Perceived fairness of disciplinary procedures: an exploratory study

The objective of this study was twofold: Firstly, to explore and describe the perceived fairness of a disciplinary procedure in the workplace and, secondly, to develop guidelines that could be used by managers to provide a fairer experience of the disciplinary procedure. A qualitative research design was employed. In-depth interviews were conducted with participants who were purposely divided into two groups (an employee participant group and an expert participant group). Results indicated that employees experienced the disciplinary procedure as traumatic, unfair and not reliable. Guidelines were formulated to manage employee discipline more effectively.