Industrial Relations, Employee Discipline with case studies

2. Meaning
 According to Richard D. Calhoon,
“Discipline may be considered as a force that
prompts individuals or groups to observe the rules,
regulations and procedures which are deemed to be
necessary for the effective functioning of an
organisation”.

3. The Principle
 The concept of employee discipline was brought up
in 1900’s by Henry Fayol.
 He listen 14 principles that he felt were essential for
effective management.
 Discipline was one of those principles.
 He believed that discipline was important for a
company to prosper and without it the company
would fail.

4. Causes of Indiscipline
1. Unfair management practices
2. Absence of effective leadership
3. Communication Barriers
4. Defensive Supervision
5. Inadequate attention to personnel problems

5. Determinants of Discipline
 Rules and performance of criteria
 Centralization of discipline
 Impersonal discipline
 Discipline should be fair
 Discipline should be flexible and consistent

6. Modern Practices
 Most of the disciplinary action policies are progressive.
Which means as rule violations increase, so do the
consequences.
 Most employee disciple plan use the same basic
guideline :
1. First : Verbal Counselling
2. Second : Written warning
3. Third : Suspension from work
4. Fourth : Termination

7. Example : Frito-Lay
In the early 1970’s, a troublesome mystery confused the
executives of Frito-Lay. Suddenly one day, complaint letters
from outraged customers began arriving at the company’s
headquarters. Angry writers reported the same upsetting
experience :
each had been shocked to discover an obscene message,
written with a felt tip pen on a Frito-Lay chip.
Having traced the source of the offensive chips to a
particular plant, management dispatched training and
development manager Mr. D. Grote with instructions to track
down the culprit responsible for the act.

8. What Grote found instead was a workplace
culture that bred disobedience :
 He learnt that plant managers had fired 58 of
the factory's 210 employees for disciplinary
reasons in the past 9 months.
 Supervisors were misusing progressive
discipline – verbal, written warnings, unpaid
suspensions and terminations – as a way to
get rid of the unwanted workers in that plant.
The excessive firing resulted to low morale and
employees to sabotage the company's product.

9. Keeping in mind the progressive characteristics
Grote eliminated :
Punishment - Personal responsibility &
Decision making
warnings - Reminders
unpaid suspension - paid leaves
 Over the next 2 years, the number terminations resulting
from disciplinary actions at the plant fell from 58 to 2.
 Thousands of companies have followed Frito-Lays
approach with staggering results – low turnover, reduce in
sick leave usage and drop in grievances.

10. Thank you!