The management of disciplinary measures in the Public Sector with reference to the Department of Agriculture in Limpopo Province

Abstract

Management of disciplinary measures is a delicate part of work programmes that needs dedicated employees to handle. The personnel should be provided with acts, rules and regulations, codes and work procedures to serve as guidelines during their execution of their duties. In this research work, the participating workers indicated some perceptions that could contribute towards poor service delivery, which include tribalism, ethnicity etc. The Department of Agriculture should eliminate these perceptions soon in order to achieve the set departmental goals. The personnel should be encouraged to undergo various trainings so that they can be mentally empowered. They should be exposed to libraries to get materials relevant to their work sphere. Monitoring should be regular to ensure perfection within an institution. Employees are of the opinion that training workshops are for specific group of workers and that they are treated inequitably by the institution. Their future efforts are then demoralized. Knowledge acquired from various literatures should be implemented practically. The management and supervisors can gain knowledge about the various disciplinary approaches such as supportive approach; disciplinary policy, which indicates the steps to be followed when applying the disciplinary measures; disciplinary system like the designing of a disciplinary action; and the techniques such as the analyzing of the written institutional records and statement of discipline related rules and procedures. All employees within an institution should take discipline as reformative. Supervisors should where possible react positively in order to bring balance between the workers and the employer. The treatment of employees should develop positive attitudes such as the desire to work with, and not against, their superiors. The data collected indicated that there are factors contributing towards fair or unfair management of disciplinary measures. Good factors should be encouraged and maintained whereas the negative ones should be addressed to avoid delay in service delivery.