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Aligning Actions at Work

How Managers Confront Problems of Employee Performance

Texas Tech University

Stasia C. Gaveras

Texas Tech University

Whitney L. Baker

Texas Tech University

Marta L. Coursey

Texas Tech University

This article explores how managers handle performance problems. Consistent with recent descriptions of sequences of managers' confrontations, the analysis isolates particular confrontive techniques recommended by managers, and addresses how these techniques enhance both alignment between managers and employees and managerial control. Techniques fall into three broad categories: (a) alternatives to confrontation, (b) investigative actions, and (c) fault finding. It was found, based upon managers' responses to scenarios of problematic events, that they opt out of either investigative or fault-finding moves about one-fifth of the time, they commence with investigative moves about one-third of the time, and although they engage in fault finding about one-half the time, they avoid more aggravated forms of fault finding and reserve formal procedures for severe and/or intransigent cases. Implications for alignment theory and management practice are discussed, as are limitations of the research and ideas for subsequent research.

Management Communication Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 3, 303-333 (1990)
DOI: 10.1177/0893318990003003002


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