Chapter 10 Summary

Progressive Discipline

Concept:
Organizations must be sure to handle behavioral problems in a manner that is fair, legal, and effective in correcting the problem. In order to meet the standard of being fair, legal and effective there must be a formal discipline process to ensure that things are fair in all situation for all involved parties. By having this process in place it lets the employees know that certain behavior is not acceptable within the organization. Creating formal discipline is the responsibility of the human resource department. HR managers need to consult the organizations managers and supervisors to establish rules and consequences for those who chose to break the rules. Rules that should be addressed are; tardiness, absenteeism, unsafe work practices, poor qualities or quantity of work, sexual harassment, coming to work impaired with drugs or alcohol, theft of company property,.
Beside creating the policies it is also the responsibility of the HR manager to follow through on the punishment and correcting the behavior of the individual.

Emotional Hook:
It is important that rules are followed in order for an organization to be successful. If rules with consequences are established that the ball is in the hands in the employee to do the appropriate thing and behave in a manner that is within those guidelines.

Key Points:
It is the responsibility of the HR manager to see that the rules and consequences are clearly stated and properly followed by all employees. There can be no double standard or else it will create serious problems in a company because some people can do things one way but others get reprimanded if they violate a policy. So it must be fair, legal, and effective for all.

Facilitative Question:
How does an HR manager ensure they are being fair and following all legal aspects when creating a formal discipline program?