Disciplinary Procedures in Organizations - Literature review Example

Disciplinary Procedures Terms of Reference Disciplinary Procedures: These are the procedures and management practices used by the company to ensure that the employee performance does not come to a level where there are unethical or illegal behaviours exhibited by the employees. The company: The company referred to within the report is Bodgitt and Blastit unless it is specifically mentioned that the information is being provided as an example from another company. Introduction By way of introduction, it becomes important to explain why formal disciplinary procedures have become necessary at the company since operations had continued for quite some time without using formal procedures. As discussed by Boxall and Purcell (2003) such a change in management style may be seen as a move towards a more authoritarian approach to management but in essence, the need for formalised disciplinary procedures is protection. Protection which is required by the company from lawsuits coming from employees against whom disciplinary actions were taken and protection of the employees themselves from other employees (Armstrong, 2003). This is because there are certain legal requirements which have been placed on our company by various national and local bodies in terms of how they can and how they should respond to disciplinary issues within the organisation. For instance, an employee who has suffered sexual harassment within the company needs to be handled very carefully with the full application of the law. Similarly, an employee who has a grievance concerning racial discrimination may quickly turn to the law in order to seek redress. In these situations as well as others, documented formal disciplinary procedures can show the courts that the company did its part in ensuring an amicable settlement. As discussed by Mullins (2004), grievance and disciplinary related policies may have a certain differentiation between the level of which it is applied and these can be informal or formal. For minor lapses in judgement by employees, the company may have to trust the management or the immediate supervisor in considering the breach of discipline a minor one for which verbal warnings or a quite conversation over lunch can be considered disciplinary action enough. However, in some situations there may be aggrieved parties who need to see some action being taken against an individual where a formal disciplinary policy becomes necessary. Main Text In such cases, a formal disciplinary policy has to outline what action will be taken by the management for a violation of the code of ethics, the company policies, and bylaws of the company as well as the laws under which the company operates. While the documentation and procedural adherence for smaller disciplinary issues should be done as a matter of course, formalised disciplinary action becomes necessary when individuals are terminated as in the case described. Beardwell and Holden (2004) make it clear that without such procedures, the company places itself at the risk of being sued by the former employee for wrongful termination. A certain outline for the disciplinary policy of the company can be provided in this report under the assumption that whatever the crime or the situation which presents itself, the company can judge that formal disciplinary procedures will be required to come into play. For example, the case of employees found to be stealing from the company with positive proof can make the company jump to the third stage of the disciplinary policy which means immediate termination. On the other hand, a person who is found to be making a racist remark or using suggestive humour in the office may be given a stage one warning. These stages are discussed in the report in detail as an possible implementation of the disciplinary policy which can be used by Bodgitt and Blastit for their present and future needs as they gain more employees with time. Stage 1 The first stage is when the disciplinary policy is activated at the behest of the person’s immediate supervisor or other members of the management team. In this stage, the person may be given a verbal warning which is noted as such in the employee file. The note about this warning should be kept on file for at least six months before the warning and the situation is reviewed for further analysis. In this time, the employee should be kept under observation for a violation of the same kind. If no repeat occurrence, or no conclusive evidence is found, the matter should be ended and there should be no need to move to Stage 2. Stage 2 However, if stronger evidence is found or if continued complaints about the individual concerning the same matter come to the management. The disciplinary action can be advanced to stage two in which the employee should be given a written warning along with a notification of the action taken against them as well as a written explanation of the situation from their side. This should be recorded and preserved since it can come into play as a useful piece of evidence at a later stage. The written warning should be kept on file for at least one year from the date it was given and the employee should make a quarterly report concerning their disciplinary issues if any. For cases such as theft or harassment, the individual can also be placed on probation within the company. They may also be required to take classes on ethics, sensitivity or office procedures if the management thinks it is necessary for them to do so. The company needs to fully document and record the action which takes place in stage 2 and the records for such procedures should be brought to the notice of higher management if the issue is important enough for people at the top of the company. While such notice might have been unnecessary in the past when the company was more or less a small business, with a hundred and more employees it is essentially a mid-size company which needs such systems in place. Additionally, such control systems allow management to see human resource management as a part of its larger corporate strategy (Boxall & Purcell, 2003). While it is very likely that these actions will help solve the problem for the employee and the company itself, with some cases, a move to stage 3 might be required. Stage 3 Stage 3 is essentially the process of dismissal from service which can be initiated when enough evidence has been collected from stages 1 and 2. It can also be initiated without going through the first and second stage but only if sufficient evidence is available to the company. Without such evidence and without having the right information, terminating the employment of any individual without positive proof of misdoings can land the company in future legal problems. In this stage, the employee should be presented the evidence of his/her misdoings along with documented proof that the company did all it could to ensure that the proper procedure was followed. The employee should be allowed to present his/her defence and be allowed to resign from his/her position if possible. However, unless some new evidence can be brought by the employee which sheds entirely new light on the situation, termination should be the normal result of this stage of the disciplinary policy. Conclusions The disciplinary policy is certainly not a pleasing matter for any company especially a company like Bodgitt and Blastit since it is relatively small as compared to the giants of the world such as GE or Microsoft. However, it is equally important for relatively small companies like Bodgitt and Blastit to have a policy as it is important for the giants of the business world to have such policies and systems (Welch, 2005). While the majority of grievance and disciplinary issues may be handled by employees talking things out amongst themselves, maintaining a policy on disciplinary issues is vital for the longterm survical and repute of the company. As the company expands and looks towards the future, more employees are likely to enter the company and as the group grows larger, formalised procedures might become the norm rather than the exception. If such control procedures and allied documentation can be maintained for small issues, the larger problems will become easier to handle with the application of formalised disciplinary procedures that will let the organisation avoid any negative situations with the law. By having the proper documentation and relevant evidence of the management trying to handle disciplinary issues, the company can show that it has done all that it could to handle the concern of those who work with the company. Works Cited Armstrong, M. 2003, A Handbook of Personnel Management Practice, Kogan Page. Beardwell, I. and Holden, L. 2004, Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Approach, FT Prentice Hall. Boxall P. and Purcell J. 2003, Strategy and Human Resource Management, Palgrave & Macmillan. Mullins, L. 2004, Management & Organisational Behaviour, Pitman. Welch, J. 2005, Winning, HarperCollins. Read More