MBA HRM – PAPER – 401.

Susanta kumar gangopadhyay.

In order to ensure discipline at workplace, the management

require to initiate certain proactive steps.

1. Knowledge of Rules:
The employees (both supervisor and the worker) must be informed clearly
about what constitutes good behaviour and the rewards that may
emanate from it. For this purpose, the organisation should develop a code
of discipline in co-operation with the workers.

This code should contain in writing the rules, regulations and procedures
considered necessary to maintain discipline. These must be known to all
concerned along with the punishment for their violations. Code of
discipline should be published in employee handbook.

2. Prompt Action:
All violations and misconducts should be promptly enquired into. When
the penalty is imposed immediately after the misconduct, the offender
identifies the punishment with the act he has committed.

Accordingly, the subordinate attempts to avoid the violation in future. The

principle followed here is “strike the iron when it is hot”. The greater the
delay, the more one forgets and the more one feels that punishment is
not deserved.

 Fair Action:
All acts of indiscipline should be punished consistently and uniformly. All
persons should receive the same punishment for the same offence.

If different rules were applied to different persons, management would be

accused of favouritism. An action in order to be fair must possess the
following characteristics:

(a) All violations – big and small – should be duly punished.

(b) All individuals should receive equal punishment for similar and equal indiscipline.

(c) Inconsistent behavior of management leads to uncertainty in the minds of

subordinates. Discipline should be uniformly enforced at all times.

(d) The alleged violation should be fully inquired into and any bias should be
discarded.

e) The employee concerned should always be given an opportunity to explain his

action.

f)The burden of proving the violation always lie on the management.

There should be a well defined procedure.

There must be a well defined procedure to be used for disciplinary

action and should be clearly laid down. Definite and precise
provision for review and appeal of all disciplinary actions should
be provided and should include the following steps.

a)The supervisor must assure himself that some actual violation

of the rules has taken place.

b) the supervisor should state precisely and objectively the nature

of the alleged violation.
c) He should then proceed to gather full facts about the case and maintain proper
records.

d) the appropriateness of the disciplinary actions should be decided in terms of its

effectiveness in correcting the employee.

e) the accused employee should have the right to appeal.

There should be a constructive approach

The disciplinary system should be as far as possible preventive rather than punitive.
Focus should be on preventing violations rather than administering penalties.
The immediate line supervisor should carry out disciplinary action. The employee
should be told not only the reason for the action against him but also how he can
avoid such penalties in future

There should be practice of self discipline

Self discipline is the best form of discipline and management should encourage
such sense of discipline among employees. After taking the disciplinary action, the
supervisor must assume a normal attitude towards the worker.

There should be mechanism for review and revision.

A supervisor should play the role of a judge enforcing the law with
impartiality. He should not engage in personal animosity making insult ,
criticism etc.

All rules and regulations should be appraised at regular intervals to

ensure that they are appropriate to the changing times. If a particular
rule is violated time and again, it should be thoroughly studied to discover
and remove the causes of such violations.