Discipline

"To think good thoughts requires effort. This one of the things that discipline – training – is about". -James Clavell, Shōgun (1975).

Discipline is action or inaction that is regulated to be in accordance (or to achieve accord) with a particular system of governance. Discipline is commonly applied to regulating human and animal behavior to its society or environment it belongs. In the academic and professional worlds a discipline is a specific branch of knowledge, learning, or practice. Discipline can be a set of expectations that are required by any governing entity including the self, groups, classes, fields, industries, or societies.

Use of the word discipline[]

Children being educated to use public litter bins is a form of disciplinary education that is expected by some societies. Discipline is followed in every school. If a child cannot use a litter bin the lack of discipline can result in a reaction from observant people in public. Many people observe a form of disciplinary effort in their daily lives. Discipline acts as an important role in students' campus life to enhance their credit and intellectual recognition amongst peers. In academia, discipline can also regard the educators' responses and efforts that are designed to punish the student(s).

Discipline is a moral obligation among many groups of people. Disciplined behavior is required by some laws and other legal obligations. Commercial entities can also put in place strict disciplinary requirements for the length of the commercial agreement. Airlines enforce strict disciplinary and conduct rules upon flight passengers.

History[]

Disciplinarians have been involved in many societies throughout history. The Victorian era resulted in the popular use of disciplinarian governance over children. Edward VIII had a disciplinarian father, and the English had modeled the royal families during this era. Edward's grandmother was Queen Victoria who had championed the role of the family unit during her reign. A disciplinarian will enforce a stricter set of rules that are aimed at developing children according to theories of order and discipline. Disciplinarians have also been linked to child abuse in numerous cases and biographies.^{[citation needed]}

Self-discipline[]

Self-discipline is about creating new habits of thought, action, and speech toward improving oneself and reaching institutional goals. This is an alternative to viewing discipline as a means to obtain more information. Discipline could be about deciding on what is right from wrong and help us make decisions that will make us solidify our goals.^[1] "Discipline is the thing that happens when you expend some effort (both physical and mental) to do a thing that in that moment, you don’t feel like doing... Discipline doesn’t really take into account your thoughts or feelings." that Erin says is the beauty of discipline since what we do is something that is entirely within our control, an action is completely under our control.^[2] Secondly its action that completes or furthers a goal, not merely our thought and feeling. Thirdly an action conforms to an value, actions are then value-laden therefore they are helpful and useful. Erin says that discipline means the perpetual practice of taking action that's inline with a rule or a set of standards, even if that rule has been self-imposed.

In religion[]

Self-discipline is an important principle in several religious systems. For example, in Buddhist ethics as outlines in the Noble Eightfold Path, the element of commitment to harmony and self-restraint has been described as a moral discipline.^[3]

In Christian ethics, virtues directed by the beatitudes were formally replaced by ascetical theology and obedience-based discipline, which changed orientation from the Gifts of the Holy Spirit to that of an authority, blessed but not possessing the same happiness which was given forth by adherence and observances. In the Medieval period, spirituality and morality were closely connected and even thought of as being practically the same.^[4] The beatitudes were made an organizational principle since Saint Augustine. However, Christian ethics didn't have its existence as a form of discipline until the late, middle Medieval period, and along with Lutheranism and post-Enlightenment obedience-based discipline has been the new form.

Alexander Maclaren suggested the duty and discipline of grace and the hope born of and carried throughout life can be described as follows:

'grace' means the sum of the felicities [happiness] of a future life. That is clear from two considerations — that this grace is the object of our hope all through life, which only an object beyond the grave can be, and also that its advent is contemporaneous with the revelation of Jesus Christ. The expression, though unusual, is valuable because it brings out two things. It reminds us that whatever of blessedness we may possess in the future it is all a gratuitous, unmerited gift of that loving God to whom we owe everything."^[5]

Self-discipline is how our self-control is gained, and the way our hope is maintained. "Hope follows desire. The vigor of our hopes is affected by the warmth of our desires. The warmth of our desires towards the future depends largely on the turning away of our desires from the present."^[6]

Common Techniques[]

• Time management is a form of discipline that utilizes time as the regulator and the observer of time as the governor. The requirement is for time to be used efficiently. This activity maximizes the result of a set of activities by marking each activity within a boundary of time. To improve efficiency activities that are not necessary to complete the current activity or goal should be completed separately without interruption, this is the alternative to multi-tasking. Time management can utilize skills, tools, or techniques to create specific time allotments according to a range of organization methods. Time management for discipline scheduling should involve focusing on one or two tasks, since we "start small and build on success incrementally", clearly defining what you plan to undertake and when you intend to do it, and focus on what we are doing rather than focusing on what we want to resist doing.^[7] A major theme arising from time management is that of modifying behavior to ensure compliance with time-related deadlines. It may be utilized by an emphasis on completing goals rather than a specific task, completing short and non-urgent tasks first, complete urgent and high importance tasks second and make progress on less urgent tasks which are time-consuming in the middle of the working day. More commonly segregating operations to different individuals as opposed to overlapping activities, more efficiently organizing and completing tasks, this may however increase the need for supervision, non-group fixed milestones, and intermittent reports. This theme is interrelated with discipline and methods of discipline that can be used to incentivize group or personal responsibility and reducing wasted hours by performance drops or irrelevant tasks to completing a deadline. Time management is about non-punitive scheduling and goal-oriented programs. Team-based time management is exemplified by good questioning. Meeting times can be significantly reduced by asking why we need to meet to accomplish this, what will we do differently if we succeed and how will this further the vision or goals of our team, group or organization?^[8]
• Responsibility-centered discipline or responsibility-based discipline co-opts the members to understand remedies for problems in an organization.^[9] Responsibility includes laying out instructions for modifying future behavior by following good role models who have earned esteem. This is a move away from using punishments and time-based consequences to responsibility based since it prevented students from learning from the problem. Responsibility-based discipline is about mimicking the warmth, getting everyone's agreement on the set ground rules and problem-solving, this is while maintaining dignity and observing clear limits. Sending frequent reminders about how the member can meet the performance indicators, organizational objectives, why the rules should be adhered to, or useful advice on meeting the rules day-to-day. Obedience-based discipline is basing membership on hard work, diligence, obedience to authority, and self-discipline.^[10][11][12] Students have displayed improved academic success, behavior management, in the school climate, student and teacher satisfaction using responsibility-centered discipline, using a five step rule based technique to help create solutions:^[13]

1. Support – Makes the student feel valued

2. Expectation – Reinforces what is expected

3. Breakdown – Communicates how the expectation broke down or where there was failure to meet

4. Benefit – Relays to the student how important it is to meet the expectation and how it benefits them

5. Closure – Determine whether the situation has been resolved or if the conversation is at a place where the student can move on

• Additionally conduct grades reflect a student’s willingness to develop and internalize responsible behavior.
• Micromanaging is something that should be avoided if possible and there are useful ways to improve a relationship with your manager. At times micromanaging may be useful if you aren't performing the task upto par with the quality expected or the level of the paycheck, spend time loitering and chatting, or more seriously missing deadlines or forgetting to respond to emails, in other words things of an urgent nature.^[14] Usefully you should make alterations that fit the perspective of the manager, if its unimportant to you then it isn't a problem to defer to the manager. Always know the "how" for every step of the project right at the very beginning to ensure you are on board and push back against this if its ridiculous change to how things normally operate, if its only different then make the change. Always ask if you've met your competence requirements, then if its satisfactory you can ask to change meetings and therefore have more freedom to do things without constant oversight. Honesty is the best way on how to tell a manager how he or she is doing, if its an inadvertently micromanaging role of that manager then it pays to let them know that an largely independent worker does not need that constant oversight and to ease up. A manager's role is always at a basic level to tell an employee what to do and follow up on things.
• Corporal punishment is a widely debated technique of discipline that can focus on spanking, slapping, whipping, deprivation, or hitting with an object using mild to extreme degrees of force. The general aim is to instill an understanding of consequence in the subject. Punishment can be used to instill immediate compliance as it acts as a reminder to the offender that there are consequences to their actions, especially when it comes to breaking the law. To deter would-be offenders. Corporal punishment is used in the military, its to punish unacceptable behavior and it is where strict disciplinary measures are used throughout. To provide a disincentive for not acting when requiring to act, when safety to others necessitates action, increase pain to adjust to a regiment whose misoperation or miscalculation results in injury, fatalities, damage to equipment or unnecessary delays and to efficiently, productively and effectively carry out ones duty, particularly when it is of high importance to their rank, society, and personal gratification.

See also[]

References[]

Look up discipline in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

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