Professor finds continuity planning improves employee morale

Published 23 August 2006

Employees report higher job satisfaction, stronger perceptions of control, enthusiasm for hard work

There are good long-term reasons for companies to invest in continuity planning, the main one being obvious in the very name: the business can continue. Now a professor at Florida State University has located an immediate benefit as well: improved employee morale. With Florida’s hurricane season in mind, Wayne Hochwarter, an associate professor of management in FSU’s College of Business, asked more than 600 employees from a variety of organizations to discuss their company’s continuity planning. For companies that had both developed and internally publicized their continuity plans, the effects were substantial and included:

—Significantly higher levels of job satisfaction

—Greater willingness to do things beyond what is expected by management

—Perceptions of greater control

—More enthusiasm and a greater willingness to work harder than expected

—More compassion for others

—Greater feelings of support from the organization

—Lower levels of depressed mood at work

-read more in this Continuity Central report