Is conduct amounting to insubordination sufficient to establish cause for dismissal?

Conduct amounting to insubordination sufficient to establish cause for dismissal was described half a century ago by Lord Evershed in the oft-cited decision of Laws v. London Chronicle (Indicator Newspapers), Ltd., [1959] 2 All E.R. 285 at 287 (Eng. C.A.): [S]ince a contract of service is but an example of contracts in general, so that the general law of contract will be applicable, it follows that, if summary dismissal is claimed to be justifiable, the question must be whether the conduct complained of is such as to show the servant to have disregarded the essential conditions of the contract of service. It is, no doubt, therefore, generally true that wilful disobedience of an order will justify summary dismissal, since wilful disobedience of a lawful and reasonable order shows a disregard – a complete disregard – of a condition essential to the contract of service, namely, the condition that the servant must obey the proper orders of the master and that, unless he does so, the relationship is, so to speak, struck at fundamentally.