Define the term "discipline" in the context of counseling problem employees. Elaborate on the discipline process.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Action taken by the supervisor to prevent employees from breaking rules is referred to as discipline. When a supervisor observes and understands the facts behind problem behavior, disciplining an employee occurs in as many as four steps: warning, suspension, demotion, and dismissal. A warning may be either written or oral. Some organizations have a policy that calls for an oral warning followed by a written warning if performance does not improve. Both types of warning are designed to make sure that the employee understands the problem. A suspension is the requirement that an employee not come to work for a set period of time, during which the employee is not paid.
Suspensions are useful when the employee has been accused of something serious, such as stealing, and the supervisor needs time to investigate. A demotion is the transfer of an employee to a job with less responsibility and usually lower pay. The permanent removal of an employee from a job is called dismissal, termination, or discharge. An organization cannot really regard dismissal as a success because it then has to recruit, hire, and train a new employee. Nevertheless, a supervisor sometimes must dismiss an employee who commits a serious offense or who will not respond to other forms of discipline.