The Emotional Effects Of Punishment

1626 Words4 Pages

Normally, punishment is primarily used to correct individual behavior, but as it has been already stated, there are some lasting organizational effects. These effects can be positive or negative which largely depend on other factors, such as whether the organization has a positive or negative culture, punishment policies, and the trust factor within the organization. A study was done in 2013 by Danny Wang, Flora Gu, and Maggie Dong for the Journal of Marketing Research. The study was to measure the effects of punishment in a distribution network. This study was especially interesting because unlike the aforementioned studies, this one was in relation to a business model instead of whole societies (Dong, Gu, & Wang, 2013). The results of …show more content…

I felt during work that I just didn’t care no more. I didn’t care if I broke something. I didn’t care about anything. I just wanted to get through the day.” [until I could quit.] Another employee was told that her performance was below standard and she would not be getting an annual increase. When asked if her behavior changed she reported: “Yes, my behavior changed. I became very bitter because I felt I was treated unfairly. The negative outcome was that I did not want to work as hard for that person.” (p. …show more content…

Establishing normative procedures and rules to outline acceptable and unacceptable behavior is a key factor in preventing employee deviance (Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara, 2011). Monitoring systems are commonly used to detect and prevent employee deviance. Furthermore, once they detect a problem, acting upon the offenders sends a message that monitoring is happening, and deviance will likely result in corrective action (Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara, 2011). The effectiveness of these monitoring systems is proportional to the effectiveness of the subsequent punishments that are enacted on the offender. In other words, if the punishment is ineffective, then the monitoring system will also be rendered ineffective (Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara, 2011). Therefore, when an employee is caught breaking company policy, it is imperative that the manager uses a fair policy of correcting the problem while sending a clear message that employee deviance will have consequences (Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara, 2011). The perception of whether a punishment is considered fair or unfair is known as procedural justice (PJ) (Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara, 2011). To achieve a high level of procedural justice, there must be a balance of monitoring and punishment. With too little monitoring, and heavy

Open Document