Identifying factors That Strengthen Administrative Discipline

Administrative discipline is one of the most important cohesive factors in the organization and plays a key role in improving the performance of organizations. It is necessary to identify the factors that strengthen it (drivers), so this research aims to identify the main and subcategories and key indicators of drivers of administrative discipline through a meta-synthesis method, one of the qualitative research and meta-study methods. In this research, some 67 scientific texts in Persian and English were discovered and extracted from reliable domestic and foreign websites and scientific databases between 2003 and 2022 AD and 1390 and 1401 AD. Finally, 28 research titles using the skills method critical assessment (CASP) were considered, and the main indicators were extracted through the document analysis method. After studying and extracting the key codes, these codes were aggregated and clustered, and the principal and subcategories were set. The findings showed that 12 main categories, 28 subcategories, and 120 indicators or primary codes were extracted. The main categories of drivers of administrative discipline included culture, trust, communication, order, empowerment, balance between life and work, spirituality, organizational participation, organizational justice, accountability, quality of work life, and motivation; the results of this research can significantly help managers and organizations develop and improve performance as the driving force of organizations and turn them into leading organizations in their field.IntroductionAdministrative discipline is one of the ways that guarantees order, efficacy, and observing regulations in the workplace (Ernest, 2021). If the staff has discipline, this will improve practical efficacy. (McCarter et al., 2022). Discipline is the key to a company's success in achieving its goals. (Astuti et al., 2020). Accordingly, during the last decade, numerous studies on administrative discipline have been done, whose common features are dispersion and lack of coherence in presenting the findings. This has caused problems for politicians and organizational administrators, as no coherent study synthesizes the past findings to present unified findings.Research questionsTherefore, the present study uses a meta-synthesis method and subsidiary indices and concepts of administrative discipline.Literature ReviewDisciplineAdministrative discipline consists of two words: discipline and administrative. In its common uses in the Oxford dictionary, discipline can mean rearing, taking care of regulations, approaching order, and even punishment. Referring to the etymology of this word and its idiomatic meaning will reveal its historical (meaning shift).The word discipline stems from the Latin discipulus, meaning follower, servant, and those around a religious agent. Also, the word discipline originates from the Indo-European’s dek or des, meaning derive, acceptance, and suitability (Tafazoli, 2014).Administrative disciplineThe issue of administrative discipline and how to tackle it is one of the responsibilities of personnel management in organizations. One responsibility of personnel management is determining administrative discipline principles, rules, and regulations to achieve organizational goals. Important issues exist in organizations, and administrative discipline is one of them. Administrative discipline is one of the prerequisites of any office and organization, and paying attention to it can be one of the main factors in organizational development (Daft, 2012).On the other hand, we witness many staff holding ideas, perspectives, and behaviors that dramatically affect the practical efficacy of various organizational units. Reforming staff behavior is among managers' main concerns and policies (Qolipour, 2019).MethodologyConcerning practical goals, this study is quality type and meta-synthesis in its strategy. This study uses the seven-stage method of Sandlooki and Burusu (2007). In this study, authentic scientific English and Persian texts have been considered. The period of this study was 2003 to 2022 and 1390 to 1401 solar years—the data analysis (previous documents). To have an organized scrutiny, the related articles and research, interior sites, Iran doc, Jahade Daneshgahi, and Civilica, and foreign sites like Emerald Inside, Scopus, and Science Direct have been used. The terms discipline, administrative discipline, and word discipline are used in the search process. Organizational discipline and staff discipline have been used. Based on the searches done, 126 articles, of which 40 (Persian) and 86 in English were found. Then, based on the acceptance criteria, 40 students for their titles, 20 for their abstracts, and 34 studies with the mentioned criteria were selected. Afterward, the texts' content was studied carefully, the main indices were derived, and the information was categorized. Then, all the determined components were derived based on meaning and summing up the given concepts. The researcher has tried to classify the concepts so that some were summarized into one component.Finally, to control the study's quality, the Kohen test and content validity have been used.ResultsFinally, the results showed that the issues of official regulations have five subsidiary titles consisting of centralized regulations (code 3), fair laws (code 6), supervision of laws (code 6), obeying the laws (code 4), and promoting the laws (code 5). The official control category has two subcategories: controlling efficacy (code 6) and preventive measures (code 4). The category behavior control has three subcategories: behavior evaluation (code 6), standardizing behavior (code 5), and self-control (code 2). The harmony category consists of two subcategories: internal harmony (code 5) and external harmony of behavior (code 2). Obedience has two subcategories: following the routines (code 5) and obeying orders (code 4). The responsibility category has two subcategories: responsibility toward the organization (code 4) and responsibility of duty (code 6). The category promotion has two subcategories: financial (code 5) and spiritual (code 5). Punishment has two subcategories: financial (code 5) and nonfinancial (code 3). Discipline routines have two subcategories: reconciliation (code 8) and forcible (code 4); self-discipline also has two subcategories: individual (code 3) and organizational (code 4). Guidance has two subcategories: giving directions (code 4) and attitude change (code 4). In order to control the study's quality, the Kohen test and content validity have been used.DiscussionThe main categories of administrative discipline were regulations and rules, official monitoring, harmony, obedience responsibility, promotions, punishments, discipline approaches, self-discipline, and official guidance.ConclusionBased on a comprehensive pattern that was attained from the meta-synthesis method and observing the commonalities of different ideas about administrative discipline, one can take more effective and purposeful actions to establish administrative systems, determine the laws of trial and discipline committees, moral manifesto, and finally unity of procedure and word. This comprehensive pattern can give managers and staff a more complete and more accurate definition of administrative discipline.AcknowledgementsHereby, we fully appreciate the efforts of all those who gave us a hand in doing this study.