Employees Discipline: An important Aspect

In Human Resource Management

(Journals of Education)

PRECIS
One of the most challenging areas in human resource management is employee
discipline. Mismanaging may force the organization to deal with more difficult problems
like union strikes, costly lawsuits, or demoralization. If such problems are not contained,
they may lead to bankruptcy or disintegration of the organization. A very fine example of
the disastrous consequence of lack of discipline happened during the PhilippineAmerican War in 1899 because some high- ranking officers of the Philippine Army
committed acts of insubordination, the army as an organization disintegrated, quickly
making it easier for the American invaders to subdue the Filipinos.
Disciplinary action is sometimes necessary but it must be done only for justifiable
reason plus the requirement that there are effective policies and procedure for its use.
Discipline is a process consisting of establishing rules and goals communicating
these rules and goals to employees designing the mechanism for assessing employees
behavior administering penalty, and motivating change in behavior.
Employees discipline is one of the most challenging concerns of HRM. It is
important and it cannot be compromised less the efficiency and effectiveness of the
organization is placed in jeopardy.

COMMENTS
I therefore conclude that employees discipline is important because in every
members of the organization, they have their ability to do something to the organization
through disciplining the members of an organization, one must be aware of the things he
must do for the good of his colleagues. There maybe rules and regulations inside the
organization and so an employee must conduct himself in accordance with the
organizations rules and standards of acceptable behavior.
Breaches in discipline oftentimes bring necessary and sometimes expensive
activities to the organization. This could be averted if sufficient preventive measures are
undertaken. These measures will be most appropriate when applied to discipline. Thus,
any action taken to encourage employees to follow standards and rules so that infraction
does not occur is called preventive discipline.
In setting up a system of preventive discipline, employees are encouraged to
maintain self- discipline. Also referred to as positive discipline, preventive discipline is a
system of discipline that focuses on the early correction of employee misconduct, with
the employee taking total responsibility for correcting the problem.
It is also expected that some employees will be breaking some rules for one
reason or another. Nevertheless, penalties are imposed even for first offenders. To
discourage them from repeating their misdeeds, however, stronger penalties are imposed
on succeeding infractions. This method of disciplining errant employees is referred to as
progressive discipline.

Incentive Compensation:
A Motivation for Employees Work
(Journals of Education)

PRECIS
Organizations are confronted with the concern for efficiency in operations. This is
brought about by competition or just the plain instinct for survival. A very important area
of consideration is employees performance in which ways must be devised to make it
happen.
Incentives are also sometimes called as a variable pay. And job evaluation is the
way used to determine the basic of employees. Although the basic pay may motivate the
employee to work, it may not push him perform beyond the minimum requirements.
When this happens, organizations, which depend on the full capacity performance of their
employees, will have to consider other means to motivate them. A solution had been
devised and it is referred to as incentive compensation.
Incentives are rewards given to employees for performing beyond the standard
requirements. In addition to the base salary, a deserving employee receives incentives.
As such not everyone gets it because not everyone is expected to perform beyond
standards.

COMMENTS
Incentives in an organization can also be considered as a motivation for them to
perform beyond standard requirements. The reason for such plan is to reward the top
performers. However, there are two requisite condition for individual incentive plans to
succeed. These are the following; Individual contribution which must be the emphasis of
the organization. And also, the job must be designed to allow the individual employees to
work independently and with autonomy and discretion.
Bonus is one kind of an incentive. It is an extra payment given to employees for
good performance. In addition to production, A bonus may also be determined on the
basis of cost reduction, quality improvement, or performance criteria established by the
organization. A bonus is often used as an incentive to executives although this may also
be applied to lower level personnel.
Merit pay is also a kind of incentive. This is defined as individual increases based
on the rated performance of individual employees in a previous time period. An employee
who is entitled to merit pay receives a higher base pay commencing on the year following
the performance evaluation. This is computed as a certain percentage of the base salary of
the employee.
Commission also is another kind of an incentive and that is usually paid to sales
employees. It is based on a percentage of sales in units or pesos.
For the mentioned incentives, I think, theres no better as it depends on the head
of a certain organization whether the employee is worth of the merit he must receive or
not.

Communication:
A Tool for Better Understanding
In a Certain Organization
(Journals of Education)

PRECIS
Managers will find it easier to avoid the pitfalls of poor communication if they
have sufficient understanding of communication. This may lead them to identify their
weak points which are really the pre- requisites to developing communication skills.
Communication maybe defined as the transfer of information and understanding,
including the feelings and ideas, from one person to another.
Passive listening such as hearing without understanding is not considered
communication. Thus, if one is daydreaming and another person is telling him about
something, no communication is undertaken.
Intentions, no matter how good they are, will remain as just plain intentions if
they are not well communicated. Projects, programs, and any other activity would be
difficult to execute unless they are fully appreciated by the people concerned.
Appreciation and understanding, however, will depend on how effective the
communication is
Communication is an indispensable human activity. As it occurs simultaneously
with any undertaking, however, it becomes too familiar and is often neglected as an
effective means for achieving objectives of a certain organization.

COMMENTS
Organizations, including businesses, are established for certain objectives. These
objectives will be easier to achieve if every member of the organization understands them
fully. Communication is a necessary component of every aspect or human resource
management and these include staffing, training and development, motivation, and
maintenance.
It often happens that the intended meaning of the message sent is not the one
received. This may be attributed to certain barriers that affect communication. As such,
communicators must be aware of the existence of such barriers so they can be properly
managed.

A STUDY OF THE ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING OF THE

PRINCIPALS
Bottery, M. (1992). The Ethics of Educational Managementl

PRECIS

This study investigates the ethical decision-making of school principals.

The project seeks to develop understanding of the nature of ethical decisionmaking and values driven leadership among school principals working for the
Department of Education. The need for a project of this kind results from a
confluence of social, cultural and economic imperatives common in our
international, national and local contexts.
In the Philippines, schools are under intense pressure from at least four
sources. Firstly, there have been increasing demands for involvement by noneducationalists in school decision-making. The effects of these demands can be
seen in three recent and influential documents on curriculum produced by
committees headed by a computer company chief executive, an insurance
executive and a retired union official and the implementation of school-based
management structures. The latter have involved the introduction of governance
by school councils with strong community representation. Secondly, revolutionary
changes in knowledge growth and in the application of new technologies to the
teaching and learning process have resulted in an incessant call for schools to
modernize. Thirdly, schools are being asked to respond to increasing and
seemingly intractable social problems such as unemployment, youth suicide, and
violence: problems that vary in their effects on different school communities but
have deeply penetrating effects on many schools. And fourthly, the liberal-

progressive, individual-centered educational philosophies that have driven

educational practices for most of the post-war years are being pressured to yield
the ideological terrain to powerfully asserted economic-rationalist and utilitarian
emphases.
In the face of these changes, school principals have found that time for
constructive educational planning has diminished, and crisis management has
become the norm. In particular, what is of most concern is that school leaders'
understandings of the espoused values of schooling are being lost in the face of
the exigencies of crisis management. The danger is that the choices principals
make are being guided not by those values but by measures of expedience born
of the need to simply survive crises.

COMMENTS
As indicated, we are currently writing up the issues identified as case
accounts. Three examples of this work are included below to illustrate the
outcomes of the writing task.
Issue 1. Assessment Falsification
Towards the end of the year a principal asked how his year was going in
her second language assessment. She reported that she was doing 'pretty well'
but that she couldn't say much more because she hadn't seen feedback from her
teacher on any of the assessment tasks she had submitted. She had only
received marks. A little further investigation into this matter with other students
revealed a similar pattern sufficient for the principal to discuss the issue with the
teacher. By this time, it was near the end of the senior year. The talk with the
teacher uncovered a major problem. The teacher had been replacing the senior
students' assessment tasks with ones he had written himself. Further
investigation showed that this practice was widespread affecting all second
language students in the school from years 8 to 12. Needless to say, the
students were assessed as performing very well.

Issue 2. School Council Membership

It is well known by all, including the principal, that a particular woman
seeking a place on the school council is a 'pain in the neck' (to quote the
principal). She is 'aggressive', 'single minded', and has a personal 'barrow to
push'. She is considered by most to be disruptive and potentially destabilizing for
any school body let along the council.
The principal is concerned about how to deal with the issue in the lead up
to nominations and the election for the council.

Issue 3. Conflict of Interest

A highly regarded and hard working senior teacher recently came up with
the idea to put a drink machine into the covered sports area so that students
might purchase chilled soft drinks. This was approved by the outgoing principal.
The new principal, whilst examining all of the school's finances felt that there was
a conflict of interest in this arrangement since the teacher concerned was drinks
provider at the local hockey club. More than this, she suspected that the teacher
was making money out of the machine and pocketing it. With a little further
investigation she found that this was eminently possible because the teacher, as
the lease, had a key to the machine. By purchasing discount soft drinks and

placing them in the machine before the restocking date followed by the owners it
was possible to make a profit 'on the side'.

Once all of the case accounts are completed we will turn our attention to
the preparation of the survey instrument. This we hope to administer during
semester one, 1999. Next year we will also move to writing a series of Case
Studies from the interview data. At this stage, it seems that several will
concentrate on ethical decision making processes employed by different
principals while others will focus on the values positions implicit in particular
decision outcomes.

Revisions to the Hiring Guidelines

for Teacher- I Positions
DEPED no. 4, s. 2007

PRECIS
The Department of Education (DEPED) actively implements policy reforms
called Basic Education Sector Reform Agenda (BESRA) which are expected to create
critical changes necessary to further accelerate, broaden, and deepen and sustain the
improved current educational efforts. The vision for improved school performance
propels a unified system that provides for the need for highly qualified teachers.
In order to institutionalize the objectives of BESRA, particularly the reforms in
Teacher Education and development Program (TEDP) and School Based Management
( SBM ), the revisions to the hiring guidelines for teacher I positions in the public
elementary and secondary schools under DEPED Order No. 4,s. 2007

shall be

implemented by schools Divisions consistent with the pertinent provisions of existing

laws, rules and regulations effective School Year 2009-10.

COMMENTS
To monitor the division compliance and sanctions, the regional directors shall
regularly ensure the full implementation of the provisions of the hiring guidelines. There
must be an extent dissemination and discussion of the guidelines with teachers, school
heads, district supervisors, superintendents and other schools divisions officials. The
schools also shall prepare to receive, acknowledge and endorse applications. Then, there
must have an organization of Division Sub- committees and selection committees. The
members of the committees shall have a briefing and orientation regarding their roles and
functions. Then after that, they shall prepare a scoring sheets, interview guides and tests
of applicants and extent of briefing and information sharing with local governments and
other local stakeholders in teaching hiring.
Anyone found guilty of violating any of the provisions of these guidelines or any
part thereof shall be administratively dealt with accordingly.

Personnel Teaching Program

Walker, Keith D. (1995). Perceptions of Programs among Personnel Educational

Leaders, Journal of School Leadership, 5(6), p532-64.

PRECIS
Personnel Teaching Internship is the culminating phase of the personnel
education degree program. During this period, he/she begins to metamorphose
from being a student to that of being a teacher. It is during this crucial phase that
the student teacher needs a support system that will encourage professional
development and enhance teaching performance. This support system shall come
from the collaborative efforts of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED)
through a Teacher Training Institutions (TEIS), the Department of Education and
cooperating public and private schools.
I.

General Objectives:

1. To have a comprehensive view on the real world of teaching

2. To serve as a real test of what one has learned in his years of study in a teacher
training institution
3. To apply the principles, theories, precepts, methods, information skills,
attitudes and values that one has gleaned in his years of schooling
4. To determine whether or not the student teacher is ready to go out into the
actual world of teaching

COMMENTS

The College Teaching Supervisor of teaching personnel shall have the following
duties and responsibilities such as : to prepare the program of activities of the student
teachers; coordinate with the SDS in the selection of cooperating schools; prepare and
implement the MOA between the TEI and the Division Office; coordinate with the head
of the cooperating school regarding the activities and needs of the student teachers
relative to their practice teaching; prepare the student teachers for their off-campus work
through orientation, meetings, conferences, lectures, etc. conduct regular observation and
evaluation of the performance of student teachers in their practice teaching; coordinate
regularly with the principal, head teacher, and cooperating teacher regarding the
performance of the student-teacher; submit written reports to the College Dean, copy
furnished the school principal and the SDS, at least twice a month regarding the:
1.1.
Progress / performance of student teachers
1.2.
Problems / difficulties met by the student teachers
1.3. Solutions / actions taken to solve the problems