An employer expects maximum job discipline from his/her employees so as to achieve the operational goals. An employee who displays positive job discipline behavior is considered reliable by the employer. To be able to influence subordinate behavior, many supervisors employ disciplining initiatives so as to control and monitor the junior's performance. The main challenge faced by supervisors is how to instill the discipline of time management to their juniors. An organizations discipline program must clearly outline the consequences in the event of commission of a given mistake. These initiatives discourage the employee from committing the mistake fearing the underlying consequences. Due to consistency in failure to keep time, Mike was on the verge of losing his job as the lab technician. He had been given a last warning by the supervisor and this put him in a dilemma on what to do in his scenario. Losing his job meant that his new-born child and mother will have to suffer by lacking basic needs. It was also his professional responsibility to ensure the safety of the patients visiting the hospital. Leaving the floor unattended meant exposing the occupants of the hospital to risk, which may result in harsher consequences. Mike has a duty of care towards the visitors of the hospital and therefore required to act professionally.
Since the spill cleaning is another department’s job, Mike should proceed to clock-in and avoid termination. This decision, however, has a negative implication in that it exposes the patient to an accident. In case there is a patient who will happen to pass by before the spill is cleaned the patient is at a risk. This, therefore, may attract lawsuits as the patient seeks compensation. This could lead to a financial loss on the part of the organization. Leaving the spill unattended has a negative impact on the organizations brand image. A patient who sees it on the floor might associate it with low quality of services offered in this hospital. Based on the physical evidence aspect, the environment of service delivery highly influences on customer perception and expectation. The spill, in this case, lowers the standards of the organization. Mikes decision to clock-in on assumption that by the time he clocks in someone might have cleaned the spill was irrational. The employee from the responsible department might have been busy tackling another task, this means that failure to assist increased the workload of the other employee (Guo & Kristina, 2008) . There was a need for Mike to help out and offload his/her colleague who seems to have been busy somewhere else.
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Mike, however, made the decision under pressure from his manager and he feared to lose the job as a result of arriving late. To avoid such scenarios in the future the manager should do the following; training his staff on working as a team. Through this approach, the organization will operate one unit and the employees will be encouraged to take up responsibilities which even though not in their areas of specializations affects the achievement of the organization's set goals. Another approach the manager can use is training the employees on the duty of care the organization owes to its customers. Through this, the manager makes the employees aware of their responsibility as part of the organization to deliver quality services all the time. Ensuring effective interdepartmental communication would ensure that such cases are communicated in a timely manner, therefore, ensuring that the patient is not exposed to unnecessary risks (Mullins, 2005) .
Effective communication would also help give guidelines to the employees during instances of emergencies or when an employee is in a dilemma of what to do. Promote flexibility among the employees, this can be achieved by embracing democratic leadership style, under this, the employees have a voice in decision making. This approach delegates the power to make decisions to the employees. This lets an employee know that his/her decision in certain circumstances is acceptable and won't cost them the job. With this in mind, the employees will be able to make vital decisions on matters affecting them when undertaking their daily chores. Another effective approach is investing in employees’ welfare initiatives, Mike, for instance, has a new-born child and a wife to take care of. This may be the reason as to why, he has not been arriving at the job in time off late (Reimann, Martin, Bechara, & Antoine, 2010) . Through understanding this the organization may grant him a paternal leave and allow him some time with the family. This approach will make the employees own the organization and therefore will always work towards the development of the brand image.
References
Guo, & Kristina. (2008). DECIDE a decision-making model for more effective decision making by healthcare managers. The Health Care Manager, 27 (2), 118–127. doi:10.1097/01.HCM.0000285046.27290.90
Mullins, L. J. (2005). Management and Organisational Behaviour. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.
Reimann, Martin, Bechara, & Antoine. (2010). The somatic marker framework as a neurological theory of decision-making: review, conceptual comparisons, and future neuroeconomics research. Journal of Economic Psychology, 31 (5), 767–776. doi:10.1016/j.joep.2010.03.002
