Dear Gourab,
My views are different from (Cite Contribution)'s.
Performance and integrity are two separate things and one cannot compensate for another. Any integrity issue has to be dealt with sternly. Therefore, I recommend you conducting enquiry and if the culpability of the offender is established then take the strictest action. Possibly it could be termination also.
If you do this, it will send a signal to one and all on what your management values. If you give leeway now, it will set a wrong precedent and such things will keep on repeating.
Issues of integrity have to be dealt seriously. It is easy for lame duck Prime Minister to wink at the corrupt practices of his minister under the pretext of compulsions of coalition politics. However, gentleman let me remind you that business cannot be run like some politician.
Today we talk about corruption. But then ask a middle aged person and he/she will tell you that the seeds of corruption were sown during the days of Pt Jawaharlal Nehru. The seed was converted into sampling which his daughter nurtured. Later his grandson acknowledged that corruption is fait accompli. Now his great grandson does not have clue on how to solve the issue of corruption because it is weakening the very fabric of the nation.
During my HR days, I came across with a situation wherein security personnel caught a fresher while carrying few office pencils. My VP had terminated her services immediately. I knew a second instance in which a very senior software professional working in MNC was terminated as security had caught him while taking out cartridge of some printer.
By the way don't we learn about organisation culture during our MBA? This very culture is shaped by the organisational communication and organisational communication is nothing but the interpretation of the actions that senior management or top management officials take.
So how to handle this situation is the call of your top management.
Thanks,
Dinesh V Divekar
.