Supervisors and their response to poor performance: A study of disciplinary decision making

Abstract

This study examines how first-level supervisors make disciplinary decisions when faced with a performance problem. Using a policy-capturing design, subjects (supervisors from a nonunion financial services organization) were asked to make disciplinary decisions about cases that varied in terms of six different factors: magnitude of the performance decrement, documented warning, waiver, tenure, past performance, and the manner of the employee. The impact of these factors was examined in order to gain insight into the degree to which key social and institutional norms impact disciplinary decisions and, in turn, generate nascent rights for employees. The findings are suggestive as to the relative importance of these norms within the sample as a whole as well as for individual managers within the sample. The implications for our understanding of the role of nascent rights within disciplinary systems are discussed.