Scribd
Upload
40 views

Disciplinary Action

Disciplinary action refers to using rewards or penalties to condition future employee behavior. It includes positive motivational activities like praise as well as negative techniques like reprimands. The goal is to achieve good organizational discipline. A disciplinary action program involves supervisors clearly communicating expected behaviors and enforcing reasonable rules regarding attendance, safety, and conduct. When an offense occurs, supervisors should objectively collect facts and maintain written records in case of grievance. If used, penalties should be applied privately and constructively to change behavior rather than punish. The ultimate goal is counseling employees, not punishing them. Disciplinary steps generally proceed from verbal warning to written warning, suspension, and finally dismissal for serious offenses that interfere with operations.

Uploaded by

Jahnob Konwar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
40 views

Disciplinary Action

Disciplinary action refers to using rewards or penalties to condition future employee behavior. It includes positive motivational activities like praise as well as negative techniques like reprimands. The goal is to achieve good organizational discipline. A disciplinary action program involves supervisors clearly communicating expected behaviors and enforcing reasonable rules regarding attendance, safety, and conduct. When an offense occurs, supervisors should objectively collect facts and maintain written records in case of grievance. If used, penalties should be applied privately and constructively to change behavior rather than punish. The ultimate goal is counseling employees, not punishing them. Disciplinary steps generally proceed from verbal warning to written warning, suspension, and finally dismissal for serious offenses that interfere with operations.

Uploaded by

Jahnob Konwar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Disciplinary Action

Meaning of Disciplinary Action:


The term ‘disciplinary action’ refers to any conditioning of future behaviour by the application of
either rewards or penalties.
This approach would include positive motivational activities, such as praise, participation and
incentive pay, as well as negative motivational techniques, such as reprimand, layoff, and fines.

Both types of activities seek to condition employee behaviour in order to achieve good discipline in
the organisation.

Basic Elements of the Disciplinary-Action Process:


Disciplinary action usually refers to penalties that lead to a prevention of undesired behaviour. The
first element of the disciplinary process is that it is a line responsibility. A staff personnel agency can
and should provide advice and assistance. But disciplining subordinates requires leadership and
command.
So it should be the responsibility of the supervisor. The power to discipline, even though it is rarely
used, is essential to the maintenance of a management position.
The second element of a disciplinary-action programme is a clear clarification of what type of
behaviour is expected of an employee. This requires an establishment of reasonable rules and
regulations relating to employee behaviour and conduct. A no-smoking rule in a department working
with inflammable materials is not made to harass the employee. The objective of disciplinary action is
not to inflict punishment.

Rather, a certain type of behaviour is called for, and the employee is informed of the nature of that
behaviour and the reason for it. If it requires a penalty to generate that type of behaviour, then
disciplinary action must be taken. Rules and regulations are fixed in such areas as attendance, safety,
theft, insubordination, intoxication, fighting, dishonesty, solicitations, smoking and housekeeping.
With reasonable authority possessed by the supervisor and the employees knowing well what is
expected of them, the basis of disciplinary action has been established. When an offence takes place,
it is important to establish and maintain proper records concerning the nature of the event, the
participants and the work environment. Record should also be kept of any taken by the supervisor.
Such written evidence is highly important, if the event forms the basis for a grievance filed by the
employee. Thus, in modern management’s increasingly legalistic environment, written records
constitute a third basic element of a well-organised disciplinary action programme.
In taking disciplinary action, the attitude of the supervisor is very important. One should be objective
in collecting facts. One should approach the problem, if possible, with a non-judicial attitude. If a
mistake is made in the handling of a grievance, then the problem will not be solved.

Making a mistake in disciplining someone who does not deserve it could well mean a permanent
destruction of the morale of the employee and a general loss of respect for the supervisor.

Disciplinary Action Penalties:


Among the penalties available in business are:
1. Oral reprimand
2. Written reprimand
3. Loss of privileges
4. Fines
5. Layoff
6. Demotion
7. Discharge
The penalties are listed in the general order of severity, from mild to severe.

Guides to Disciplinary Action:


Experiences have provided six important guides to assist the manager in undertaking negative
disciplinary action.
1. Disciplinary action should be taken in private. The object is to condition behaviour, not to punish.
Holding a person up to public ridicule often has the opposite, rather than the desired effect.
2. An application of a penalty should always carry with it a constructive element. Disciplinary action
should be applied by the immediate supervisor.
3. Promptness is important in taking disciplinary action.
4. An immediate supervisor should never be disciplined in the presence of his own subordinates. The
concept of privacy would forbid the disciplining of anyone in the presence of others. It is very
important in the case of managers, who must maintain a position of status and power in addition to the
formal authority granted by the organisation.
5. After the disciplinary action has been taken, the manager should attempt to develop a normal
attitude toward the employee.

When management is dissatisfied with the behaviour of an employee, its goal is to effect a change
more consistent with organisation requirements. Penalties or punishments constitute only one means
of doing this, and should be used as a last resort. The attitude of the immediate supervisor should be
one of counselling and understanding, rather than ‘police and punish’.

Steps Followed in Disciplinary Action:


Discipline generally follows a typical sequence of four steps – verbal warning, written warning,
suspension, and dismissal. Two additional steps, which would logically follow suspension demotion
and pay-cuts, are less popular in practice. See Fig.4.9.

1. Written verbal warning:


The mildest form of discipline is the written verbal warning. It is a temporary record of a reprimand
which is then placed in the manager’s file of the employee. It should state the purpose, date and
outcome of the interview with the employee. This warning remains in the hands of the manager. It is
not forwarded to the personnel department for inclusion in the employee’s personnel file.
The written verbal reprimand is best achieved if completed in a private and informal environment.
The manager should begin by clearly informing the employee of the rule that has been violated and
the problem that this infraction has caused.
If the written verbal warning is effective, further disciplinary action can be avoided. If the employee
fails to improve, the managers need to consider more severe action.

2. Written warning:
The second step in the progressive discipline process is the written warning. In effect, it is the first
formal stage of the disciplinary procedure. This is so because the written warning becomes part of the
employee’s official personnel file. This is achieved by not only giving the warning to the employee
but sending a copy to the personnel department to be inserted in the employee’s permanent record.

3. Suspension:
A suspension or lay-off would be the next disciplinary step, usually taken if the prior steps have been
implemented without the desired outcome. If the infraction is of a serious nature, suspension is
ordered without any prior verbal or written warning.
A suspension may be for one day or several weeks; disciplinary lay-offs in excess of a month are rare.
A short lay-off, without pay, is potentially a rude awakening to problem-employees. It may convince
them that management is serious, and force them into accepting responsibility for following the
organisation’s rules.

4. Demotion:
If suspension has not been effective and management wants to avoid dismissing the problem-
employee, demotion may be an alternative. Demotion is a disciplinary action whereby an individual is
sent back to a lower position in the company. However, it tends to demoralise not only the employee
but the co-workers (peers) as well. Moreover, it is not a temporary action. It is a constant punishment
to the demoted employee and hence has broad motivational implication.

5. Pay-cut:
Another alternative, also rarely applied in practice, is cutting the problem-employee’s pay. The pay
cut usually has a demoralising effect on the employee, and is suggested as a rational action by
management if the only other alternative is dismissal.

6. Dismissal:
Management’s ultimate disciplinary punishment is dismissing the problem employee. Dismissal
should be used only for the most serious offences. Yet it may be the only feasible alternative when an
employee’s behaviour is so bad as to seriously interfere with a department’s or the whole
organisation’s operation.

All organisations designate a series of offences which, for some reason or other, constitutes matters of
serious or gross misconduct and for which suspension from work or dismissal may be applied. It is
normally accepted that such offences constitute breaches of the law vandalism, violence, theft and
fraud.
However, in certain cases, this may be extended to standards of behaviour on the part of the particular
organisation for example; failure to wear safety clothing on a building site may constitute a sufficient
reason for dismissal, whereas this would not apply to other situations.

You might also like