Tuesday, 31 December 2013

what is a punishment?...how it should be designed?

hai all...when we are alone living in a jungle then what ever we do is all right...when we live a social life within social systems like home, organisations, societies, groups and teams etc we are supposed to follow the rules, norms or regulations of the social system...these rules etc are only regulations set by those in that social system so that the people who are different due to their back grounds exhibit common behaviour to achieve the collective goals of all...

so, whenever some one commits some behaviour that is deviant or beyond the tolerable limits then it is considered as a 'wrong behaviour'. 

When people commit such mistakes, or crimes or illegal or unlawful acts they are punished...

most of the punishments that we have formed are to make the person to suffer, others to see him suffering...so that the individual does not repeat the wrong and the punishment is a good deterrent for others so that they are scared to do that wrong...

in our 'revenge mentality' culture the individual gets angry of his punishment, commits the same or different wrongs again...e.g rapes, murder etc...

most of the wrongs are committed by our people when in anger or drunk...during these conditions the cognition part is switched off by the brain...so, we can not think...so, the fear of punishments do not come up in the mind...so, punishments are no deterrents...this is obvious from the repetition of same wrongs by people in the same social system...

in an organisational context, when we punish a person to 'suffer', the individual changes his 'attitude' which is the worst thing that can happen.

In our culture, the way we are brought up, we never accept mistakes as ours (see the above post)...we always attribute the blames to others...'all failures and wrongs are due to others and all the rights and successes are due to us and due to our hard work'...this is how we are groomed...funny people!...so, obviously we are not honest and this leads to many wrong behaviours by us. So, when we are punished in organisations we think we are not at wrong or fault or at mistake and we are punished wrongly, due to vengeance, partiality etc etc.

Under these conditions the individual feels 'i am not at fault. I have been punished in-correctly, illegally. So, i will not work here after. Or i will work only with my own pace. Let you do what ever you want'....or 'you punished me!!! (anger)...i will do the needful to ensure that you suffer the worst man!...just watch out!!'...in the first case the person changes his attitude and stops working or works with less efficiency compared to earlier...in the later case he takes revenge on the person who punished him or the person responsible for the punishment...

in both the cases the organisation is the loser...the individual is the loser...

these things also lead to smaller or bigger conflicts which wastes the resources like working time and time to resolve conflicts....

So, our punishments are only destructive to the person, to the organisation and to others...including the person responsible for punishment and the one punishes...all suffer physically and mentally and their efficiency also reduces...no peace!!!

Punishments are to be meant for 'change'. The individual should realise that he has done some thing wrong, he has to accept his mistake, has to understand that he has to correct for his own good and for common good...and has to select his own punishment too...so that he punishes himself for a change...and he changes...this requires less effort, results in good for all...

today i had to handle a case like this...the usual punishment promulgated by the organisation is destructive...instead i used this technique which i normally use in all such cases...initially the guy argued that he is not wrong...but after 'discussions' (not shouting or finding faults) he realised and accepted his mistake...selected his own punishment...and went off with a smiling face...so, he is changed and no one is affected now. There was no anger, shouting in the entire process...when he executes the punishment others will come to know that 'this person has committed something wrong and he has punished himself'...the individual also will not feel small but walk with pride saying 'yes, i have committed something wrong, it is wrong, i should not have done that, so, i have punished myself!'

of course, punishments are essential as otherwise every one will think 'we can do wrongs and there is no punishments...so, nothing wrong in doing wrongs!'...

keep rocking guys and gals!

peacefully yours
rams-psychologist and sociologist

No comments:

Post a Comment