Abstract

This research was driven by the question, “In empowered work groups, who should be responsible for determining disciplinary actions in response to group member poor performance: the formal manager, a single group member, or the group as a whole?” Results in the study of 231 group members representing 41 groups from four diverse organizations showing that the severity of disciplinary actions made by formal managers are similar to group, However, to handle a poorly performing member resulted in relatively lenient disciplinary actions. Consistent with this finding, the attitude survey results revealed that individual group members are unwilling to assume responsibility for disciplining a poorly performing group member.

The results of our study indicate that the severity of group consensus decisions concerning the discipline of poorly performing group member's parallel decisions are made by formal managers. Group handling of poor performance appears to be appropriate not only because group members often have more detailed information about the performance of all members, but also because involvement in such decisions serves a developmental function that may increase the job performance of all group members. Due to the tendency for individual group members to make more lenient disciplinary decisions than those decisions made either by formal managers or make through group consensus, we do not recommend charging an individual group member with the responsibility for handling the discipline of group members.

Keyword: performance, work group, individual group, responsibility