Employee discipline: analyze punitive and non punitive disciplinary approaches, and explain their impacts on employee relations.

Punitive disciplinary approaches is a remnant from the days when unions negotiated a system of progressive punitive measures, often financial deductions from an employees salary. At the time, this was negotiated with employers to avoid quick terminations with no resolutions. As this form continues today, it maintains the responsibility and stress with managers for finding a corrective solution. The stress is in part created from employees outrage at imposing punitive measures.

Non-punitive disciplinary approaches transfer the responsibility of the problem onto the employee. A brief example is, an employee who is frequently late and/or absent meets with his manager. Is warned of the situation and informed the he needs to improve his behavior. After failing to improve again, the manager meets with the employee and reminds him that the issue has been discussed and improvement is still needed and a written note is put into the employees file. After continue in his poor behavior, the manager talks with the employee and gives him a non-punitive day off (referred to as "decision making leave") to think about what he wants to do, either change his behavior and continue with the company, or leave.

Modern employers, who are adapting the non-punitive leave system, are finding significant gains in behavior correction compared to the previous punitive model. This improvement is often attributed to the the shifting of responsibility for behavior modification from management to the employees.