CHAPTER 12 Discipline and Employee Assistance Programs Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc....

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CHAPTER

12Discipline and Employee Assistance Programs

Overview•Essentials of Discipline•Approaches to Discipline•Administering Discipline•Termination•Employee Assistance Programs•Employee Safety•Harassment•The Leaders Key Role

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Essentials of Discipline

Discipline:

1. Condition or state of orderly conduct & compliance with rules, regulations and procedures.

2. Action to ensure orderly conduct & compliance to the rules.Both sides are the responsibility of the manager.Discipline is essential to managerial success.

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Steps in the Discipline Process

1. Establish & communicate ground rules for performance & conduct.

2. Evaluate employee performance & conduct.3. Reinforce employees for appropriate performance &

conduct, work with them to improve when necessary.

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Essentials to Successful Discipline

1. A set of rules that everyone knows & understands.2. A clear statement of the consequences of failing to

observe the rules.3. Prompt, consistent, impersonal enforcement of the

rules.4. Appropriate recognition & reinforcement of

employees’ positive actions.

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Figure 12.2

A framework of policies, rules, restrictions, etc.

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Negative Approaches to Discipline

Negative discipline:

•Maintaining discipline through fear & punishment, with progressively severe penalties for rule violations.

•Negative discipline has never been successful at turning chronic rule breakers into cooperative employees.

•Fear-and-Punishment are de-motivators.

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Negative Discipline

In a fear-and-punishment approach to discipline, there is traditional four-stage formula for disciplinary action:

1.Oral warning2.Written Warning3.Punishment (suspension)4.Termination

This four-stage formula is called progressive discipline.

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Positive Discipline

•Positive Discipline:

•When rules are broken you inform & correct.•Extension of coaching.•Theory Y view of people.

•Positive discipline works!

•Shifting from negative to positive discipline is easier said then done.

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Positive Discipline

For chronic rule breakers, there is a three-stage formula for disciplinary action:

•Stage 1: Oral Reminder•Stage 2: Written Reminder•Stage 3: Termination

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Figure 12.4

Negative and positive disciplinary action compared.

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Advantages of the Positive Approach

•Keeps discipline problems from developing.•Improves relations between boss & workers.•Fosters early & consistent rule enforcement.•Lower costs: less turnover, fewer problems, better work, no chronic discipline problems.•Avoids grievances in union settings.•Turns some offenders around.

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Shifting to the Positive Approach•Supervisors who are used to administering penalties & punishments often have trouble shifting to the positive approach. •They may have difficulty:

•Accepting the idea of paying an employee to stay home & think things over.•Shaking loose the habit of thinking in terms of punishment & substituting the attitude of educating & helping people to avoid breaking rules.

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Administering Discipline

Uniform discipline system:

•Prescribes the specific action for each rule violation.

•You must be able to adapt your own leadership style to, your workers, their needs, their actions, & the circumstances.

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Mistakes to Avoid•Starting off easy.•Neglecting to take action or too slow of a response.•Acting in anger.•Threatening action & not carrying it out.•Criticizing in front of others.•Exceeding authority.•Shifting responsibility for discipline.•Unexpectedly enforcing commonly violated rules.•Criticizing person instead of behavior.•Touching someone when you are disciplining. •Being inconsistent.

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Taking the Essentials StepsStep 1: Collect all the facts.Step 2: Discuss the incident with the employee.Step 3: Decide on appropriate action (if any).Step 4: Take the appropriate actions & develop an improvement plan with the employee.Step 5: Make sure everything is documented.Step 6: Follow up.

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Termination: Salvage or Terminate

•The Dehire:

•Trying to make the employee want to resign.•Not recommended.•Destructive way of handling a person.•Legally it opens various discrimination lawsuits.

•From the productivity point of view & your own frustration level, it would be better to simply terminate.

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Factors to be Considered

•Length of service.•Past record.•Need for worker’s skills, worker’s need for job.•Possibility of trouble making over firing.•Effect of firing on others.•Cost of keeping vs. cost of terminating.•Your authority.•Salvage options.

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Just Cause Termination

•Employee is terminated because the offense affected specific work he did or the operation as a whole in detrimental ways.•Some questions to ask:

• Did the employee know the rule? • Were expectations reasonable? • Did management make a reasonable effort to help?

•For more see questions to ask when considering a just cause termination.

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Figure 12.6

Inappropriate reasons for terminating an employee.

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The Termination Interview Checklist

1. Select a good time & place to conduct the interview.2. Determine who will be present.3. Develop your opening statement.4. Determine how best to respond to possible reactions.5. Determine final pay.6. Develop a list of clearance procedures to be performed

at the end of the interview.

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Steps for the Termination Interview1. Avoid small talk, tell the employee that they are being

dismissed & why in a firm calm manner.2. Listen to & accept responses of the employee.3. Say something positive to them.4. Move on to discuss final pay, benefits, etc.5. Explain clearance procedures.6. End the interview by standing up & moving towards

the door.

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Employee Assistance Programs

•Counseling programs.•An expansion of traditional occupational alcoholism programs.•Employer paid benefit program to assist employees with personal problems.

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Employee Assistance ProgramsEAPs handle a wide range of problems:•Emotional•Family•Marital•Mental Health•Stress•Financial•Substance abuse•Legal•Workplace•Elder Care

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Employee Assistance Programs•Signs of employees in need of help are increased tardiness, fatigue, missed goals, inappropriate behavior, medical problems, psychological problems, stress, & increased sick days.

•The approach to take is called intervention rather than confrontation

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Employee Safety

•The National Safety Council has reported that every workday a fatality happens every two hours and a debilitating accident occurs every two seconds.

•Here are the most common causes of workplace accidents:

•Slips and trips•Improper handling (lifting, lowering, pulling, etc.)•Traffic accidents (being hit by a moving vehicle)•Electrical accidents/burns

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Harrassment

•Subjecting another person to intimidating, hostile, or offensive behavior.

•The standard of liability set forth in these decisions is premised on two principles:

1. an employer is responsible for the acts of its supervisors.2. employers should be encouraged to prevent harassment

and employees should be encouraged to avoid or limit the harm from harassment

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HarrassmentThe employer may be able to avoid liability or limit damages by establishing an affirmative defense that includes two necessary elements:

1. The employer exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct promptly any harassing behavior.

2. The employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of any preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the employer or to avoid harm otherwise.

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Sexual Harrassment

Under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, sexual harassment consists of “unwelcome advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when:

1. submission to such conduct is made, either explicitly or implicitly, a term or condition of an individual’s employment.

2. submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting the person.”

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The Leader’s Key Role

•Effective leaders establish framework of orderly discipline & act promptly to correct mistakes & solve problems.•Threat & punishment leaders are usually plagued with chronic discipline problems.•The leader creates the prevailing condition of discipline.

CHAPTER 12 Discipline and Employee Assistance Programs Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc....

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