T, a member of the finance team, has been constantly arriving late to work and in recent months he has consistently made significant errors in his work. A number of colleagues have complained to P, their line manager, about T's aggressive behaviour towards them and V, a junior administrator, has suggested that T has bullied her.

Explain to P what is include in the process of taking disciplinary action.

Disciplinary action requires a manager to use authority to deal with situations while an employee has made some offence. For instance as in the scenario, T constantly arriving late for work, poor work performances, aggressive behaviour towards others and bullying. The main purpose of responsibility disciplinary action is to achieve a change in the behaviour of an employee so that future action is needless. Whilst this should be viewed as a positive approach, in reality it is often seen as carrying out the threat of punishment rather than as remedial and corrective.

In advising P what is include in the process of discipline, P must first check that T has been informed that particular behaviours could lead to disciplinary action, what constitutes misconduct and gross misconduct and what the consequences are. In large organisations this is usually covered in the employee handbook.