Luthans 1973 - The Role of Punishment in Organizational Behavior Modification
Luthans, F., & Kreitner, R. (1973). The role of punishment in organizational behavior modification (OB MOD). Public Personnel Management, 2(3), 156-161.
This is a good example of a bad paper - little science and a lot of supposition.
Summary
Punishment is an aversive stimulus meant to reduce the frequency of a specific past behavior. When an employee performs an undesirable action, punishment should be applied quickly enough so that the employee sees a cause and effect relationship between their action and their punishment. This negative association between behavior and punishment, and the desire to avoid the punishment, will result in a learned behavior - not doing the undesirable thing. There are several arguments against the use of punishment: it causes anxiety, it deals with undesirable actions but not the desires that precede them,the effectiveness of the punishment wanes in effectiveness, and “the punisher may never be perceived in a favorable light again - even in nonpunishing situations.” Employees need to understand the specific action for which they’re being punished. After a punishment, the desired alternative action should be presented and reinforced, and undesirable action should cease.
Application
Punishment is tricky. Though it can be effective (see Baumeister 2001), I would not recommend using it as a Plan A. It can backfire quite easily and irreparably damage the manager-employee relationship. One good principle from this paper (though it really cites very little scientific evidence) is that reinforcement (feedback) is most effective when it is immediate.