One of the less appealing aspects of a manager’s job is addressing employee misconduct. In our research, we define this as behavior that breaches moral standards, such as cheating and discriminating against others, or technical performance standards, such as violating safety protocols or coming in late. Often, organizations have protocols that managers are supposed to follow in these cases; company policy might state that the employee should be suspended or even fired. Standard punitive procedures uphold rules, signal how employees should behave (and how they should not behave), and deter bad behavior.
