Indiscipline a management problem in public and private enterprises in Tanzania

Indiscipline among workers in Tanzania is a study intended to contribute to the understanding of the problems of industrial relations in public and private enterprises and to find out ways in which such problem can be solved. However, industrial relations in Tanzania has not met expectations raised in her various policies such as, the Arusha Declaration which laid down the main principles and the future pat of Tanzania development and other policies like the Presidential Circular No.1 of 1970 and 1971, Party Guidelines which were aimed at strengthening socialist management in our Industrial Organization by imparting confidence and self-discipline among workers. Hence elements of indiscipline among workers still abound public as well as private institutions wit serious implications to the general performance of the economy. Nonetheless, there is no demonstrable evidence to suggest that, deterioration of discipline among workers has been due to the introduction of 1971 Party guidelines, which seems to be the most celebrated view. This study looks into variables such as knowledge of workers concerning labor laws and regulations, the nature of motivational programs and the role of JUWATA at the plant level as contributing factors to the decline of discipline among workers. Within this context, the study leads to a conclusion that, the problem does not necessarily revolve around low level of understanding labor laws and regulations, but rather the problem lies at the level of lacking proper identification of workers needs, unsatisfactory implementation of incentive systems and to some extent too much defense from JUWATA on worker’s indisciplinary cases, even where breaching of the labour law is obvious. In addition, the study reveals other intervening variables such as accountability among workers themselves and their managers and economic hardships as aspects which can throw light to the problem. Thus if these variables can be treated accordingly, they can be used to improve discipline among the workers.