In the current business climate, performance is increasingly determined by how flexibly and effectively companies can utilize their human resources and this in tum, is influenced by employee morale. Morale refers to a state of psychosomatic health marked by an energetic, decisive resolution to achieve a given goal. When morale is low, employees may do what is required but do not have the energy to 'go the extra mile'. The importance of maintaining high morale is thus evident. The following project involved a study of morale in Cadbury's Port Elizabeth plant. Cadbury management was concerned about low morale following a recent merger with Bromor Foods. They thus wanted to assess: the state of current morale; any factors that may be influencing it; indicators of low morale (so that it may be monitored in the future) and finally, ways of addressing any existing morale issues. In order to achieve these aims, the researcher conducted interviews with various people to explore morale issues from employees' perspectives. She then sought confirmation for these views at the organizational level through the use of a survey. Statistical and thematic analyses showed morale to be low for middle managers and revealed a variety of indicators and influencing factors, as well as suggestions for addressing them. Despite the need to boost the sample size with convenience sampling, and thus, reduced representivity, the research was successful in answering the research aims.

This study addresses the fact that the current Cadbury investment appraisal process does not adequately address the strategic implications of many capital investment decisions. Although attempts are made to quantify, in financial terms, the strategic benefits from a given investment, it appears that many perceived benefits are left out of the appraisal process because they lack precise financial quantification, resulting in managers placing greater reliance on the qualitative dimensions of their investment decision-making such as judgement and intuition. The current Cadbury process is based on the unequivocal advice that academics give to organisations and to managers about how to appraise largescale capital investment projects. The use of discounted cash flow techniques, based upon the discounting of decision contingent cash flows at the organisations opportunity cost of capital is regarded as the definitive investment appraisal technique. On this, the academic literature is clear. Whilst there are strong theoretical justifications for the use of discounted cash flow based models, managers continue to use non-DCF appraisal techniques such as payback irrespective of their theoretical shortcomings. The lack of use of a sophisticated risk assessment model is also disappointing, with Cadbury ignoring individual project risk and adopting a naive approach. Finally, this study indicates that Cadbury managers need not be forced into choosing either an economic/normative approach or a strategic/managerial approach to capital-investment decision-making but that rather a hybrid approach, including both the economic and strategic dimensions of choice, is more applicable for effective strategy incorporation.