Discipline and Behavior Modification
Discipline and Behavior Modification
1. The most important idea that I learned in Part Nine was the role of discipline and behavior modification theories in the manager-report business relationship. The given example concerning the performance improvement within the transportation industry was interesting for its complete lack of negative aspects. The results that the company obtained by emphasizing the positive and ignoring the negative were notable. In some ways this section was slightly contradictory, as the only discussion of what would happen if the drivers that did not meet the goals were receipt of encouragement to keep trying to meet the goals. In essence, the program took the approach of ignoring below par behavior.
However, the section closes with the suggestion to “address or correct poor performance and do not reward negative attitudes or inappropriate behavior” which was not discussed in relation to the transportation company project. As this section was obviously discussing a relatively short term project, it would be expected that ignoring the negative and praising and rewarding the positive would work in the short term. But over a longer period of time, some sort of approach for drivers that do not meet expectations needs to be formulated, as eventually the below par performance may become ingrained, particularly when it is clear that there will be no negative results upon the low performer other than a lack of a reward. Unfortunately, the ignoring of negative performance will only go so far and can be an overall negative as others who do meet their goals will realize that those that are taking a less active approach have no negative ramifications other than loss of attention or reward.
2. In the role of a director of a small information technology department, the most applicable section of this reading is a review of discipline approaches currently used to avoid the problems discussed – permissiveness, rigidity, and inconsistency. As with many ideas within the reading, avoiding these issues is challenging to the leader, as it requires taking responsibility for their actions with their employees at a personal level. This can be emotionally draining, especially when a workforce is constantly testing these areas to find methods of avoiding being disciplined. Regarding the issues of permissiveness, this is a precise description of the problem discussed above with the coach drivers. By allowing a subset of the employees to avoid a negative result even when they do not meet clearly defined rules is a form of permissiveness that can lower the performance of the entire group.
The other end of the pendulum is rigidity or micro-management where every little aspect of a person’s job is controlled. Depending on the personality of the report, this can definitely result in job avoidance or counterproductive activities, like excessive personal internet searching or secrecy about issues within the company. This wastes not only the company’s money but also negatively impacts the perception of the group’s contribution to the overall company goals. Finally, inconsistency overall is something that needs to be carefully watched as my reaction as director to situations should not be dependent on my current mood or stress level. I want to build the reputation of being a fair, well-reasoned supervisor and earn the respect of my reports and being not too permissive, yet not too rigid and then maintaining the selected discipline level in a consistent manner will go a long way to meeting those goals.
