Receiving discipline at work

 First I would like to start to talk about punishment in organizations. In my experience, discipline had never had a positive effect because people feel attacked and are not productive at work anymore. The workers are only thinking about the punishment and not on work. 

For example, we had a team meeting and got a lot of negative feedback although everybody tried their best. The result of this was that all members of the department were angry after the meeting and reflected on what happened together. Everybody felt treated unfair and they didn’t continue their work because all their thoughts were focused on the negative feedback. They felt like the team leader didn’t see the effort in their work and as a reaction they did nothing productive.  

In comparison, we also had good team meetings where we got presented good results and the progress we made. Moreover, the team leader specified what was working well, which also raised motivation. She also mentioned which team had the best results and she was very satisfied with the group. After this team meeting everybody was in a good mood and very motivated to continue working. My colleagues continued working immediately because they were motivated to improve make their results even better. The workers saw them as a productive part of the department and they felt motivated because their team leader saw their effort. 

It is to mention, that the team leader`s way of acting has a huge effect on a single person as well as on the whole team because a big part of the team motivation is in their hands. 

If I would be a team leader I would focus more to speak with every team member personally. I could see that this raises productiveness enormously because everybody has the feeling that their voice counts. Furthermore, it is much better to talk about problems personally than in a big group because in a big group the employees may feel uncomfortable. When you mention an improvement in private it is easier to talk about the situation and also better for the employee because they can speak more openly. 

Additionally, I would think it is important to say what the employee did wrong but also mention ways for him to improve because then he gets constructive feedback and he could work with this.

 A very important point is that the team leader should also talk at the beginning some small talk with the employee because this has a good effect to get a positive atmosphere. Moreover, it is important to mention at the end of the talk something positive so the employee feels good going back to work. 

I got to know the BRIO model from Julien Lang in class I think when you use authority it could be very helpful to have a positive effect on the employee. First it is about the behavior. It is important to describe in the talk a specific behavior and not to generalize. Secondly, it is important not to judge and describe your reaction to the situation. The third part is instead, where you should propose a different behavior because then the employee can improve his work. The last point is overall, this is for me the most important part because it is important to end with a positive note. 

I think when you react like this it will have a positive effect when a person is receiving discipline. Moreover, it is very important to act very respectful with each employee and it doesn’t matter what he has done wrong. In my opinion a tolerance of mistakes is very important for a good working environment. 

To sum up, I think when you act like in the BRIO model you can improve your way of giving discipline to the employees. Moreover, I would always think how I would react when I would get this discipline, this could help to keep a good working environment. 



  

Comments

  1. Professor ArvanNovember 08, 2019

    I had not heard fo the BRIO model before. I would have liked for you to describe it further or give a reference where I could read about it.

    I think you generalized too quickly in concluding that discipline is ineffective. You might consider further the possible reasons for why the discipline is applied - a repetition of substandard behavior versus a one-off mistake, activity that is explicitly against the formal governance of the organization - employee theft, for example, a situation where the person didn't ask for help from a co-worker or the boss but should have. It also matters, quite a lot actuality, whether the person is aware of the transgression or not.

    I do agree that having a one-on-one discussion with the employee is usually better, but if the entire office is aware of the issue there needs to be group communication as well.

    Let me give a concrete example - the person is chronically later when coming to the office. This lateness bother's the supervisor, even when the person stays after hours to make up for the lateness. It's not the same thing because group work can't happen effectively when the person is absent. So what should happen? First, the supervisor needs to express displeasure about the behavior. Maybe that is sufficient to make an adjustment. Then the employee might push back saying there are life issues (getting the kid off to school, for example) that the employee has to deal with and can't get to work earlier. Here I think governance matters. Were the work hours specified in the contract with the employee and/or in the rules that govern the place. If so, and by taking the job, the employee implicitly acknowledged these rules, then the response from the supervisor to now impose some actual punishment if the tardiness isn't remedied is warranted. If, in contrast, there aren't such rules about when to be at work, then the employee might get the group meetings to be scheduled a little later so the employee can be present at them.

    I want to also note that effort is not always sufficient - people tried hard but perhaps were thoughtless in doing so. That's an issue. Perhaps it is immediately discouraging to hear criticism after effort has been put in. But if performance of a group really is substandard, would no criticism be accepting the current performance level?

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    Replies
    1. Julia Kaltenböck Econ 490 Fall 2019November 18, 2019

      I learned about the BRIO model in my business administration class but unfortunately, I don’t have more information about it and cannot find more details.

      I think it is important to let the person know when she is not performing well at work. Even though, they don’t receive criticism, it doesn’t make up for the fact that they are not performing well.

      Delete
  2. Oliver Williamson Econ 490 Fall 2019November 16, 2019

    I think this can work well when you're dealing with employees who show that they want to improve, but there are cases when workers become demotivated. Should companies offer mental health resources to avoid this? If they offer these resources and an employee continues to perform poorly, should they be immediately punished or should they meet with HR and try to see what's going on?

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    Replies
    1. Julia Kaltenböck Econ 490 Fall 2019November 21, 2019

      In my opinion it is important that employees have someone to talk when they have mental health problems for example HR or the workers council. I think when they continue working poorly they should first meet with HR and try to resolve the problem because I think punishment is not the best solution.

      Delete

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