Abstract
Discipline is essential in any workplace. It curbs the excesses of employees with aberrant behaviour, instils order in workplaces, and enhances productivity and general outputs, if implemented well. Disciplinary decision-making is a leadership function. So, the quality of the leadership structure in any workplace will critically determine the consistency or otherwise of disciplinary decision-making procedure. In the case university, different leaders over the years had adopted various styles and strategies in managing the university. The common notion among many employees of the university is that, disciplinary procedure is not consistently applied mainly due to the leadership structure of the university. However, majority of staff who have experienced the disciplinary process directly, maintain that the procedure is largely consistent with extant rules and precedents. To this end, this paper looked into the leadership structure vis-à-vis consistent disciplinary procedure at a Nigerian University. The objective is to propose an appropriate leadership framework to address gaps in disciplinary procedure in the case university. The article adopted a qualitative research approach anchored within an interpretivist paradigm. A descriptive research design was adopted. Data was primarily obtained from interviews and participant observation. These were complemented with secondary data sources such as journals, text books, law reports, etcetera. The contents of both sources of data were thematically and critically analysed. Overall, leadership at the case university has been more benevolent than toxic but improvement is desired in some areas. Accordingly, an expedient leadership framework (structure) to enhance consistent disciplinary procedure at the case university was proposed in this paper.