DISCIPLINE WITHOUT PUNISHMENT IS IT POSSIBLE? Miranti Kartika Dewi (Presenter) International Islamic University Malaysia Email: miranti_k_dewi@yahoo.com Hendri Tanjung International Islamic University Islamabad Email: hendri_samsul_bahri@yahoo.com Principal Author Contact Detail: Jl. Pinang Kalijati I No. 25. Pondok Labu. Jakarta 12450. Indonesia Phone: +62-21-7661527 Mobile: +60-17-282-32-90 ABSTRACT Some western management scholars are currently discussing a theory whether more discipline in working areas generally can increase employee mischief and misbehavior instead of solve the problems. They say that the traditional discipline system had failed; hence they come with the idea of applying discipline without punishment. When some organizations get succeed in implementing this approach, some others have no clue about how to do it. Here Islamic teaching takes part. Since in fact it has introduced the ways to overcome the problematic discipline issues, around 1400 years ago before the concept of discipline-without-punishment concept was introduced. This paper will analyze the ways to deal with those disciplinary problems provided by Islam, combined with the taught of some western scholars. The other characteristics should be internalized in the soul of a Muslim managers will support the analysis of this paper. Keywords Discipline, punishment, Islamic principle, management.
INTRODUCTION Narrated by Abu Huraira (may Allah be pleased with him): Allah s Messenger (PBUH) said, The strong is not the one who overcomes the people by his strength, but the strong is the one who controls himself while in anger. (Sahih Al Bukhari, Hadith No.135, Vol.8) Whenever an organization would like to achieve its goals, a high commitment and magnificent synergy from its whole personnel are required. One of the means that can assist this goalachieving process is through the implementation of discipline among individuals in the organization. Starting from the 1930s, most of American organizations have settled on a common procedure to handle their organizational problems by implementing the progressive discipline" system, an approach to modify undesirable employee behavior through the usage of a range of disciplinary consequences starts from verbal warnings, written warnings, formal probationary notices, suspensions without payment, demotions, and ends with termination - that are applied depending upon the nature and history of the particular employee's misconduct. In this rapid movement era, the mentioned disciplinary system can gradually increase employee mischief and misbehavior instead of convey solved problems. The traditional discipline system had failed, so that the idea of applying discipline without punishment was starting to be employed. According to the research held by Dick Grote, author of the book Discipline without Punishment, Frito-Lay is one of the first companies which can obtain successful result by implementing this concept. It can reduce the employee turnover rate at its plant up to 60% compared to the year when it was still using warnings, reprimands, probations, demotions, unpaid disciplinary suspensions, and all other punitive responses to discipline problems. Since then, hundreds of other organizations have adopted this less-punitive procedure in dealing with the poor performance problems, unacceptable conduct, and failure to maintain regular attendance in daily business. Even though major organizations may implement this discipline-without-punishment concept, some other organizations still have difficulty in changing their disciplinary approach. Most likely, it can be caused by the attitude of many managers who believe that punishment is the only solution to deal with employees failures. They fail to notice that the concept of organizational discipline is not to punish misbehavior and enforce compliance, but to build individual responsibility and re-inspire commitment. Therefore, this misconception may lead to the catastrophe of generating employees who are committed to the goals of the organizations. When people try to find the escaping ways to overcome the problematic discipline issue, long time before the concept of discipline-without-punishment concept was introduced, around 1400 years ago, Islam through the verses of Holy Qur an and hadith said by The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has already introduced some ethical guidance to overcome mentioned problem and enhance discipline towards goal achievement. In Islamic perspective, successive discipline can be instigated from the leader. As Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said in the hadith narrated by Ibnu Umar, Each of you is leader and every leader will held responsible about his leadership. The hadith implied that the discipline implementation should be started from the individual because every individual will be asked about what he has done. When each individual is discipline, the group will be discipline, then the whole organization can also be more discipline. As the discussion about all of the above ideas is an essential issue, there are plenty of literatures and researches concerning this topic written in many academic journals or articles. But not many of them observe the problem from the Islamic point of view. Why do we need the discussion on this topic based on Islamic point of view? Is there any managerial impact of this effort while there are so many high-quality thought broaden by the western scholars? About these inquiries, we will address some objectives from our point of view as follows:
We believe that the Holy Qur an has an abundance of seeds and models of discipline and leadership and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and his honorable companions are the role models of leader for everyone, Muslim and non-muslim. Muslims are now together establishing the winner ummah. Nowadays, Muslims are reunited to be more heroic in competing within global markets. The leadership paradigm is changing, and ethics is making a comeback. The traditional autocrat-based leadership can no longer be accepted and is replaced by the participatorybased leadership to help organization achieve its goals. The disciplinary problems in achieving goals will always happen in almost organizations. Therefore, it is needed to know how to overcome these problems without starting other problems. In this paper, we will converse the cited topics by combining the reviews from both Islamic and conventional perspective in the aim to get some insights on how to achieve organization s goals by discipline implementation through excellent leadership. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Characters of a Good Leader from the Islamic Perspective As quoted from Khurram Murad in the book Leadership: An Islamic Perspective written by Beekun and Badawi (1999), leadership is the ability to see beyond assumed boundaries, and to come up with solutions or paths that few can visualize. The leader must then project this vision for everyone to see and pursue. They also took the model exemplified by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that indicates his ability to envision what his companions could not. During one of the darkest times faced by Muslims, the prelude to the Battle of the Trench, he was blessed by God with a vision of the Ummah s future: After many vain attempts to split or dislodge a rock he struck, Umar went to the Prophet (saw) who took the pickaxe from him, and gave the rock a blow at which a flare as of lightning flashed back over the city and towards the south. He gave it another blow and again there was a flash but in the direction of Uhud and beyond it towards the north. A third blow split the rock into fragments, and this time the light flashed eastwards. Salman saw the three flashes and knew they must have some significance, so he asked for an interpretation from the Prophet (saw) who said: Did you see them, Salman? By the light of the first, I saw the castles of Yemen; by the light of the second, I saw the castles of Syria; by the light of the third, I saw the white palace of Kisra at Mada in. Through the first has God opened up to me the Yemen; through the second has He opened up to me Syria and the West, and through the third, the East. This vision of the Prophet (PBUH) has motivated Muslims for more than a millennium. At one point, the Muslim Ummah had to wait 700 years for Constantinople to be liberated. The vision still energizes Muslims. According to Beekun and Badawi (1999), the vision of a leader can bring a very strong influence to the subordinates. They said that although a leader s vision is not typically divinely inspired, it can act like a magnet as it energizes, focuses and directs the efforts of followers. While as Didin Hafidhuddin and Hendri Tanjung mention in their book titled: Shariah Principles on Management in Practice, vision is not the single thing which should be held by a leader. In this book, they say that in order to achieve the organization goals, at least the leader should own the following qualities:
Firmness: The leader should be committed to every single word he said. Consultation: The leader should do consultation to exchange views. He/she should be able to respond to views of subordinates and listen to their complaints. Openness: The leader should follow the transparency principle and be open in all things. As was exemplified by Umar bin Khattab, the second Caliph, when his policy was criticized by a woman, he said, Umar did mistake and that woman was right. Deep understanding towards the aim of organization: The leader must have a clear understanding on the vision and mission of the organization, so that he/she can lead successfully. More detail on the relationship between leadership and discipline implementation, Hafidhuddin and Tanjung also stated that a good leader should at least possess four main abilities that will be described below combined with related explanations from the Holy Qur an and hadith of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Able to establish good example. An action has more influence than a thousand words. This ability was notified in the Holy Qur an, O ye who believe! Why say ye that which ye do not? Grievously odious is it in the sight of God that ye say that which ye do not (Al Saff (61): 2-3). Beside that, Allah s Messenger (PBUH) also said, A man will be brought on the Day of Resurrection and thrown in the (Hell) Fire, so that his intestines will come out, and he will go around like donkey goes around a millstone. The people of (Hell) Fire will gather around him and say: O so-and-so! What is wrong with you? Didn t you use to order us to do good and forbid us from doing evil? He will reply: Yes, I used to order you to do good but I did not do them myself, and I used to forbid you from doing evil, yet I used to do them myself. (Sahih Al Bukhari, Hadith No.489, Vol.4). Able to motivate subordinates by giving encouragement instead of fear in doing the jobs. The leader needs to implement into subordinates thought that any single deed they have done should be dedicated to deserve Allah s blessing. If it has been applied, they will always be discipline to themselves and be responsible in taking part towards organization s goal achievement. Able to put subordinates on the right place as Allah said in Surat An-Nisaa (4): 58, God doth command you to render back your trust to those to whim they are due; And when ye judge between man and man, that ye judge with justice The leader are not to put subordinates only based on friendship, relative closeness, political matter or other unfair factors. Once a leader put subordinates based on the later factors, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has already stated on the hadith reported by Bukhari, When an affair is not given to its owner, the just wait for its failure Able to give reward. The leader should consciously give reward to those who did work correctly. It does not necessarily be in the form of material, but may also be in the form
of praise, appreciation or motivation spirit as long as the reward is proportional. Concerning the reward, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said in the hadith narrated by Abu Huraira (may Allah be pleased with him) that when the Prophet (PBUH) heard someone praising another and exaggerating in his praise. The Prophet (PBUH) said, You have ruined man s back (by praising so him so much). (Sahih Al Bukhari, Hadith No.831, Vol.3) Thus, in praising subordinates, the leader should be fair and unexaggerated in order to prevent them from the short-run satisfaction which may decrease their performance. Discipline Implementation through Excellent Leadership Islam & Western Point of View To point out the latest mentioned factor, when the subordinates can not perform the job well, the leader should ask them why they cannot perform their best, personally remind them to evoke their performance, share what his/her expectation from the subordinates with a polite manner, and give chance and motivation for them to give their better performance. How does Islam see these all? In fact, the guidelines of instigating this type of participatory discipline process have already introduced by Islam centuries ago, as mentioned in the Holy Qur an: O ye who believe! Avoid suspicion as much (as possible): for suspicion in some cases is a sin: and spy not on each other, nor speak ill of each other behind their backs. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Nay, ye would abhor it. But fear God: for God is Oft-returning, Most Merciful. (Al Hujuraat (49): 12) The verse explicitly informed that whenever every individual, whom is leader, see something bad done by other individual (his/her subordinates), he/she should not disclose or talk about it to the public instead of reminding the subordinate personally. In the case that the leader needs help from others to remind the subordinates, he/she is allowed to tell the badness in order to gain the betterment. This feat can be carried out in order to fulfill Allah s law that was mentioned in the Holy Qur an: Ye are the best of peoples, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong and believing in God... (Ali Imran (3): 110) And also supported by the hadith narrated by Abu Said al-khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) below: Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said: Whosoever of you sees an evil action, let him change it with his hand; and if he is not able to do so, then with his tongue; and if he is not able to do so, then with his (heart) and that is the weakest of faith (Sahih Muslim). In addition, whatever the leader do to gain the subordinates better performance, he/she should always based all actions in accordance with the pure willingness and clear mind, because only he/she who can control his/her self and thus get high influence on people. As mentioned in the hadith narrated by Abu Huraira (may Allah be pleased with him): Allah s Messenger (PBUH) said, The strong is not the one who overcomes the people by his strength, but the strong is the one who controls himself while in anger. (Sahih Al Bukhari, Hadith No.135, Vol.8)
Accordingly, in Islamic perspective, reward and punishment mechanism should be balanced and fairly treated. When the mechanism only gives emphasize on offering reward, then subordinates would have spirit on doing matters just for short-term purposes. But while the mechanism only gives emphasize on giving out punishment, the subordinates may not perform their best creativity and effort as they are under the sense of fear. Hence, both reward and punishment should simultaneously be executed. Since the perspective of Islam on participatory discipline through excellent leadership is universal and can be accomplished not only by Muslim leader but also by the non-muslim leader, some western scholars also mentioned their analogous opinions. As Kay Gilley, an experienced leadership consultant from University of Oregon, described in her book titled Leading from the Heart: Choosing Courage over Fear in the Workplace, there are two paths in leadership path of fear and path of courage. She founds that most leaders today take the path of fear where control and manipulation reign supreme and may drive to subordinates stagnation. Another path of leadership, the path of courage and heart is held when the leaders can connect people through spirit, joy and passion in their work. Here, the leaders can create an environment that respect people and involve people. In addition, Dick Grote, the leader of Grote Consulting Corp. in Dallas and adjunct professor of management at the University of Dallas Graduate School, mentioned in his book titled Discipline Without Punishment that emphasis on punishment only is no longer sustained recently: Progressive discipline is America's criminal-justice system brought into the workplace, following the basic premise that crime must be followed by punishment. With its constant quest to "make the punishment fit the crime," it attempts to provide an awkward mix of retribution and rehabilitation. A variety of problems make this still-common procedure obsolete. He also mentioned that the traditional discipline system can no longer make corrective device. Afterward, based on his research, Grote (1999) came out with the concept of discipline without punishment. The later term use here is not actually pure without punishment. Whenever subordinates make failures in performing their best contributions to achieve the company s goal, the corrective action of reminding them still should be taken by the leaders. In the case of subordinates even now cannot make any improvement, the other progressive action should be also taken by the leaders, but instead of ended with termination, it should end with the choice offering to the particular subordinates whether they want to make a betterment performance or exit from the company. In this approach, participation of subordinates in making decision is also considered by the leaders, because punishment only can bring subordinates to compliance; but it cannot lead them into commitment. In this following diagram, the process of implementing discipline without punishment is executed.
Prevention step: making recognition of good performance rather than confronting poor performance Employees make failures Informal & personal coaching on performance-improvement discussion Assumption: the troublemakers are mature, responsible, and trustworthy If solved: Stop Reminder 1 Ask subordinates agreement to turn to fully acceptable performance If solved: Stop Reminder 2 Write a memo to document discussion with troublesome subordinates If solved: Stop Final Step: One-day-decision-making leave for subordinates to consider to stay in the organization by making betterment or quit from the organization Source: Grote, D., Discipline without Punishment, as published at http://www.conferenceboard.org/articles/atb_article.cfm?id=160 From the diagram, we get some insights that in line with the implementation of discipline-without-punishment approach, the leader should perform the prevention step, which is making recognition of good performance when the subordinates can make welldiscipline performance. This prevention step is not taken by the traditional progressivediscipline approach which is lack of individual performance recognition. The recognition is usually only employed when the annual performance-appraisal ritual is held, or else when problems are arisen. Another lesson we can perceive from the discipline-without-punishment concept is that the term reminder is chosen deliberately, instead of using the term warning or reprimand, as used in the traditional progressive discipline approach. This simple word can make a huge different impact in the subordinates mind because it is not as disrespectful as the later terms. By giving reminder, leader can remind the subordinates of two things: first, reminding them of the specific gap between their existing performance and the expected performance; second, reminding them that it is their responsibility to deliver the goods and do the job that they are being paid to do. The final step of this approach can bring enormous effect that the final decision making has taken place in the subordinates own choices that reflect their responsibility to their own selves. Here, again, the concepts of discipline implementation are matched with what Islam say since centuries ago as mentioned above.
DISCUSSION LIMITATION The discussion of this paper still limited in the concepts of the implementation of discipline encouragement without punishment. A further empirical research of the concept implementation in the real world is highly recommended to support the findings. CONCLUSIONS From the foregoing discussion and review from both Islamic literature sources and western scholars thoughts, we can see that the topic on discipline implementation through excellent leadership is valuable to be practiced by every organization in the recent changing business world in process to achieve its goals. The concept of discipline without punishment that widely published by the western scholar is actually not purely without punishment, but with the more sensible manner. The guidance provided by Islam since the era of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) can be proven by both Muslim and western scholar since the guidance provided by Islam is very universal and logical. It does not only taught about how to be a good slave for Allah in order to gain His blessing but also how to be success in worldly activities by being professional and discipline in doing daily jobs. Since success cannot be gained by doing nothing or doing something without guidance, discipline is needed in the process of achieving the stated goals, not only for individual, or family, but also for a bigger group as organization or company. Facts have told us that it is common for any organization to get disciplinary failure caused by the individuals inside it. Concerning the responsibility of the leader to take corrective steps to those who made disciplinary failures, facts also have told us that recently, when the leadership paradigm is changing, and ethics is making a comeback, the traditional autocrat-based leadership can no longer be accepted and is now replaced by the participatory-based leadership to help organization achieving its goals. Thus, this later concept can give insights for us that participatory-based leadership, which involves the discipline-without-punishment approach, may reinforce more ethical value for the organizations, since the dignity of any individual in the organizations is highly respected, even when he/she has done some disciplinary failures. Here Islam, through Allah s law recorded in the Qur an and Prophet Muhammad s (PBUH) statements stated in Hadith, also teach us that reward and punishment mechanism should be balanced and fairly treated. When the mechanism only gives emphasize on offering reward, then subordinates would have spirit on doing matters just for short-term purposes. But while the mechanism only gives emphasize on giving a punishment, the subordinates may not perform their best creativity and effort as they are under the sense of fear. Hence, both reward and punishment should simultaneously be executed. REFERENCES Menou, M.J. (1995c). The impact of Information II. Concepts of information and its value. Information Processing and Management, 31 (4), 479-490. The Holy Qur an Text and Translation An-Nawawi., (1982). Forty Hadith An Anthology of the Saying of the Prophet Muhammad, Beirut: Dar Al-Koran Al-Kareem. Baqi, F.A., (1991). Al-Lu Lu Wal Marjan A Collection of Agreed Upon Ahadith from Al- Bukhari and Muslim Volume 3, Lahore: Kazi Publication. Beekun, R.I., Badawi, J., (1999). Leadership: An Islamic Perspective, Maryland: Amana Publication. Gilley, K., (1997). Leading from the Heart: Choosing Courage over Fear in the Workplace, Washington D.C.: Butterworth-Heinemann.
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