AN EXPLORATORY INVESTIGATION OF POLICY USE IN THE MANAGEMENT OF POOR PERFORMERS

The extent to which managers and teachers used policies or individuali zed treatment to deal with poorly performing subordinates and students was examined in two field studies. Over half of the 441 participants responded to poor performance by invoking a policy, while the remainin g participants reported that they would handle each poor performance c ase on an individual basis, diagnosing the problem and developing a re sponse. Policy users tended to be more concerned with their own self-i nterest, while those handling each case individually were more concern ed with being fair. It was suggested that policy use may involve more scripted and less effortful cognitive processing, and individual treat ment-may entail more individualistic:and more effortful cognitive proc essing.