WORKPLACE MORALE     PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Singapore - Managers who focus on instilling belief in employees that they are capable of achieving certain results would boost workplace morale and staff performance.

First introduced as a core concept in Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory, self-efficacy is defined as an individual's personal judgment of their ability to execute a course of action required to attain designated goals. According to Seow Bee Leng, principal trainer of Continuum Learning, the perception employees have of their ability will affect their motivation and behaviour at work. "Individuals who perceive themselves as highly efficacious activate sufficient effort to produce outcomes," Seow says. "Whereas those who perceive low self-efficacy are likely to cease their efforts prematurely and fail the task."

In other words, as self-efficacy increases, employees will exert more effort and take initiative in learning about their job, the organisation, and themselves when faced with obstacles. Thus, managers can ensure high levels of performance within the organisation.

Here are four key learning strategies, Seow says, managers should adopt to develop self-efficacy in their teams:

Personal mastery experience - This is defined as repeated performance accomplishments. When employees believe their efforts have been successful, their confidence to accomplish similar or related tasks increases. However, when they believe their efforts failed to produce the effect desired, confidence to succeed in similar endeavours diminishes. For instance, service employees who have earned compliments and awards for their service delivery will typically believe themselves to be capable in this area for years to come.

Vicarious experience - Observing competent employees performing and succeeding in a similar task strengthens one's self-efficacy, explains Seow. This leads to a "If he or she can do it, so can I" belief that will cause the observer to raise their performance level accordingly.  

Verbal persuasion - Verbal encouragement and positive feedback from supervisors, colleagues and customers can boost the employee's confidence in their capabilities to deliver quality work. If employees receive encouragement such as "You can do this" and reassuring statements like "You can do better next time", they are more likely to exert greater effort and succeed in the given task.

Physiological states - Feelings of anxiety, stress, pain, and fatigue may influence an employee's self-efficacy. A highly-stressed individual, who experiences a feeling of dread or fear when faced with a project, is likely to feel vulnerable to the higher probability of anticipated failure. Increasing employees' physical and emotional well-being and reducing negative emotional states with a good working environment and culture can strengthen their self-efficacy.

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