Purposeful Adoption of Positive-Based Discipline Model Due to Generational Differences and Social Climate

Discipline, in all accepted forms of its meaning, holds a crucial underlying tenet in human behavior. It controls society’s everyday interaction, it is what allows governments to flourish, and it is what keeps order in a world that can only survive with order. Police management of personnel, coupled with current events and social outlook on policing, necessitates examining how police management disciplines personnel. This examination, however, is not enough. Examining how discipline is viewed and practiced needs to start before the concept of negative discipline is needed or ever takes hold. The idea of "positive discipline" addresses this need, and law enforcement managers need to adopt it for several reasons. Policing in the early 2020’s employs a range of generations in the workforce not seen in history (Glass, 2007). Generational values, the social climate, and modern policing progression require a universal change in discipline-thought to address underlying issues that could negatively affect policing in the future. Positive discipline can accomplish this, along with meeting the value needs of younger generation police officers. Positive discipline can help maintain retention in a field that sees the effects of a diminishing police workforce, increase police officers' knowledge base, and bridge the gap between supervisors and subordinates that is all too common in policing.