Zero tolerance doesn’t work
Does your organization have a "zero tolerance" policy? Whether it's for drugs or harassment or violence is a bit irrelevant. Organizations create such policies to demonstrate that they take the particular problem seriously and will take whatever measures are necessary to prevent or curtail it. However, there's a problem with zero tolerance policies. Blind enforcement sooner or later produces the potential significant reputation damage.
A zero tolerance policy is supposed to take the guesswork out of decision-making when confronted with the inappropriate behavior. Instead it can seriously limit managerial discretion by making facts irrelevant and disallowing common sense.
Case in point is the recent suspension of a 5-year old student at school in Pennsylvania for making "terrorist threats". While the article I read on ABC News website did not specify the nature of the threat, it apparently involved a shootout with a Hello Kitty bubble gun blower. Fortunately, the young lady did not have the bubble gun with her at school or I suspect she would have been arrested for having a weapon on school property. Instead she was suspended for 10 days and forced to undergo a psychological evaluation (which showed that she was perfectly normal and posed no threat to her classmates). She now has a permanent entry on her school records which affects her ability to transfer schools and that may result in a lawsuit.
What's wrong with this picture? Zero tolerance for weapons and threats of violence sounds good but surely an adult should be able to distinguish between school yard play and a real threat. Even if there seemed to be a problem, a word to the parents might have been sufficient. Instead, I suspect that inflexible policies mandated the school officials' actions and created a reputational crisis out of what should have been a minor incident.
By limiting decision-making and forbidding the application of common sense zero tolerance policies can do more harm than good. They are an attempt to take the easy way out by making all situations equal. The simple fact is that all situations are not equal and administrators must be able to base their actions on the circumstances of each. As is so often the case in crisis management, one size does not fit all.