Informal peer control in self-managing teams Dealing with underperforming team members

Keywords
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Issue Date
2021-08-31
Language
en
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This research examines how individuals in self-managing teams use informal peer control in practice. Specially, it investigates how individuals use informal peer control to determine performance standards and how they use these standards to establish and deal with underperforming behaviour of team members. Previous management scholars show that informal peer control in self-managing teams can have both positive and negative effects on individual and team performances and job satisfaction. However, how informal peer control works in practice is underdeveloped in the current literature. This qualitative research examines how nine individuals from three self-managing teams in a Dutch care organization, use informal peer control when dealing with underperforming team members. Data is collected by conducting semi-structured interviews and analysing collected documents. Subsequently, the collected data is transcribed, coded and analysed using the template analysis technique. The insights contribute to the existing literature of informal peer control in three ways. First, results show that performance standards in the teams are determined on the basis of norm consensus. Second, results show multiple ways by which individuals used direct peer monitoring to establish underperforming behaviour of team members. Another interesting insight is that client-involvement is used as a way to establish team member’s performances. Third, after underperformance is established, the individuals use various ways of direct and indirect peer monitoring to deal with the underperforming behaviour of team members. Additionally, these findings provide valuable insights for individuals in self-managing teams how they can deal with underperforming team members. After discussing the results and implications, suggestions for further research are made
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen