Progressive Discipline

Introduction

A progressive discipline system is an essential element to any human resources strategy. This system involves management, the employees, and members of the board. When rules of a workplace have been dishonored, a choice has to be made to see what will and can be done about the rule violation. Some discipline methods may vary from others depending on the nature and what rule has been broken (Business Owner's Toolkit, 2009). Although some issues will or and have different circumstances that some of the time will cause major problems concerning making a decision for the violation of the rules for the workplace. What would be needed is an effective method to discipline those who decide to break the rules of a company it must be made to the procedural justice in the workplace in order for it to be successful.

Procedural Justice

In human resource policies, the company must consider the fairness to the employees. Procedural justice involves focusing of policies and procedures used in making decisions in the workplace. The procedures must be fair to the extent that they are consistent across the workforce (Cascio, 2003). Procedural justice consists of three components. The first, the structural component, is also known as the employee voice. This is based on the assumption that the employee will have opportunities to provide input in decisions. The second is international justice, which refers to how the employees are treated personally throughout their work day. The final justice is informational, and this component simply means that management will provide employees with explanations for decisions made (Cascio, 2003).

Procedural Justice in Con Edison

When analyzing the current state of Con Edison's procedural justice system, it appears that a majority of the key elements are present. One weakness for management of the company is consistency and following the guidelines exactly how the rules are written. Con Edison includes a detail of the disciplinary system in employee handbooks distributed during orientation. Many large corporations do this, but must be careful of the language used. Con Ed has the company lawyers review all policies as well as the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) department. Although this is a positive element to the open communication with employees, the company must be certain to follow the written rules exact, and every time an incident arises

(Cascio, 2003).

The written policies and procedures of Con Edison contain detailed guidelines for a number of human resources issues that may arise. The Corporate Policies library accessible on the intranet allows employees to search by topic to review the related policy. The subject matters include sick time, substance abuse, violence in the workplace, and the performance management process. These policies are often not updated timely. The Auditing department has a section for quality control. This section should assist in keeping the company's procedural justice system updated by monitoring the update of these procedures. With inaccurate guidelines posted on the intranet, management is vulnerable to lawsuits and unfair practices in the workplace.

Con Edison should enhance the voice systems they currently have in place. The ombudsperson receives feedback from employees throughout the year and releases an annual report based on this feedback and other studies they performed. The company shares this document with employees. A step in the right leadership could take is to assign committees to each of the ombudsman's recommendations. Each committee will be given a time frame to evaluate the recommendation and take action to form a plan to address these issues. For example, if one of the recommendations is to enhance the work experience for minorities throughout the company, the committee may conduct focus groups as well as benchmark best practices in other companies. By handling the ombudsman's report this way, the company would prove that they hear the employees and want to make decisions together.

Procedural justice also involves employee interactions with management. Each employee must be treated with respect and dignity. If a person is inconsiderate or abusive to other employees in the workplace, whether direct reports or supervisors, he or she is violating the rights of the employees. Research has proven that employees who receive positive feedback from their supervisors are more likely to have positive job performance, job satisfaction, and loyalty to their supervisor. In Con Edison, the employee relationship should be highly valued at all levels. The company has a Conflict Resolution department to oversee all issues within the work groups, which is a step in the right direction. This program should be enhanced by this group reporting the positive results of their work through anonymous case studies to employees.

Progressive Discipline

Whereas Con Edison may improve the procedural justice system through the recommendations above, the fact that employees will violate the rules cannot be overlooked. Even as an employee(s) decide to break or violate a rule or policy, the possible outcome could