Line Managers Handling Disciplinary Matters Essay (Critical Writing)

Introduction

Line managers are the critical link between upper management and employees. They control the activities of personnel and thereby support the enterprise in achieving its goals. Managers may deal with disciplinary matters that include inappropriate conduct, incompetence, and similar issues. Line managers must respond quickly to such matters to notify employees of the inadmissibility of such behavior and prevent its repetition in the future. This paper examines critical points about handling disciplinary matters that line managers should explore during their preparation for work in the public healthcare provider.

Theoretical Framework

Disciplinary issues in hospitals affect safety issues, and health care providers should always strive for the complete safety of their patients. High-reliability theory and patient safety model can guide training managers (Zadeh et al., 2019). Organizations supporting this theory strive to be sensitive to existing processes and operations, understand the complexity of their work, use failures as an opportunity for improvement, respect experience, and develop resistance (Veazie et al., 2019). Thus, within the framework of this theory, hospital managers should strive to constantly improve discipline among their employees, taking into account the difficulties in their work and experience.

Legal, Ethical, and Professional Aspects in Disciplinary Matters

Hospital staff is responsible for the safety and health of their patients. Professionals must adhere to ethical principles such as beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy, and justice (Varkey, 2021). Personnel should also support professional requirements such as providing informed consent, respect for confidentiality, truth-telling, and similar aspects (Varkey, 2021). Finally, hospitals must operate in accordance with legal laws and regulations. Given the importance of the mentioned rules for patient safety and the features of the considered hospital, the managers’ training will need to focus on several specific points.

1. Managers must know how to classify a disciplinary action in order to address it. The rules should indicate which circumstances can be assessed as lack of capability, misconduct, or gross misconduct. Moreover, the hospital is in a transient position to autonomous management but still part of the ministry of health. Therefore, the legal control of staff activities is still under the auspices of the Civil service bureau (CSB) and National Health regulatory authority (NHRA) rules. Managers should be aware of the staff disciplinary requirements presented by CSB and NHRA but prepare for the transition and focus on hospital rules.
2. The training of line managers should also focus on the consequences of various incidents. In particular, they may provide an informal or formal warning to the staff member, either orally or in writing. In case of serious misconduct, managers can talk about the dismissal of an employee.
3. When applying any of the measures presented, managers should have good communication skills, such as active listening, open questions, and similar techniques. Effective communication can also be a preventive measure for the recurrence of misconduct. Managers need to know that employees are scared and stressed due to transition, so communication can be vital in handling disciplinary issues.

Conclusion

Line managers play one of the critical roles in supporting the institution’s work and personnel management. Their on-the-job training should take into account the specifics of the enterprise and the experience of its employees. This paper examines the features of training for line managers in the hospital, which is in a transitional position to autonomous management after being under the auspices of the Government. Therefore, the training of managers in handling disciplinary matters should focus on their responsibilities, taking into account the feature of the circumstances. Particularly, they should be aware of the severity of the misconduct, the consequences of what they entail, and the skills of communicating with employees.

References

Varkey, B. (2021). Principles of clinical ethics and their application to practice.Medical Principles and Practice, 30(1), 17-28. Web.

Veazie, S., Peterson, K., & Bourne, D. (2019). Evidence brief: Implementation of high reliability organization principles. Washington (DC): Department of Veterans Affairs (US). Web.

Zadeh, S. E., Haussmann, R., & Barton, C. D. (2019). Health care risk managers’ consensus on the management of inappropriate behaviors among hospital staff. Journal of Healthcare Risk Management: The Journal of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management, 38(4), 32–42. Web.