morale

""The state of the spirits of a person or group as exhibited by confidence, cheerfulness, discipline, and willingness to perform assigned tasks."" Source: morale. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/morale (accessed: November 10, 2006)

Morale of the organization members is essential for an organization to endure, especially in the face of challenges and adversity. Many studies find that morale and performance are strongly correlated. If morale is highly dependent upon a moral purpose, then performance and purpose go hand-in-hand as well.

Mourkogiannis' four main building blocks to morale -- Source: Mourkogiannis, 2005, pp 113 - 126

• extrinsic rewards such as bonuses and praise
• enjoyment of the task itself
• membership in a community
• purpose, as the underlying moral idea being pursued, is what most people want to work for and is beyond money and status in its drawing power for members to participate.