The study examines the relationship between women Self-Help Group (SHGs) satisfaction and process dimensions of workgroup characteristics. Women SHGs are formed with a purpose of promoting women’s economic and social empowerment. Members are motivated to engage in any economic activity in groups like producing bakery products, home furnishing decorative items, packaged readymade food mixes, etc. These SHGs are selected through eight NGOs that are affiliated with women’s welfare program, a scheme under ‘Mahalir Thittam’, Women’s Welfare Project, Coimbatore District Collectorate, Tamil Nadu, India, using multistage sampling. 116 samples (after removing fours samples due to errors) were selected for the study using convenience sampling. The variables such as potency, social support, workload sharing and communication and cooperation within the SHG group are studied under the process dimension of workgroup characteristics. Workgroup satisfaction was measured through team effectiveness scale. Correlation method was used to determine the relationship between the workgroup process and satisfaction.

Self-Help Groups (SHGs) are small, economically homogenous group of people having a common goal of socioeconomic development. Anand (2004) defined SHGs as small informal associations created for the purpose of enabling members to reap economic benefits out of mutual help, solidarity and shared responsibility. In India, usually self-help groups are women-oriented and most of their activities are concentrated towards income-generation activities resulting in savings. It is widely described in developmental literatures that women’s participation in economic activity will lead to their empowerment. Thus, self-help groups are seen as a catalyst in women empowerment. The self-help group provides opportunities for earning activities through mutual interdependence, interacting socially, and sharing common goals among the members which otherwise would not have been possible if conducted individually.

These self-help groups are self-governed and peer-controlled, possess all fundamental characteristics of a workgroups and they operate like self-managing teams. Self-help groups are widely studied from the developmental perspective such as economic and political empowerment, etc.; but from workgroup perspective, fewer studies have been conducted. The current study examines the characteristics of women-self-help workgroups that are engaged in economic activity and functioning as micro enterprises. The present study is an attempt to study the process dimension of workgroup characteristics of SHGs and its impact on satisfaction based on the model designed by Campion et al. (1996).

Organizational Behavior Journal, Workgroup Process, Group Members, Satisfaction, Women Self-Help Groups, ‘Mahalir Thittam’, Women’s Welfare Project, Self-Help Group (SHGs).