behavior, along with the study of warfare, and the theory and application of organized coercive force. It is mainly focused on theory, method, and practice of producing mi ...
, there are two meanings to morale: individual perseverance and
unit cohesion Unit cohesion is a military concept, defined by one former United States Chief of staff in the early 1980s as "the bonding together of soldiers in such a way as to sustain their will and commitment to each other, the unit, and mission accomplishme ...
. Morale is often highly dependent on soldier effectiveness, health, comfort, safety, and belief-in-purpose, and therefore an army with good
supply lines Military supply-chain management is a cross-functional approach to procuring, producing and delivering products and services for military materiel applications. Military supply chain management includes sub-suppliers, suppliers, internal inf ...
, sound air cover, and a clear objective will typically possess, as a whole, better morale than one without. "Will to fight" is the single most important factor in war. Will to fight helps determine whether a military unit stays in the fight and also how well it fights. Historically, elite
military unit Military organization ( AE) or military organisation ( BE) is the structuring of the armed forces of a state so as to offer such military capability as a national defense policy may require. Formal military organization tends to use hiera ...
s such as special operations forces have "high morale" due to their training and pride in their unit. When a unit's morale is said to be "depleted", it means it is close to "crack and surrender". It is well worth noting that generally speaking, most commanders do not look at the morale of specific individuals but rather the "fighting spirit" of squadrons, divisions, battalions, ships, etc. In August 2012, an article entitled "Army morale declines in survey" states that "only a quarter of the SArmy's officers and enlisted soldiers believe the nation's largest military branch is headed in the right direction." The "... most common reasons cited for the bleak outlook were "ineffective leaders at senior levels," a fear of losing the best and the brightest after a decade of war, and the perception, especially among senior enlisted soldiers, that "the Army is too soft" and lacks sufficient discipline."


Employee morale

Employee morale is proven to have a direct effect on
productivity Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proce ...
; it is one of the cornerstones of
business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for ...
.


See also

*
Military psychology Military psychology is a specialization within psychology that applies psychological science to promote the readiness of military members, organizations, and operations. Military psychologists provide support to the military in many ways, includ ...
*
Collective identity Collective identity or group identity is a shared sense of belonging to a group. This concept appears within a few social science fields. National identity is a simple example, though myriad groups exist which share a sense of identity. Like ma ...
*
Committee for National Morale The Committee for National Morale was a United States presidential advisory committee for the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, organized to analyze the nation's overall morale during World War II, study propaganda efforts by the Axis power ...
*
Demoralization (warfare) Demoralization is, in a context of warfare, national security, and law enforcement, a process in psychological warfare with the objective to erode morale among enemy combatants and/or noncombatants. That can encourage them to retreat, surr ...
*
Information warfare Information warfare (IW) is the battlespace use and management of information and communication technology (ICT) in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent. It is different from ''cyberwarfare'' that attacks computers, software, and ...
*
Motivation Motivation is an mental state, internal state that propels individuals to engage in goal-directed behavior. It is often understood as a force that explains why people or animals initiate, continue, or terminate a certain behavior at a particul ...
*
Pre-work assembly Throughout China, many organizations have their workers gather outdoors before their shift for a pre-work assembly. They stand at attention in formation, wearing their work uniforms, grouped by position in the company. They face one or two manager ...
*
Psychological warfare Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), has been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations ( MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Mi ...
*
Rank theory of depression Rank theory is an evolutionary theory of depression, developed by Anthony Stevens and John Price, and proposes that depression promotes the survival of genes. Depression is an adaptive response to losing status (rank) and losing confidence in th ...


References


External links

*Matteo Ermacora
Civilian Morale
in

*
Adi Sherzer Adi or ADI may refer to: Abbreviations * Acceptable daily intake, in health and medicine * Acting detective inspector, a type of police inspector * Africa Development Indicators, a compilation of data assembled by the World Bank * Alternating ...
& Samuel Boumendil
The Morale Component of the Russia–Ukraine War
in: Uzi Ben-Shalom & others (eds.), ''Military Heroism in a Post-Heroic Era'' (Springer, 2024). {{wiktionary Psychological warfare Psychological attitude Motivation Group processes