Recently, I’ve run into posts, articles, and discussions concerning findings that employee morale doesn’t equate to productivity. They are an excellent example of how easily we can mislead ourselves with data.

By way of background, apparently some of the research groups and “better management” consulting firms assembled analyses refuting the assumption that higher employee morale will drive higher employee productivity. Hearing such a statement, some of us immediately acknowledge that the findings merely state the obvious. Some of us argue that the analyses couldn’t have drawn an accurate conclusion. Some of us demand to see the data and the analyses, suspicious that something so obviously complex couldn’t possibly be summed up so simply.

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