DISCIPLINE

Definitions of Discipline

The word 'discipline' comes from the Latin word 'disciplina' which means teaching, learning and
growing. Discipline can be a training or molding of the mind and character to bring about desired
behaviors. Punishment is frequently included when defining discipline but constructive discipline
uses discipline as a means of helping the employees to grow, not as a punitive measure.

'Discipline is the orderly conduct of affairs by the members of an organization who adhere to its
necessary regulations because they desire to cooperate harmoniously in forwarding the end which
the group has in view, and willingly recognize that, to do this, their wishes must be brought into a
reasonable unison with the requirements of the group in action.' -Ordway Tead

'Discipline is the force that prompts individuals or groups to observe rules, regulations, standards
and procedures deemed necessary for an organization. -Richard D Calhoon

Discipline refers to regulations or conditions imposed on employees by management in order to

correct or prevent behaviors which are counterproductive to the organization.
http://medconditions.net/employee-discipline.html Discipline is the bridge between goal and
accomplishment. -Jim Rohn

Discipline indicates the spirit and confidence with which the members of the organization perform
their task'. -SK Datta

Discipline means an orderly and systematic behaviour which is opposite to confusion. It is derived
from word 'disciple' which means learner or follower one who takes another as teacher or leader'.
-RC Goyal

Discipline means voluntary and willing compliance of rules and regulations and instructions and
also development of right habits. of conduct in work with others at the work-place. It is the
orderliness, the absence of chaos, Irregularity and confusion in the behaviour of employees.

It refers to a set of actions imposed by organization on its employees for failure to follow the
organizational rules, standards and policies. Discipline implies confirming with the code of conduct
established by the organization. In short, discipline implies obedience, orderliness and
maintenance of proper subordination among employees.

Purposes of Discipline

 To control and manage disorderly or unsatisfactory conduct of employees.

 To protect other employees who are committing their talents, time and efforts to the
organization.
 To improve the employee morale as well as to increase the productivity which is the
ultimate goal of any organization?
 To have harmonious working with a view to achieve organizational objectives.
 To create a climate under which individual excellence can be encouraged.
 To provide a code of conduct for the guidance of the group.
 To promote individual growth, develop human capacity and stimulate efficiency.
  To develop a spirit of tolerance and a desire to make adjustments among the employees.
 To create an atmosphere of respect for human personality and human relations.
 To impart an element of certainty to give and seek direction and responsibility.

Prerequisite for Discipline

There are three important requisites that can help in maintaining discipline: Self discipline, orderly
behavior, and punishment.

Self Discipline

This is the discipline that an employee has from oneself, has her or his own principles of life and
adopts a particular pattern of behavior. The employee needs to have self knowledge, courage,
committed, and have internal consciousness.

Orderly Behavior

To be in discipline, the employee should have orderly behavior.

Punishment

It is a preventive measure to take action against indiscipline.

Types of Discipline
There are two types of discipline: positive and negative discipline:

Positive Discipline

It is a type of discipline whereby the employee maintains discipline willingly by following

established rules and regulations of the organization. The environment the employee feels is
creative in the organization. If the employees are satisfied, can create positive discipline and that
can be achieved through rewards and effective leadership, team coordination and cooperation.
Each employee feels accountable for her or his work, motivated to accomplish group and
organizational goals. The superior tries to make the subordinates educate the value of discipline.
This is a willful discipline. This is a type of develop mental approach, to shape the behavior of
nurse employees by providing favorable consequences for the right behavior and avoiding physical
punishments.

Negative Discipline

This is a type of discipline whereby the employee is forced to obey rules and regulations that may
be fear of getting the punishment, warnings, penalties. This is a form of punitive discipline. In this
type of discipline, the employees have low morale, more destructive and give low work output.
They are frustrated due to unhealthy work environment. This is a negative approach to maintain
discipline. This is usually considered a traditional approach to maintain the discipline in the
organization, where managers used to be autocratic in nature. But at times, this approach may be
used in maintaining discipline.
Characteristics of a Sound Disciplinary System

 The employees should be aware of code of conduct or conduct rules.

 Timely enquiry should be taken in case of break of conduct rules.
 The disciplinary officer should impersonal and consistent.
 There should be a system of advance warning to the employee not following code of
conduct.

DISCIPLINE/CONDUCT RULES

In order to maintain discipline and conduct among the employees and to prevent them misusing
the powers given to them as per position and for their personal end, the government has
formulated and enforcing a code of conduct or conduct rules.

Why Discipline Rules?

 To maintain the correct behavior towards superiors.

 To protect the integrity of the officials.
 To regulate the activities.

Principles of Discipline

 There should be sound standard of conduct, codes and norms in the organization.
 Employees should be aware of standard of conduct, codes and norms.
 Conscious efforts should be made to create conditions for easy acceptance of the laid
down norms.
 Standard of conduct, codes and norms should be implemented promptly and reviewed
time to time.
 Disciplinary action, if required, should be taken promptly, privately, thoughtfully and
consistently.
 Proper procedure should be adopted to take any disciplinary action.
 It should be progressive in nature and development approach should be used.

INDISCIPLINE
In absence of discipline, there will be chaos, confusion, corruption and disobedience in an
organization.

Causes of Indiscipline

Lack of awareness of organizational rules and regulations

Incorrect philosophy of discipline
Lack of well defined code of conduct
Absence of any procedure to handle grievances
No action taken when required Improper attitude towards employees' problem
False promises made by superiors
Favoritism
Poorly defined employees expectations
 Misuse through dividing people and exploitation of sub ordinates
Divide and Rule' policy in the organization
Inappropriate supervision
Communication barriers
Low morale and motivation among staff
Poor employees' selection and orientation
Poorly selected and trained supervisors
Unfair management practices like wage discrimination, discrimination in job assignment,
distribution of workload, too strict, non compliance of promotional and transfer policies
Personal frustrations and misunderstandings.

Consequences and Symptoms of Indiscipline

Indiscipline can lead to inefficiency on the part of employees; unhealthy and unsafe work
environment; and change in behavior or misbehavior; inconsistent behavior and unsafe behavior;
disturb the peace and lead negligence towards duties.

DISCIPLINARY PROCESS
Three pillars of discipline are: clear rules and regulations, a system of progressive discipline, and
an appeal process.

Progressive Discipline
It is a process for dealing with job-related behavior of the employees when do not meet expected
and communicated performance standards. It is a step by step program designed to correct
performance problems and also assists them to understand that a performance problem or
opportunity for improvement exists.

Oral Reprimands

This is the verbal interaction between the employee and supervisor when they discuss the
problem behaviors and the expectations to change the behaviors.

Written Reprimands

This refers to documentation between employee and supervisor if the behavior continues or if an
employee commits a serious offense.

Steps of Progressive Discipline

In general indiscipline, the steps being followed are: informal feedback- verbal warning: letter of
counsel- written warning: letter of reprimand; suspension-final warning; and termination

Informal Feedback-Verbal Warning

This is the first step of progressive discipline. A verbal warning is given to the employee whose
complaint has been received from superior for her or his misconduct. Before even verbal warning.
initial enquiry and counseling is done to confirm that the employee is aware of the problem. If the
problem continues, action being initiated by giving verbal warning.
Letter of Counsel-Written Warning

It is a written warning of an unacceptable behavior or unsatisfactory work performance. It is kept

in the official personal file.

Letter of Reprimand

It includes a written description of warning and includes a review of any prior related corrective
action is taken, a thorough statement of the circumstances causing current corrective action and
clear picture of future expectation.

Suspension-final Warning

Suspension may be with or without pay depending on the severity of offence. The notification has
the reasons for the action. The employee may be removed from the work immediately before an
investigation is conducted in the situation where there is suspected theft, disorderly conduct, or
present a threat to other employee or client.

Termination

If all above steps have not found successful, the employee may be terminated from employment.

PENALTIES FOR MISCONDUCT/INDISCIPLINE

For not following the standards of behaviour/code of conduct in an organization, there are two
kinds of penalties categorized as: major penalties and minor penalties.

Major Penalties

This includes demotion, dismissal, transfer, discharge, with holding increments, etc.

Procedure for Major Penalties/Punishment

For major punishment the following stages are followed for disciplinary action.

Written complaint:

This is report of misconduct received by the officer.

Preliminary enquiry:

This is a fact finding enquiry conducted informal to find out the nature and extent of delinquent's
fault.

Decision to start formal departmental enquiry:

Decision is taken by the appointing authority after considering preliminary enquiry report.

Suspension:

This is decided when appointing authority decides for depart mental enquiry.
Charge-sheet:

Allegations against the delinquent have to be proved in the form of definite charges. The charge
sheet may be served personally or through registered post.

Appointment of enquiry officer:

The disciplinary officer will simultaneously nominate an officer to conduct the enquiry.

The name of enquiry officer is mentioned in the charge sheet.

Written statement of defense:

This is submitted by the charged officer to the enquiry officer according to the direction
mentioned in the charge sheet.

Recording of evidence by enquiry officer:

The enquiry officer records the evidences given by the charged officer. The charged officer has the
right to cross examine the witnesses brought in by the department and her own witnesses in
defense.

Personal hearing of charged official:

There is personal hearing of charged officer. The charged official can make oral submission.

Report of enquiry officer:

The enquiry officer makes the report and submits in duplicate to the disciplinary officer and also
gives his/her opinion.

Show-cause notice by disciplinary authority:

The disciplinary officer decides to award punishment and is issue a show cause notice to charged
officer.

Reply to show-cause notice and decision thereon:

Upon objective consideration of reply, the disciplinary authority can reduce his/her conclusion to a
succinct, reason out order, which will be communicated to the charged person.

Review of punishment orders:

In certain cases the penalized official can request the disciplinary officer to reconsider the order.

Appeal or revision:

The charged official can appeal for revision of order to the next higher authority.

Reinstatement and restitution:

In case a suspended official exonerate the charges by the disciplinary authority, is reinstated as a
matter of course and restore her original position. But if a dismissed is re-instated by the
appellate, she is allowed to regain her position, if her acquittal is honorable.
Show-cause notice against with-holding of emoluments for suspension period in the case of a re-
instated official:

In case the disciplinary officer proposes with-holding of emoluments of a re-instated official for
suspension period, he must first issue a show-cause notice to her before taking final action.

Minor Penalties
This includes oral warning, written warning, fines, loss of privileges, etc.

Procedure for Minor Punishment

No formal charge sheet needs to be issued nor needs a regular enquiry officer to be appointed.
Action can be taken by calling explanation.

ROLE OF NURSE ADMINISTRATOR IN MAINTAINING DISCIPLINE

 Make your expectations clear to subordinates

 Develop a positive attitude towards employees
 Appreciate if subordinates take initiative and self disciplined
 Treat them as mature persons
 Have trust on your staff and accept their potentialities Spend time with them and have
meetings with them
 Generate positive work culture in the department
 Make rules and policies available to all the employees
 Encourage open communication with subordinates
 Formulate friendly implementations of policies
 Carefully keep a record of employees behavior that prompt disciplinary action.
 Investigate carefully and be prompt if staff has any grievances
 Be empathetic to the grievances
 Avoid severe disciplinary procedures that may back fire
 Take corrective and constructive action
 Allow employees feedback in the disciplinary process.

EMPLOYEE GRIEVANCES
Meaning
Employee grievance is a formal procedure whereby the employee expresses any dissatisfaction or
feeling of injustice regarding the work situation. It may be any genuine or imaginary feeling of
dissatisfaction or injustice expressed by an employee about her job and its nature, about the
management policies and procedures.

According to Jucius, a grievance is 'any discontent or dissatisfaction, whether expressed or not,

whether valid or not, arising out of anything connected with the organization which an emp loyee
thinks, believes or even feels to be unfair or inequitable."

According to Fillipo, 'The term would include any discontent and dissatisfaction that affects
organizational performance. It can either stated or unvoiced, written or oral, legitimate or
ridiculous. (a) A complaint is a discontent that has not assumed importance. (b) A complaint
becomes grievance when the employee feels that injustice has been committed."

According to ILO, 'Grievances are defined as breaches of the collective agreement, custom and
practice, the statute law, common law, natural justice or as any problem of a sufficient nature to
cause a disturbance of the workplace equilibrium.' It is also defined as a complaint of one or more
employees with respect to wages and allowances, working conditions, inter pretations of service
conditions covering such areas as overtime, job assignment and termination of service.

A grievance can be real or imaginary; legitimate or ridiculous; stated or unvoiced; written or oral,
individual or collective, but it is in the form of complaint.

Features

 It is a form of discontent or dissatisfaction related to employ ment.

 It arises due to any genuine or imaginary feeling or reasons.
 When the employee feels that injustice has been done to her.
 It may or may not be expressed. Initially the employee may complain verbally or in writing,
but if no action is taken, this discontent can grow into grievance.
 It is perceived non fulfillment of expectation of the employee
 It relates to a problem of interpretation or perceived non fulfillment of one's expectation
from the organization.
 It may affect the performance or work.

Why Grievances?

Every employee has certain expectations which she thinks must be fulfilled by the organization.
Grievance arises when employees' expectations are not fulfilled by the organization as a result of
which a feeling of discontentment and dissatisfaction arises. It may occur due to following reasons
in the hospital:

Economical

When employees feel that their salary, compensation, benefits are not appropriate; less as
compared to other employees in the organization.
Work Environment

Improper working conditions, poor physical conditions, unsafe work place.

Supervision

Attitude of supervisors towards employees such as perceived notion of bias, favoritism, etc.

Work Group

Employees suffer with feelings of victimization, neglect and unable to adjust with their colleagues.

Work Organization

Irrational management policies in respect of promotions, transfers, assignments, workload,

granting leave, fines, and disciplinary rules.

Faulty Systems

If there is no transparency in the system, can cause grievances among employees.

Lack of Appropriate Codes and Processes

Lack of proper implementation of rules and regulation brings grievances among employees.

FORMS OF GRIEVANCES
A grievance can take a form of factual, imaginary or disguised.

Factual

When the grievance is with valid reason or when legitimate needs of the employees remain
unfulfilled.

Imaginary

When the employee's dissatisfaction is without any valid reason. In this case management is not at
fault.

Disguised

When the employee is dissatisfied for the reasons that are unknown to her. This may be due to
under pressure or heavy heart.

EFFECTS OF GRIEVANCES
If the grievances are not identified and redressed may adversely affect nurse employees,
managers and organization as a whole. The grievances affect the individual performance and poor
quality of services in spite of high investment on highly qualified nursing manpower and
sophisticated technology.

 These can take the form of collective disputes

 Lowers the morale and efficiency of the nurse employees
  Increases the rate of absenteeism and turnover among nurses Reduces the level of
commitment, sincerity by the nurses
 Results in frustration, dissatisfaction among nurse employees
 Low work output
 Loss of working hours
 Increase in wastage and costs
 Deterioration of teaching and research programmes
 Strains superior-subordinate relation
 Increases indiscipline cases,
 Unrest
 Strikes, etc.

INVESTIGATING A GRIEVANCE
Employee grievances are essentially human problems that may be real or imaginary or may be
other causes, the approach should be humane. The grievances need to be handled
sympathetically. To investigate grievance requires investigative skills and skills of advocacy. Once it
is established that a breach has occurred, then a report should be prepared based on the use of
the five 'w's':

 Who were involved?

 When did the breach occur?
 Why did the breach occur?
 Where did the breach occur?
 What happened?

It is usually taction will not be taken on any breach until the full grievance procedure is utilized,
giving the person whose right has been breached, and full opportunity to ventilate concerns.

Identification of grievances can be done through direct observation, encouraging employees to

express their grievances; facility to file anonymous complaints about the various causes of
discontent; open door policy, exit interview; group meetings; periodical interviews; collective
bargaining are various channel to gather information about grievances.

GRIEVANCE HANDLING PROCEDURE

Every organization should have effective grievance handling procedure in order to redress the
grievance effectively. Grievance procedure is a formal communication between an employee and
the management designed for the settlement of a grievance. The grievance procedures differ from
organization to organization. It should provide a formal framework, setting limits on the arbitrary
management authority and power.

Essential Ingredients for Grievance Procedure

It should be sound, simple, clear, short, and unambiguous based on legislation. The grievance of
the employees should be promptly handled and action should be taken immediately and should
be handled by the trained staff. There should be grievance committee in the organization that can
keep a track of the functioning of the grievance handling procedure and make necessary changes
to improve it.

Steps in Grievance Handling Procedure

The grievances need proper and prompt handling at the level of occurrence. The following steps
should be taken to handle the grievances:

Identify/acknowledge the Grievance

The grievance should be identified by the management, if not expressed by the employee. The
grievances can be identified by direct observation, grievance procedure, gripe boxes, open door
policy and exit interview etc. In case the grievance put forward by the employee, should be
acknowledged by the management immediately.

Define the Grievance Correctly

After the employees grievance is identified, acknowledged, should be defined correctly.

Gather the Facts

The managers should gather appropriate and sufficient facts explaining the grievance's nature.
Information should be classified as facts, opinions, and data.

Analyze the Data and Finding the Cause of Grievance

The information gathered should be analyzed and identifies the actual cause of grievance so that
remedial action can be taken.

Decision Making

After identifying the causes of grievance, alternative course of actions should be thought of to
manage the grievance. The effect of each course of action on the existing and future management
policies and procedure should be analyzed and accordingly decision should be taken by the
management.

Prompt Redressal

The grievance should be redressed by implementing the decision.

Implementation and Follow up

The implementation of decision should be followed up at every stage to ensure that the grievance
has been resolved completely and adequately.

Guidelines during Grievance Handling Procedure

1. Treat each complaint as important.
2. Spend adequate time with the complainant and be cool during the process.
3. Get all facts and figure and avoid preconceived notions about the involved parties.
4. Practice attentive listening skills and control your emotions
5. Ensure privacy.
6. Try to settle the grievance at the lower level rather than dragging to the higher level.
7. Maintain proper records.
8. Be proactive and always make the process win-win.