Strategies And Procedures To Minimize Wrongful Discipline In An Organization

Human resource management and functions

You have been employed as a new Human Resource Manager. You advised by the MD that the company has been saddled with several law suits for wrongful discipline and disciplinary action taken by the previous management. What are the strategies, procedures (SOP) and actions that you take to minimize or eradicate the problem in future?

The human resource manager in an organisation is the one who looks upon the soft part of the organisation and the survival of the company depends upon this department. Globalisation and new age technologies are equipping the human resource managers for continuous improvements in the company[1].  The functionality of the organisation and effectiveness of the policies depends upon this department’s functionality and competitiveness of the human resource manager. They should be in par with the integration of operations management and strategic array of business. The role is constantly evolving and working with the diverse workforce and complexities, keel obligations has become a challenge for them. The main area of this manager is recruitment, selection, training and development; performing appraisals, maintain the work culture satisfying all the employees issues, resolving conflicts, maintaining employee relations and rewards and incentives and payroll management[2].

The main objective of human resource planning of an organisation is to ensure that the company reaches its goals by ensuring the individual departments and persons are doing the work they are needed to do with right kind of motivation. The main of the two functions of Human Resource department are managerial functions, which includes planning, directing, organizing, controlling and operational functions are more transactional like compensation, maintenance, proposal, appraisals and incentives. The recruitment and training of human resources, also the development of their skills while working on the job, is of major priority of human resource management. The whole organisation depends on the performance of their work force while the futuristic values are also to be considered while taking strategic decisions. Human behaviour is sensitive issue to handle and it depends on the environment that they work. The environmental factors, which affect the behavioural aspect of human nature, are to be managed with utmost care .The public relations management is the new part in human resource function to be handled. For production, oriented company the labour force management is grave issue as the only motivation for them is the salary and compensation they get[3]. The main criteria that the company should focus on are the job satisfaction of their employee has and level job involvement.

Integration of strategy and human resource planning

The integration of strategy to the human resource planning is to help the futuristic goals of the organisation. Human resource needs to be competitive in hiring process execution thus reducing the cost of recruitment and selection process.

All companies are a kind of legal entity and they are not outside of the perimeter of legality of the country that they reside in. The companies are not to be treated over the law. The structure of the company can be like LLC’s, C-Corps, S-Corps or LLPs. These are different based on the structure and percentage of holdings of shareholders. Freestanding entities and others like non-profit organisations have special rights and responsibilities. The proprietorship is depended upon the liability they hold in their name of organisations. For a public limited the liability is shared and thus the risk factor is reduced but the board of directors comes into play for that[4].  The law treats different entities according to different criteria that will be different, so it is crucial to made sure the structures of particular laws are familiar to the concern person. Yielding to the city and states or federal laws that the business needs to be dealt with is of higher priority. The local chamber of commerce or local government is the one of the biggest challenge that the business personal needs to be dealt with.

The important legal aspects of an organisation are discussed below. The compliance is dealt by the business owner and performs certain task to be good. The ignorance of law is not excused and subjected to punishments fitted by the government[5]. To cover oneself from further involvement in legal issues one must ensure that the phrase “no needs to comply” in written while submitting with contracts. The contracts that the most business enters are build on certain legal points that are to be clearly defined maintaining working relationship intact and transparency in deliverables and payments of the organisation. All contracts must be defined in each sections and the most typical terms are to be defined to the including parties before entering to the contracts. The notice for communication must be sent to parties responsible for the contracts[6]. The governing laws like Companies Commission of Malaysia Act 2001
, which is, Laws for Govern Business Formation, Employment act, Patent act, goods and service tax act, customs act and others are not the one to be looked upon as for the government. The payment schedules and deliverables, entire agreement clause that requires clearing what the contract is and what it depends upon are also important for the human resource manager to be looked upon with the help of legal department of the company. Force Majeure, the circumstance beyond control like riots, act of nature, government collapse and others that the parties are not responsible for the consequence of the severability of the entire domain

Legal aspects of an organization

The disciplinary laws and regulations that a company must go through, are listed below, as these are must for maintaining the employee work culture in the organisation

• General policy of information and protection of information in the organisation are at the core of having inclusive rules[7].
• Situations leading to performance issue like constant late or early leaves, that is flexible schedules and work life balance must be the key to working in a safe organisation.
• Procedures involving employers that spend too much time in doing personal work instead of doing the professional work must also be there for eradication of such incidents
• Procedure to conflicts management between the employees is important to be documented in the standard of procedures
• Ethical breaches reported on behavioural aspects, violating agreements and non-fraternization related policies must be there to make the people aware of the standard rules[8].
• Neglect of duty and refusal to comply with employer’s instruction is injurious to safety of the discipline of the organisation.
• Term and termination of any kind of contract needs to be dated and communicated about the issue.
• Confidentiality and private issue involving intellectual property disclosure and Non Disclosure Agreement[9].
• Rules of immoral indecent conduct of procedures and regulations inside the organisation
• Conviction in any kind of felony and involvement in charges needs to be strictly avoided
• Conviction of the employed person in moral turpitude
• Violation of local, state or federal law which causes unfavourable attention
• Credibility of the employee while performing the job in hand
• National or international falsification of personnel records and payroll records and other necessary details
• Intentional destruction, theft, and defacing the employee or student property needs to be reporting
• Deliberate or careless conduct of endangering safety and duty related responsibility
• Abusive, coercive, threatening of individuals and treatment needs to be strictly avoided and if happens should be subject to penalties[10]
• Excessive absenteeism or tardiness among the work hours and failure to authentication and authorisation of appropriate supervisor.
• Posting unauthorised materials in the bulletin boards and misleading people
• Violation of safety practises
• Sexual misconduct[11]
• Non-discrimination policies
• Employment of relatives or brethrens needs to be strictly prohibited

These are the basics of standard operating procedures in an organisation to function properly. A SOP is a living document in an organisation, which is subject to change. It is good to review the documents quarterly. It is therefore useful to have it in electronic format on a web-based collaborative system so that all employees have access to the latest version. The

The reasons the Standard operating procedures are needed are listed below. If the company fails to conduct the standard procedure then it may happen that the company induces them with the legal actions and disciplinary actions, which is what has happened for the company that is being mentioned here. SOP is what smart organisations create for itself and it creates consistency among the process and reduces the chance of mistakes. Although SOP’s are not fun to write and may be, time consuming at first it needs to be done with proper care. The reasons are

To facilitate communication between the employees and clearly state their responsibilities that needs to be conducted well. The fact that the employees do not need to remember the responsibilities are also contributing factor of having SOP’s.

The consistency and quality control of the organisation work culture and of course the production is a matter of concern to the management and running the work effectively is one of the major concerns. The concern of turning the employees to robots and hamstringing them is not the main idea of the standards, rather to help them conducting the workplace behaviour. These ensure the work is done properly and employees are well aware what is expected to be done them by them.

It also facilitates cross training and if some employees are in vacation the said task allocated to them needs to be done then the SOP comes into place and they do the tasks.

The peer accountability and coaching of employees are process that helps the organisation to achieve the goals correctly with efficiency.

Moreover the safe work environment conducting information are clearly written training and development process is needed for legal liability of the company as the company needs to parallel conduct the process.

The motivation to do the right thing is also an objective of providing Standard procedures. Well written SOPs not only clearly outline the how of procedures, but also the why. When the needs are communicated with sound reasons, employees should perform tasks in a certain way and they do that with more zeal to perform task[12].

Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)

Standardizing the process of the conduct in the organisation is not something that is done in one day or can it be done by verbal communication but the policies and procedures are to handle the repetitive situations and tasks.

Delegating the tasks can be an issue but SOP does take care of that. If a delegation is in process micromanaging becomes easy and thus providing best possible client service becomes easy. With the help of SOP, the delegation work becomes easy[13].

Ensuring business continuity and of the key staff member is also a crucial objective of the SOP’s

The legal system is a setup to remove disputes that the company faces. Nevertheless, that affects the internal. Therefore, a well-planned employee relation is a key to success for healthy environment, balanced relation where employer & employee both are completely satisfied and finally to avoid all the conflicts at work place to get desired and results and optimum output to reach the organizational goals. The strategies, which can be adapted to eradicate the problems and implementing the strategies by the human resource managers, are 

• Remaining calm and handle the situations with utmost care while dealing with the lawsuits and actions that are taken by government. Freaking at those moment of decision needs to be taken, is not a good choice for the HR manager[14].
• Best is to get assistance of the counsel that have handled this kind of situation is the best method to solve problems. For that, one needs to seek assistance of the corporate law firms to handle the problem. The experts in the legal department are the ones that I would turn to seek advice and suggestions for further avoidance of this kind of situation to occur.
• Not to call the adversary before talking with the lawyer, which can backfire if not handled properly
• Set workplace-conflict guidelines by talking with the co-workers[15]. Conflicts happen with personality clashes which is common but there must not be any hindrance in communication.
• Training the managers as mediators and while handling conflict and they must be well versed in dealing with the situation.
• Eliminating gender bias in the employees should also be in the standard procedure document.
• Clarifying the priorities must be thorough and situation arising from miscommunication and workplace conflict and elimination of them are to be seen through the management.
• Risk assessment in the work and not delegating to the chance of automatic solvency of the issue must be there and should be brought in the eye of the related authority.
• To have effective discipline process one should have all rules or procedures should be in a written document.
• Rules should be related to safety and productivity of the organization[16]. Rules should be written clearly, so no ambiguity occurs between different managers.
• Supervisors, managers, and human resources should communicate rules clearly in orientation, training, and via other methods. Rules should be revised periodically, as the organization’s needs change.
• Verbal warning as a form of statement to the employee that has violated the rules of the organization is a part of standard procedure.
• Written reprimand or formal notification to the employees that are involved in the violation of the regulations. After an investigation, one should follow the procedure and ending the copies to the individuals that are related is a factor to consider.
• In case of suspension or loss of work and wages for a specific number of hours or days, but not for more than one work week, depending on the severity of the offense. Notice of suspension must be provided to the employee in writing.
• Discharge or other work related termination is not to be handled with clear proceedings and those procedures are to be communicated clearly with the labours[17].
• Counselling and restatement of expectations are done by some methods that are like meeting with the members and affirming reading performance measure, discussing and communicated the deficit in performance and workplace related behavioural concern, provide timeline and resources for improvement like vestibule training and development[18]. Reporting consequence for improvement or no improvement according the matter. Documentation for anecdotal file must be involved in the process and others.
• Handling performance issues are first offense, which is unofficial warning verbally, counselling, and a restatement of expectations. Next is, written offense, which is written warnings and documented file of employees. Third is official warning and improvement plan that are developed. Fourth offense is termination related possible documents of the employee file. Fifth offense is termination and absolute dispute resolution.
• Employee separations and lay off issues must go through a formal or confidential process. The normal process must be communicated at the time of induction of the employees and that must be strictly followed through every word and process. In this matter if the company is in the process of rightsizing for cost related issues that must come to performance related issues or internal or external reasons.
• Laws that relates to employee absenteeism and different disabilities acts must be ensured to be read through. The uniformed services of employment and reemployment rights act and job protection issues must be documented and communicated to the employee. This are small procedures that should have transparency in communication[19]
• Workers compensation act which takes care of the health and safety standards of the workers and right to sound health. It also enables the employees to be absent from work due to health hazards and time is given to the employees that needs the time to recover.
• Civil rights act which applies to non-discrimination purposes in the organisation, must be communicated in the first orientation[20]. Dealing with hazard promptly and preventing to the workplace accidents must be straightforward.
• Getting the improvements and invitation to feedback system must be incorporated in the system.
• Industrial hygiene, health and welfare of the workers are of utmost importance and must be seen through with utmost care. The improvement of the workers health and hygiene are connected to the performance of the labour.
• Fairness and transparency in the organisation needs to be promoted and employers and employees must act consistently.
• Employers should inform employees the basis of the problem and give them the opportunity to put their concern in front of those who are in authority.
• Employers should allow employees to be accompanied at any formal disciplinary meeting.
• The employee domain rights must be including in the disciplinary procedures and they must have the right to appeal against the formal decision.
• The employee dismissal process is to be followed through with fair, constructive and procedural[21]. The unfair dismissal act protects the employees and takes care of their rights.
• Ensuring business continuity is one of the major responsibilities of a human resource manager and the increasing business resilience where the functionality is critical for supporting the infrastructure is important.
• In this case, scenario where the company is already involved in legal issues restoring the reputation of the business comes under the sudden and emergency need. This disruption must be handled through care while ensuring the capacity of the company and functionality remain intact and in order.
• Contingency planning in case of any disaster is must for the regarding department who handles disaster management and social security.
• Grievances handling and in the internal environment of the organisation should be most advanced and straightforward[22].
• The conflicts happen for many reasons but there should be communication breach, which must be, bring to the attention of the human resource manager.

Having the strategies and Standard Procedures are not enough. That needs to be enacted with utmost importance. Employees, who do not conform to those procedures or actions, needs to be brought to the eye of the concerned managers and revised. To communicate the procedures are also important. For this purpose the regulations needs to be communicated to the concerned persons in the organisation, which is in this case is the internal stakeholder’s employees and others. The strategic internal communication is based on the developing and implementing, monitoring and evaluating the communication process. To adapt to the changing circumstance like globalisation, digitisation of communicative medium, individual aims, objectives are essential and meeting the organisation goals are necessary. Building a cohesive organisation in terms of smooth and transparent flow of communication is necessary[23][24]. Different organisation has different communicative process incorporated in their operating process. Therefore, as an HR manager, the responsibility of one is to look that it is somehow effective.

There are certainly some benefits of having. Moreover, the employees will be well equipped with information to make small decisions themselves since they will have the knowledge of the organisational goals and practises. Staff will be able to identify the procedures and make a difference by increase efficiency and individual effort. Integrating programs between departments and sharing more resources and can reduce the chance of duplication or repetition of work. It can have a stronger impact. Day to day conflict can be avoided and reduced if the idea sharing part is in complete flow. The unfavourable situation, which the company has saddled itself into, can be reverted if the above-discussed procedures are followed through. However, having the procedures are not enough, it must be communicated and there must have some feedback system included for this. There are two different kinds of communication[25]. One is which the managers and higher in authority people wants to communicate with the lower or middle level designated people, known as downward communication. And another is the upward communication which is the opposite of the other, where the messages goes from the lower or middle level persons in organisation to the upper level managers. The communication must be effective, for that, there must have some key procedures in place.

Importance of SOP

Ensuring that the employees receives a copy of strategic plan which includes the company’s vision, mission, value statement, strategic goals

At the time of employee orientation, the employees must receive all up-to-date policies, strategies and personnel activities and basic responsibility brochure[26].

There may not be anything pressing to report nevertheless, the communication must happen. As there may be some status that the management is unaware about and affirming the communication may help solve the situation.

Staff meetings must be held every month and not just for the sake of it but to celebrate major accomplishments of the organisation and goals that have been reached as a whole entity.

Making sure that every employee receives the feedback of their performance and improvements

Soliciting the feedback of the staff is also of utmost importance. Doing a meet one-on-one and action/issues must be addressed.

Grapevine is a prevalent and reliable source of information in an organisation, which also includes a major movement of organisation communication[27].

Mode of communication can be integrated to the system via Email, Memo, Documents and records, Intranet, Suggestion box, Phone calls, common room announcements, Meetings, formal and Informal mode of letters ,Notice and bulletin board announcements and all others face to face meetings

Business Plan communication

Departmental meetings and team gatherings

Team Briefing sheets to be administered by the Human Resources Department

Executive Exchange

Therefore, from the above discussions and listed planning it can be concluded that human resource managers in the organisation has a crucial role to be fulfilled. For an organisation, which is already in the verge of losing its reputation due to some unsolicited decisions taken by management, it is of utmost importance that the legal issues needs to be put down immediately but with careful perspective. Simultaneously, the internal environment governing rules of the organisation should also be revised and taken care of.

Armstrong, Michael, and Stephen Taylor. Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers, 2014.

Aswathappa, K. Human resource management: Text and cases. Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2013.

Berman, Evan M., James S. Bowman, Jonathan P. West, and Montgomery R. Van Wart. Human resource management in public service: Paradoxes, processes, and problems. Sage, 2012.

Bratton, John, and Jeff Gold. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Bratton, John, and Jeff Gold. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Bratton, John, and Jeff Gold. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Brewster, Chris, and Ariane Hegewisch, eds. Policy and Practice in European Human Resource Management: The Price Waterhouse Cranfield Survey. Taylor & Francis, 2017.

Buller, Paul F., and Glenn M. McEvoy. “Strategy, human resource management and performance: Sharpening line of sight.” Human resource management review 22, no. 1 (2012): 43-56.

Chang, James F. Business process management systems: strategy and implementation. CRC Press, 2016.

Chelladurai, Packianathan, and Shannon Kerwin. Human resource management in sport and recreation. Human Kinetics, 2017.

Daley, Dennis M. “Strategic human resources management.” Public Personnel Management (2012): 120-125.

Daley, Dennis M. “Strategic human resources management.” Public Personnel Management (2012): 120-125.

Dipboye, Robert L., and Adrienne Colella, eds. Discrimination at work: The psychological and organizational bases. Psychology Press, 2013.

Dumas, Marlon, Marcello La Rosa, Jan Mendling, and Hajo A. Reijers. Fundamentals of business process management. Vol. 1. Heidelberg: Springer, 2013.

Greenberg, Jerald, and Jason A. Colquitt, eds. Handbook of organizational justice. Psychology Press, 2013.

Hume, Jessica, and Anné Leonard. “Exploring the strategic potential of internal communication in international non-governmental organisations.” Public relations review 40, no. 2 (2014): 294-304.

Jiang, Kaifeng, David P. Lepak, Jia Hu, and Judith C. Baer. “How does human resource management influence organizational outcomes? A meta-analytic investigation of mediating mechanisms.” Academy of management Journal 55, no. 6 (2012): 1264-1294.

Kehoe, Rebecca R., and Patrick M. Wright. “The impact of high-performance human resource practices on employees’ attitudes and behaviors.” Journal of management 39, no. 2 (2013): 366-391.

Kirchmer, Mathias. Business process oriented implementation of standard software: how to achieve competitive advantage efficiently and effectively. Springer Science & Business Media, 2012.

Kitchen, Philip J., and Finbarr Daly. “Internal communication during change management.” Corporate Communications: An International Journal 7, no. 1 (2012): 46-53.

Laguna, Manuel, and Johan Marklund. Business process modeling, simulation and design. CRC Press, 2013.

Mazzei, Alessandra. “Internal communication for employee enablement: Strategies in American and Italian companies.” Corporate Communications: An International Journal 19, no. 1 (2014): 82-95.

Men, Linjuan Rita. “Strategic internal communication: Transformational leadership, communication channels, and employee satisfaction.” Management Communication Quarterly 28, no. 2 (2014): 264-284.

Meng, Juan, and Bruce K. Berger. “Measuring return on investment (ROI) of organizations’ internal communication efforts.” Journal of Communication Management 16, no. 4 (2012): 332-354.

Peltier, Thomas R. Information Security Policies, Procedures, and Standards: guidelines for effective information security management. CRC Press, 2016.

Purce, John. “The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management.” New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals) 67 (2014).

Sadgrove, Kit. The complete guide to business risk management. Routledge, 2016.

Scheer, August-Wilhelm. Business process engineering: reference models for industrial enterprises. Springer Science & Business Media, 2012.

Ver?i?, Ana Tkalac, Dejan Ver?i?, and Krishnamurthy Sriramesh. “Internal communication: Definition, parameters, and the future.” Public relations review 38, no. 2 (2012): 223-230.

Armstrong, Michael, and Stephen Taylor. Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers, 2014.

 Bratton, John, and Jeff Gold. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Berman, Evan M., James S. Bowman, Jonathan P. West, and Montgomery R. Van Wart. Human resource management in public service: Paradoxes, processes, and problems. Sage, 2012.

Brewster, Chris, and Ariane Hegewisch, eds. Policy and Practice in European Human Resource Management: The Price Waterhouse Cranfield Survey. Taylor & Francis, 2017.

Kirchmer, Mathias. Business process oriented implementation of standard software: how to achieve competitive advantage efficiently and effectively. Springer Science & Business Media, 2012.

Scheer, August-Wilhelm. Business process engineering: reference models for industrial enterprises. Springer Science & Business Media, 2012.

Laguna, Manuel, and Johan Marklund. Business process modeling, simulation and design. CRC Press, 201

Aswathappa, K. Human resource management: Text and cases. Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2013.

Dumas, Marlon, Marcello La Rosa, Jan Mendling, and Hajo A. Reijers. Fundamentals of business process management. Vol. 1. Heidelberg: Springer, 2013

Sadgrove, Kit. The complete guide to business risk management. Routledge, 2016.

Dipboye, Robert L., and Adrienne Colella, eds. Discrimination at work: The psychological and organizational bases. Psychology Press, 2013.Chelladurai, Packianathan, and Shannon Kerwin. Human resource management in sport and recreation. Human Kinetics, 2017.

Kehoe, Rebecca R., and Patrick M. Wright. “The impact of high-performance human resource practices on employees’ attitudes and behaviors.” Journal of management 39, no. 2 (2013): 366-391.

Greenberg, Jerald, and Jason A. Colquitt, eds. Handbook of organizational justice. Psychology Press, 2013.

Jiang, Kaifeng, David P. Lepak, Jia Hu, and Judith C. Baer. “How does human resource management influence organizational outcomes? A meta-analytic investigation of mediating mechanisms.” Academy of management Journal 55, no. 6 (2012): 1264-1294.

Buller, Paul F., and Glenn M. McEvoy. “Strategy, human resource management and performance: Sharpening line of sight.” Human resource management review 22, no. 1 (2012): 43-56.

Daley, Dennis M. “Strategic human resources management.” Public Personnel Management (2012): 120-125.

Purce, John. “The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management.” New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals) 67 (2014)

Chang, James F. Business process management systems: strategy and implementation. CRC Press, 2016

Peltier, Thomas R. Information Security Policies, Procedures, and Standards: guidelines for effective information security management. CRC Press, 2016.

Kitchen, Philip J., and Finbarr Daly. “Internal communication during change management.” Corporate Communications: An International Journal 7, no. 1 (2012): 46-53.

Ver?i?, Ana Tkalac, Dejan Ver?i?, and Krishnamurthy Sriramesh. “Internal communication: Definition, parameters, and the future.” Public relations review 38, no. 2 (2012): 223-230.

Men, Linjuan Rita. “Strategic internal communication: Transformational leadership, communication channels, and employee satisfaction.” Management Communication Quarterly 28, no. 2 (2014): 264-284

Meng, Juan, and Bruce K. Berger. “Measuring return on investment (ROI) of organizations’ internal communication efforts.” Journal of Communication Management 16, no. 4 (2012): 332-354.

Hume, Jessica, and Anné Leonard. “Exploring the strategic potential of internal communication in international non-governmental organisations.” Public relations review 40, no. 2 (2014): 294-304.

Mazzei, Alessandra. “Internal communication for employee enablement: Strategies in American and Italian companies.” Corporate Communications: An International Journal 19, no. 1 (2014): 82-95.