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February 2018 – Question of the Month
February 19, 2018 - By Wendy Lambourne, Director, MA Industrial and Organisation Psychology, Registered Psychologist with SA Medical & Dental CouncilShare by Email
Question: When should the ultimate sanction in employment, namely dismissal, be imposed?
Answer: Dismissal is the organisational equivalent of the death sentence because once you’ve been dismissed you cannot be rehabilitated. So dismissal should not be done lightly. This ultimate sanction should be given when what the person has done is in contravention of the core values of the leadership of the organisation. For instance, if the core value is respect and the person has contravened that, there should be a parting of the ways. The reason is that the only way you get values to be made more than nice words on the wall/website is if leaders, firstly, role model or themselves demonstrate these values; and secondly, if leaders are totally unequivocal when people in the organisation contravene these values. – Wendy Lambourne, Director, Legitimate Leadership.
