In December 2004, the Harvard Business Review released the results of a survey carried out by the Corporate Leadership Council (CLC), which involved the compiling of 50,000 employee engagement surveys in more than 59 countries worldwide. One of the main findings from the study was that increased commitment can result in a 57% improvement in discretionary effort displayed by employees. According to Buchanan (2004) the increased discretionary displayed by employees produced on average, a 20% increase in individual performance and an 87% reduction in desire to leave the organisation. .
According to Sirota, Mischkind & Meltzer (2005), from the analysis of their research on employee attitudes, which was based on never before-published case studies and data from 920,000 employees from 28 multinational companies over four years, resulted in the generation of hard data to prove that the share price of organisations with highly engaged employees increased on average by 16% in 2004 in comparison to the industry average of 6%. Similarly, the stock price of organisations with high moral had superior performance to comparable companies in the same industry with a ratio of 2.5:1 during 2004. Conversely the stock price of companies with low moral underperformed in relation to the industry competitors by a ratio of 5:1. .
According to Sirota, (2005) "Morale is a direct consequence of being treated well by a company, and employees return the gift of good treatment with higher productivity and work quality, lower turnover (which reduces recruiting and training costs), a decrease in workers shirking their duties, and a superior pool of job applicants." These gains translate directly into higher company profitability. Satisfied employees lead to satisfied customers, which results in higher sales. Satisfied customers and higher sales, in turn, result in more satisfied employees who can enjoy the sense of achievement and the material benefits that come from working for a successful company.