CONCEPT AND MEANING OF DISCIPLINE Discipline is the regulation and modulation of human activities to produce a con trolledperformance.

The real purpose of discipline is quite simple. It is to enc ourageemployees to confirm to established standards of job performance and to be havesensibly and safely at work. Discipline is essential to all organised group action.

Definition of Discipline Webster s Dictionary gives three basic meanings to the word discipline, the first beingthat of training that corrects, moulds, strengthens, or perfects. The secon d meaning iscontrol gained by enforcing obedience and the third is punishment. B y combining thefirst and second definitions you can say that discipline involves the conditioning or moulding of behaviour by applying rewards or you can say th at discipline involves theconditioning or moulding of behaviour by applying rewa rds or penalties. The thirdmeaning is narrower in that it pertains only to the a ct of punishing wrong doers.Besides these broad definitions, there are others re ferring to organisational life inparticular, for example: Discipline is a procedure that corrects or punishes a subordinate because a rule of procedure has been violated. Dessler,2001 Discipline should be viewed as a condition within an organisation wherebyEmploye es know what is expected of them in terms of the organisation s rules,Standards an d policies and what the consequences are of infractions. Rue & Byars, 1996 From the above definitions, you can find the following elements: 1. 2. 3. The objective is orderly behaviour . Orderly behaviour is a group desire. Orderly behaviour assists the attainment of organisational goals

4. When members behave appropriately as per rules, there is no need fordisc iplinary action. This is self discipline. 5. When some members violate the rules and regulations, punitive actions ar eneeded to correct them. 6. Punishment serves two purposes: first, to directly punish an individual for anoffence and secondly, to set an example for others not to violate the rule s and regulations. Those employees who observe the rules and standards are rewarded by praise, byse curity and often by advancement. Those who cannot stay in line or measure up top erformance standards are penalised in such a way that they can clearly learn wha tacceptable performance and behaviour are. Most employees recognise this system as alegitimate way to preserve order and safety and to keep everyone working tow ards thesame organisational goals and standards. For most employees, self discip line is thebest discipline. As often as not, the need to impose penalties is a f ault of themanagement as well as of the individual worker. For that reason alone , a supervisorshould resort to disciplinary action only after all else fails. Di scipline should never beused as a show of authority or power on the supervisor s p art.Let us now distinguish the major aspects of discipline.