There are two aspects of discipline. They are:
1. Positive Aspect and
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2. Negative Aspect.
Aspects
1. Positive Aspect
Employee complies with rules not out of fear of punishment but out of an inherent desire to co-operate and achieve goals. Where two-way communication, clear goals and effective leadership mark the organisational climate, employees need not be indiscipline in the traditional way.
This type of approach is called positive approach or constructive discipline or self-discipline. According to Spriegel, “positive discipline enables an employee to have a greater freedom in that he enjoys a greater degree of self-expression in striving to achieve the group objective, which he identifies as his own”.
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2. Negative Aspect:
Employees sometimes do not believe in and support discipline. As such, they do not adhere to rules, regulations and desired standard of behaviour. In fact, disciplinary programme forces and constraints the employees to obey orders and function in accordance with set rules and regulations through warnings, penalties and other forms of punishment.
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This approach to discipline is called negative approach or corrective approach or punitive approach. Negative or punitive discipline is one in which management has to exert pressure or holdout threats by imposing penalties on wrongdoers.
When this pressure becomes increasingly severe each time a man is indisciplined, it is called “progressive” or” corrective” discipline.
The fear of punishment puts the employee back on rails. According to Spriegel, “Discipline is the force that prompts an individual or a group to observe the rules, regulations and procedures which are deemed to be necessary to the attainment of an objective”.
Negative discipline connotes that personnel are forced to observe rules and regulations on account of fear or reprimand, fine, demotion, or transfer.
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But these are helpful in extracting just minimum standard of work from the employees since they work on account of fear.
In contrast, if the authority is exercised arbitrarily, or if rules of conduct are unreasonable or if employees do not have a sense of adhering to the rules and regulations, discipline is threatened and if it is prolonged, it affects the organisational health.
Any programme of discipline will be effective and successful only when it is used to supplement and strengthen self-discipline.