Using Discipline to Address Employee Performance Problems

Using Discipline to Address Employee

Performance Problems

Name

Business 600

Professor

May 1, 2010

The use of discipline to address employee performance problems is a mine field that can blow up and wound everyone around it. Successfully navigating this mine field requires that the manager carefully consider the objectives of the discipline, the causes of a problem, and all the effects of any actions taken. Creative thinking and a good understanding of the forces involved can alleviate the fear and danger involved in employee discipline.

Merriam-Webster online defines Discipline as “1: punishment, 2: instruction, 3: a field of study, 4: training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character, 5: a: control gained by enforcing obedience or order b: orderly or prescribed conduct or pattern of behavior c: self-control, 6: a rule or system of rules governing conduct or activity.” (Merriam-Webster) Discipline and punishment are used interchangeably in our society. Leanne Atwater writes “Scholarly and anecdotal evidence indicate that discipline and punishment are unfortunate facts of organizational life.” (Atwater, Waldman, Carey, & Cartier, 2001, p. 249)

Discipline is generally considered a negative consequence in response to a performance problem or specific actions by the employee but the purpose of discipline, in the workplace, is to correct an employee’s actions to a prescribed conduct or pattern of behavior. The idea of punishment and discipline being used interchangeably in studies is expressed by Leanne Atwater. “Punishment is frequently defined in terms of behavior modification as the 'application of a negative consequence or the removal of a positive consequence... with the intention of decreasing the frequency of (undesirable) behavior'” (Atwater, Waldman, Carey, & Cartier, 2001, p. 250) If the purpose of discipline is behavior modification are there other ways in which to modify behavior apart from...