Concept of Employee Discipline (ED)
Discipline in HRM refers to the set of guidelines, policies, and practices that a company has set up to control employee behavior and ensure that standards and practices are followed.
Simply, Discipline refers to the state in which workers behave in a way that meets with the policies and standards of the organization on appropriate behavior.
It involves maintaining law and order, making sure that workplace policies are followed, and dealing fairly and consistently with violations or misbehavior. A variety of factors are included in discipline, including attendance, punctuality, behavior at work, performance standards, and obedience to business regulations and procedures.
Positive Discipline (Extrinsic): Positive discipline is a method that aims to create an encouraging and supportive work environment by constructive feedback, recognition, and rewards, fostering a supportive and motivating work environment.
For example: recognizing and praising a worker who regularly hits deadlines and surpasses performance goals in order to promote their ongoing dedication and productivity
Simply, Positive Discipline refers to encouraging good or positive behavior by rewarding it.
Negative Discipline (Extrinsic): Negative Discipline means when you correct individual with bad behavior giving various forms of warnings or penalties.
For example: If an employee continuously arrives late to work despite warnings and reminders, negative discipline may involve issuing a written warning or implementing a temporary suspension to address the behavior and enforce punctuality.
Self-Discipline (Intrinsic): Self-Discipline means controlling your own behavior.
For example: An individual who regularly prioritizes work, balances their workload, and stays focused without constant supervision or reminders from their management is an example of self-discipline and control.
Progressive Discipline (Both Intrinsic and Extrinsic): Progressive Discipline is correcting bad behavior step by step, starting with warnings and increasing consequences if it continues.
For example: For minor issues, progressive discipline can start with verbal warnings, go on to written warnings, and finally, if the behavior doesn’t change despite actions, increase to more serious penalties like suspension or termination.
Note:
Extrinsic: Something that comes from outside, like rewards or punishments given by others.
Intrinsic: Something that comes from inside, like personal feelings or motivations.
Causes of Disciplinary Problems
There are various causes of disciplinary problems:
- Wrong Placement: When employees are placed in roles that don’t match their skills or interests or personality, it can lead to dissatisfaction and poor performance.
For Example: Assigning a shy and introverted person to a Front Office Associate role that requires social skills may result in low performance and frustration for the employee. - Poor communication: Lack of clear communication between management and employees can lead to misunderstandings, confusion, and conflicts leading undisciplined behaviors.
For example: Failure to communicate changes in shift schedules - Absence of effective leadership and management: If the leadership and management is weak, autocratic and incompetent promotes indiscipline.
- Improper rules and regulations: Impracticable rules and regulations and Unclear or inconsistent rules and regulation they help to promote indiscipline among employees.
- Faulty evaluations or Improper supervision: Defective supervision or an absence of good supervision or Inaccurate or biased performance reviews might result in unfair treatment and indiscipline among staffs.
For example: : A supervisor provides biased performance evaluations to favor certain employees - Background of employee: Employees’ personal backgrounds, experiences, and circumstances can impact their behavior and performance in the workplace. Suppose an employee has bad education, social background or poor self-discipline, it might promote indiscipline in the business.
- Discrimination: Negative discrimination based on gender, age, color, language, religion, etc. promote indiscipline.
Types of Disciplinary Problems
- Attendance (Attendance Problems):
This involves employees consistently arriving late to work, taking unauthorized breaks, or frequently calling in sick without valid reasons as abuse/misuse, which disrupts workflow and affects productivity.
Example: Unexcused absence, leaving without permission, late in duty, taking leave even when its not important, etc. - On-the-Job Behavior (Infractions of Company Rules):
The second category pf discipline problems covers on the job behaviors. Workers who do things like using business resources for personal use, ignoring safety protocols, or acting negatively in a way that compromises professionalism and teamwork are in violation of company regulations and standards.
Since these activities represents the crystal clear violation of an organization rules and regulations, corrective actions should be taken as soon as possible to minimize the potential future risk.
Example: Carrying weapon, attacking another employee, sexually harassing another employee, failure to obey safety rules, sleeping on the job, gambling on the job, putting less effort in work, intoxicated (taken alcohol, drug, etc)on the job and various other - Dishonesty:
This happens when staff members act dishonestly, compromising integrity and trust in the workplace by creating fake documents, stealing business property, or lying to managers or clients.
Example: Stealing, changing time of check-in and check-out in duty, etc. - Outside activities (external activities):
The final problem category covers activities that employee engage in outside of their work. Employees engage in activities outside of work that may negatively impact their job performance or the organization’s reputation, such as involvement in criminal activities, conflicts of interest, or behavior that reflects poorly on the company when made public.
Example: Unauthorized strike activity, working for another competing organization, outside criminal activities, etc.
Disciplinary Actions (Penalties)
Organizational discipline punishments and actions have become fairly common due to custom, tradition, and well-established norms. They vary from being soft to being firm.
- Issuing a Letter of Charge:
Formal notice of the suspected misconduct or policy violation to the employee, which starts the disciplinary action procedure. - Consideration of Explanation:
Giving the worker a chance to address the charges, give their side of the story, or submit supporting documentation. - Show Cause Notice:
A formal notice requiring the employee to explain why disciplinary action should not be taken against them, often issued after initial investigation or inquiry into the matter. - Holding a Full-Fledged Enquiry:
Conducting a thorough investigation or inquiry into the alleged misconduct, gathering evidence, and hearing testimonies from relevant parties before making a decision on disciplinary action. - Making a Final Order of Punishment:
After considering the employee’s response and the findings of the inquiry, management determines the appropriate disciplinary action, which may include warnings, suspension, demotion, or termination, and communicates this decision to the employee.
Punishment
Depending on the level of misconduct, management may punish on various degree. These punishment or penalties can be divided into major penalties and minor penalties:
A. Minor Penalties:
It includes
- Oral Warning
- Written Reprimand
- Loss of privileges
- Fines
- Suspension
B. Major Penalties:
It includes
- Witholding increment,
- Demotions or stopping transfer,
- Discharge,
- Dismissal or termination
Essentials of a Good Disciplinary System:
- Clear policies: Establish unambiguous rules.
- Consistency: Apply rules fairly across the board.
- Transparency: Ensure all procedures are open and understood.
- Well define procedure: Clear, precise and properly established procedures and should be informed to all.
- Progressive discipline: Employ a gradual approach to correction.
- Timeliness: Address issues promptly to prevent worse situation.
- Documentation: Organization should keep strict records of all actions and measures taken.
- Training and support: Provide resources for employee development.
- Flexibility: Adapt to individual circumstances when necessary.
- Employee feedback: Encourage input to improve processes.
- Regular review: Assess system effectiveness regularly for refinement.
Hence, the good disciplinary system always focus to maintain discipline in workplace all the time, rather than only focusing to what to do when discipline is violated. Simply, it should follow ” Prevention is better than cure” strategy.