In the employment relationship, both employees and employers have rights. Employee rights fall into three categories: statutory rights (protection from discrimination, safe work conditions, the right to form unions), contractual rights (as provided by employment contracts, union contracts, and employment policies), and other rights (the rights to ethical treatment, privacy, and free speech).

Employers have the right to run their business and make a profit. These rights are supported by property laws, common law, and the values of a society that accepts the concepts of private enterprise and the profit motive. Management rights include the right to manage the workforce and to hire, promote, assign, discipline, and discharge employees. Another important management right is employment at will, which allows an employer to dismiss an employee at any time for any cause. There are three key exceptions to the employment-at-will doctrine: public policy exceptions, implied contracts, and lack of good faith and fair dealing.

Sometimes the rights of the employer and employees are in conflict. For example, a random drug-testing policy can create a conflict between an employer’s responsibility to provide a safe workplace and employees’ rights to privacy. HR professionals need to balance the rights of the employee with those of the employer when designing policies that address workplace issues such as random drug testing, electronic monitoring of employees, whistle-blowing, moonlighting, and office romance.

Managers rely on discipline procedures to communicate to employees the need to change a behavior. There are two approaches to discipline. The progressive discipline procedure relies on increasing levels of punishment leading to discharge. The positive discipline procedure uses counseling sessions between supervisor and subordinate to encourage the employee to monitor his or her own behavior. Both procedures are designed to deal with forms of misconduct that are correctable.

To avoid conflict and lawsuits, managers must administer discipline properly. This entails ensuring that disciplined employees receive due process. Managers need to be aware of the standards used to determine whether an employee was treated fairly and whether or not the employee has a right to appeal disciplinary action. For a disciplinary system to be effective, an appeal mechanism must be in place.

It is often necessary to discipline employees who exhibit poor attendance, poor performance, insubordination, workplace bullying, or substance abuse. Managing the discipline process in these situations requires a balance of good judgment and common sense. Discipline may not be the best solution in all cases.

The need for discipline can often be avoided by a strategic and proactive approach to HRM. A company can avoid discipline by recruiting and selecting the right employees for current positions as well as future opportunities, by training and developing workers, by designing jobs and career paths that best utilize people’s talents, by designing effective performance appraisal systems, and by compensating employees for their contributions.