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What
is supervision?
Responsibilities of a Supervisor
³
Directs the York
of employees
³
Assists in staff
recruitment and selection procedures
³
Utilizes principles
of work simplification
³
Is Involved with
staff orientation, training, and performance review
³
Motivates and communicates
well with groups
³
Implements necessary
work changes
³
Disciplines employees
effectively
³
Manages conflict
within the organization
³
Generates employee
interest and participation in the work which
must
be done
³
Works with unions
³
Controls labor costs
³
Helps develop and
administer wage and salary compensation
programs
General Duties of the Supervisor
³
Production
Duties
³
Issue
required products
³
Schedule
personnel and equipment
³
Plan
work flow
³
Assign
work to employees
³
Evaluate
work performance
³
Resolve
production problems
³
Develop
and maintain production records
³
Meet
production schedules
Quality Duties
³
Establish performance
(quality) standards
³
Ensure that performance
(quality) standards are met
³
Develop purchase
specifications
³
Inspect incoming
products supplies
³
Cooperate coordinate
with quality assurance, accounting, others
Maintenance Duties
³
Check equipment
for proper operation
³
Keep preventive
maintenance records
³
Order necessary
repairs for equipment and facility
³
Maintain clean,
safe, and orderly working areas
Work Improvement Duties
³
Develop improved
work methods
³
Cooperate in implementation
of new work procedures
Cost Control Duties
³
Control
and minimize costs
³
Develop aspects
of operating budgets
³
Develop allowable
budget variances
³
Implement and use
budgets as control tools
³
Determine reasons
for budget variance; take corrective action
³
Evaluate results
of operating charges
Personnel and Human Relations Duties
³
Recruit, select,
orient, and train employees as necessary
³
Provide constant
and consistent supervision
³
Evaluate employees'
performance
³
Provide coaching
and counseling assistance as required
³
Assist in wage and
salary administration, promotion, layoff, discharge,
transfer, and related personnel decisions
³
Enforce all rules,
policies, and other job-related requirements
³
Settle compliant,
gripes, and grievances according to company and or
union
requirements
³
Interpret and communicate
higher management decisions to
subordinates;transfer
employee concerns, suggestions, and criticisms
to higher management
³
Motivate, reward,
and discipline employees
³
Eliminate hazardous
working conditions and practices
³
Develop own skills/abilities
³
Constantly work
to develop cooperation between departments
Administrative Duties
³
Develop and transmit
required reports and/or statistics
³
Participate in committees
,a planning, and other meetings as
requested
³
Assist in marketing,
public relations, and publicity programs
CASE
STUDY
THE NEW SUPERVISOR
1. Tom Wilson put his feet on the desk that Friday
afternoon and stared at the wall.
His thoughts centered on his first week's experiences as a supervisor
of the loading dock
at MIX Corporation. It had been an unbelievably busy week, and
Tom was only now
beginning to realize how many things were involved in his new
supervisory role.
The week
seemed to have been marked by a series of curses. First, Tom
found out that
next week's schedules were due on Monday afternoon, but while
hew was trying to get
these in order, he was confronted with the more immediate problem
of three absentees.
Then, later in the day, equipment trouble had prevented him
from completing the schedules
on time. On Tuesday one of the workers who had been absent called
in to resign, and Tom
had to concern himself with replacing that person. On Wednesday
afternoon he was asked
for an immediate decision as to whether his work group would
participate in a flexible work
hours schedule that upper management had devised. On Thursday
he had to attend a
meeting with other supervisors the organization to try and solve
a work coordination
problem that had been a major problem for a long time. Finally,
on Friday morning,
he had to fire and employee who had been tardy for the tenth
time in a month.
It had been
a busy week indeed and Tom was rapidly discovering that more
was
involved in successful supervision than he had envisioned. He
sincerely wished he'd had a
little more guidance in handling some of these problems before
he was forced to deal with
them.
Tom Wilson's case illustrates
a few of the very common problems that all supervisors
face. Tom was supervising a loading dock, but the same problems
face nursing supervisors,
accounting supervisors, supervisors in education, police and
fire departments and so forth,
Perhaps a good place to begin our study of supervision is to
examine our answers to the
question, Who is a supervisor?
2. A Supervisor has an employee who is eager to learn and advance
within the organization.
She constantly
ask how to do things better.
This
Supervisor has another employee who cares little about the job
and his future with
the organization.
What type
of leadership style will you use for the above employee?
Answer:
WHO IS A SUPERVISOR?
The supervisors have often
been referred to as "people in the middle," Between
employees on one side and upper management on the other, supervisors
have typically
come up through the ranks and have been chosen because they
demonstrated above
average work performance. In his or her new role, the supervisor
has not only a
responsibility to maintain technical competence but also the
duty to learn new skills as
supervisor. TEchnical expertise and competence in human relations
require the supervisor's
attention as well.
As a person in the middle, the supervisor must put up with the
compliant and work problems
of subordinates and must also meet the expectations of upper
management, These
expectations include production quotas and company rules and
regulations. The supervisor
is on of the most important positions in any organization for
two reasons. First, employees
deal with management mostly through their supervisors, and second,
upper management
deals with the employees primarily through its chosen supervisors.
Here the supervisor's tough position at the first level of management
is quite obvious.
Because of the dule nature of the position, the supervisor may
have to act as a member of
the management group and at an other time as leader of the employee
group. The
supervisor may have to represent unpopular employee views in
management meetings or
pass on unpleasant management directives to employees. The supervisor
is usually
identified as part of the management team and his or her agreement
with management
decisions may often be taken for granted. On the other hand,
the new supervisor may find it
difficult to establish the necessary "distance" from
employees he or she has worked with.
Differences Between Supervisors
and Upper Management
Figure I - illustrates the supervisor's position in the work
organization. The figure suggests
that supervisors and upper managers have different.
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major
concerns in their jobs. Upper management is shown as being mostly
concerned with planning, controlling and organizing the work
of the organization, while the supervisory group is primarily
concerned with production, employee direction, follow0up, implementing
raining, inspection, safety, and so forth. However, these differences
are rally only a mater of degree. For example, to suggest that
upper management is not concerned with production would be totally
incorrect, and to suggest that supervisors do not planning controlling,,
or organizing would also be incorrect. HOwever, upper managers
do spend more of their time planning, controlling, and organizing
than do supervisors, And day-to-day production problems are
clearly more a pressing problem to the supervisory group than
to upper management. Since supervises work directly with employees
on a day-to-day basis, they naturally are ore concerned with
employee direction, training, and so forth.
Decisions
There is a difference, too, in the kind of decisions that are
made at the supervisory level. 'The supervisor's decisions tend
toe be more repetitive and involve issues spanning a shorter
time than do those at higher levels in the organization. For
example a supervisor must take action immediately if a machine
goes down, while upper management decisions tend to be less
immediate in nature such as planning the location of a new plant
or determining the advantages of alternative production methods.
Control
Another distinction between upper management and supervisory
management is the amount of control that upper managers and
supervisors have in their own jobs. Upper managers usually have
more control over the specific activities that they will tackle
on an given day. Supervisors, on the other hand, have somewhat
less control over specific activities because so many things
have to be taken care of as they occur.
Since supervisory problems tend to demand immediate solutions,
supervisors are often in the position of reacting to a given
siltation. There is some evidence, however, indicating that
certain people, regardless of their level within an organization,
are able to control their jobs better than other people. Thus
the supervisor need not be a slave to the immediate siltation.
The materials in this book are designed to help supervisory
candidates increase the level of control they have over the
job. Better control over the job allows a supervisor to concentrate
on the overall functioning of the work unit and leads to successful
supervisory performance.
WHAT
DO SUPERVISORS DO?
The supervisory job involves two major of responsibility-things
and people. Things include the equipment, machinery, materials,
and schedules that get the job done. A nursing supervisor, for
example, is not only in charge of a group of nurses but is also
responsible for a number of things, such as medical supplies
used in the treatment of patients, certain medical test equipment,
syringes andX ray equipment (in certain hospitals).
Supervising "Things"
This portion of a supervisor's job aries widely depending upon
the organization, industry, and technology involved. Someone
supervising grocery store stockers will be dong different specific
activities than someone supervising a military work detail or
someone supervising scientific report editors. However there
are several techniques for managing the production part of the
job hat can be used by all supervisors.
Planning the work to be done, scheduling jobs, maintaining control
over needed items of material or equipment, managing a supervisor's
personal time so that the job can get done, and making decisions
are job concerns that all supervisors share. These techniques
will be covered in a separate chapter each in his book.
Supervising People
Supervisors must be concerned with people and interpersonal
relations, since the job they must do can only be done through
the cooperation of the employees. For this reason, persons in
managerial positions who have no employees reporting directly
to them are not really supervisors in he send we are using the
term here.
It is the unique mix of time spent on things and people that
really makes the supervisor's job different from man other management
jobs. Figure 2 shows the results of a study that indicates how
certain supervisors spend their time in an eight-hour day. Several
similar studies have arrived at similar figure. The figure sows
a mix of concern with both things and people. About 25 percent
of the supervisor's time is concerned with directly supervising
the job; this may include concern with both people and things.
Another 28 percent is concerned with such interpersonal
Figure 2 How supervisors Spend Their Time
Activities
Percent of Time Spent
Directly supervising the job
25%
Other interpersonal matters
28%
Things (equipment, materials)
22%
Planning and scheduling work
5%
Meetings and other
20%
----------------------
100% Source: Adapted from Chester
E.Evans, Supervisory Responsibility and Authority, Research
Report No.30 (New York: American Management Association, 1957).
relationships as handling grievances, appraising performance,
and other personnel matters; 22 percent is spent solely on tings,
including equipment, materials, and so forth; 5 percent on planning
and scheduling the work; and a final 20 percent is spent in
meetings and other time expenditures. Other studies have shown
that poorer supervisors tend to spend more actually doing individual
employee jobs rather than coordinating the efforts of workers.
Thinking about Figure 2 suggest that a supervisor who is good
at handling people but is technically incompetent will probably
not succeed. By the same token, a supervisor whose technical
knowledge is extremely good but whose interpersonal skills are
not likely to be very successful either. Another recent study
concluded that upper management expects people oriented skills
that become crucial to successful supervision. We should note
that different supervisory jobs will have somewhere different
mixes of time spend on things and people. The percentages given
in
Figure 2 represent averages, but all supervisory jobs will include
responsibility to some degree for both.
Getting Work Done Through Your Employees
We suggested earlier that the supervisor must do a major portion
of his or her job through other people. It is the nature of
many jobs to require he efforts of a number of persons. In Chapter
2 ,we will discuss in greater detail the process known as division
of labor and requires a coordination of diverse efforts through
supervision.
As a result of having to get the job done through others, the
supervisor is dependent on other people for seeing that the
job is done properly. his dependency can result in some very
unfortunate situations if the supervisor doesn't do a good job
of delegating, communicating, motivating, and leading. Fortunately,
there are a number of skills the supervisor can use to minimize
people problems. Many of these skills are based on developing
good interpersonal relationships-the ability to get along with
other supervisors, dealing with conflict, and disciplining effectively.
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