8600-314 Understanding Discipline in the Workplace

Unit Overview

8600-314 Understanding Discipline in the Workplace is a unit within the ILM Level 3 module that focuses on improving the ability of the leaders within the organisations to uphold a certain level of discipline among themselves and the employees. Discipline is important in ensuring that human stakeholders, especially employees and leaders, are able to remain focused on following the set codes of practice and conduct within the organisation to ensure that they follow the organisational policies and systems are followed. Discipline issues within the organisation must be handled in accordance with the law.

Legal frameworks have been put in place to guide the disciplinary process where stakeholders who are deemed to be violating the set codes of practice and behaviour are taken through within the organisation. As such, the organisation’s employment policies and procedures must provide the managers with the specific policies that are aligned to the set for the specific organisational context to deal with discipline, but this policy must be in accordance with the set legal frameworks and ethical standards. The process of maintaining discipline is important in retaining a focus on organisational goals and objectives, reducing the cases of conflict and misbehaviour within the organisation and creating proper interpersonal relationships that are built on achieving the organisational goals and objectives.

The aim and purpose of 8600-314 Understanding Discipline in the Workplace is to ensure that the managers are provided with knowledge and understanding of the role of discipline within the workplace and the significance of setting an effective disciplinary procedure to be followed when handling misbehaviour within the organisation. The unit is taught in 5 hours of guided learning and contributes 1 credit value towards the completion of ILM level 3 module.

Suitability of the Unit

All stakeholders must be in a position to uphold certain levels of discipline, including in the code of conduct and adherence to organisational policies and procedures. The managers within the organisations are tasked with the duty of enforcing the set code of conduct to ensure that all employees, as well as other leaders adhere to the set principles and policies. Violation of these principles calls for effective disciplinary measures to be implemented to ensure that the behaviour is discouraged and the employee faces the consequences.

Disciplinary measures are put in place to ensure that misbehaviour of employees does not compromise the performance of the organisation.8600-314 Understanding Discipline in the Workplace is a unit that is designed to improve the ability of the leaders within the organisation to effectively develop and implement strategies aimed at optimising discipline within the organisation. The unit is aimed at improving the capabilities and skills of the first-line managers and junior managers in improving the performance of the organisation in relation to discipline levels and standards.

However, the unit is also suitable for the middle managers and top managers who set out the policies that are applicable across the organisation for handling disciplinary issues. It is also applicable to external consultants who provide support to the establishment of people practices that revolve around effectively managing discipline issues to ensure that they are compliant with the law and meet the expected ethical standards.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this unit, the learner should be able to:a

• Identify and describe the legal frameworks and aspects that are related to the disciplinary process within the organisation

• Identify the employment policies and procedures that have been developed within the organisation to guide the manager when dealing with disciplinary issues in their areas of responsibility

• Describe the purpose and significance of disciplinary procedures within the organisation

• Identify the role that interpersonal behaviour and support skills play in monitoring and maintaining discipline within the workplace as well as enforcing disciplinary measures when necessary

Key Learning Areas

8600-314 Understanding Discipline in the Workplace is a unit that focuses on covering learning areas that improve the understanding of the managers and leaders on the implementation of effective disciplinary measures. The unit helps to relate organisational policies and procedures to legal standards and frameworks that influence the practice. Some of the main learning areas within this unit include:

Legal Aspects and Organisation Policy in Disciplinary Issues

This area of learning focus on the understanding organisational policies and standards of behaviour. The area helps the learners to effectively delve into standards of behaviour that need to be embraced within the workplace. These standards set up policies that, if violated, lead to indiscipline that can be addressed through disciplinary processes.

The learners are future-guided to ensure that these standards that are set are aligned with the organisational goals and objectives and based on legal frameworks and principles. In this area, the learner is further helped to establish disciplinary processes within their areas of practice that are aligned to the legal requirements outland to protect the interests of the employees and reserve the rights of the organisation.

Monitoring Discipline in the Workplace

Organisational leaders have the responsibility of ensuring that they can continuously monitor the performance of the employees in accordance with the set standards within the organisation. This area of learning helps the managers in training to identify the key interpersonal behaviours and support that they can offer to employees to ensure that they maintain the desired standards of performance and hence minimise the cases of indiscipline within the organisation. They are also guided in the process of effectively maintaining records that help to monitor and support the disciplinary process and can be used as supporting documents when disciplinary measures are taken against employees.

Evaluation

On completing the unit, the learners are put through an evaluation process to determine the accomplishment of organisational goals and objectives. This process involves completing a written assessment that covers theoretical understanding of the concepts that have been taught within the unit as well as case studies and simulated exercises that ensure the learner is able to apply the concept learned within a real-life situation in an organisation.