What Is A Supervisor

Part One What Is a Supervisor?
1. Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills
Successful Supervisors Plan, Organize, Staff, Lead, and Control
Chapter One Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills

Chapter Outline
Supervision: A Historical Perspective Supervisors Should Focus on Efficiency Supervisors Should Focus on Functions to Be Performed Supervisors Should Focus on People Types of Supervisory Skills Classic Understanding of Management Skills Modern View of Management Skills Supervising a Diverse Workforce Opportunities and Challenges Subtle Discrimination General Functions of the Supervisor Planning Organizing Staffing Leading Controlling Relationships among the Functions Responsibilities of the Supervisor Types of Responsibilities Responsibilities and Accountability Becoming a Supervisor Preparing for the Job Obtaining and Using Power and Authority Characteristics of a Successful Supervisor About This Book
Learning Objectives
After you have studied this chapter, you should be able to: 1.1 Define what a supervisor is. 1.2 Summarize research findings that have led to basic ideas of what managers should do. 1.3 Describe the basic types of supervisory skills. 1.4 Describe how the growing diversity of the workforce affects the supervisors role. 1.5 Identify the general functions of a supervisor. 1.6 Explain how supervisors are responsible to higher management, employees, and co-workers. 1.7 Describe the typical background of someone who is promoted to supervisor. 1.8 Identify characteristics of a successful supervisor.
Skill-Building Exercises
The following exercises are designed to help build your skills by applying the chapter concepts. Your instructor may assign one or more exercises, but feel free to access independently those not assigned. A Supervisors Problem: Gaining Acceptance as a New Supervisor (p. ) You Solve the Problem (p. ) Problem-Solving Case: Refereeing the Referees of the Atlantic Coast Conference (p. ) Assessing Yourself: Is Supervising Right for You? (p. )
2
Class Exercise: Recognizing Management Skills (p. ) Building Supervision Skills: Defining Your Role as Supervisor (p. ); Leading a Team (p. )
A Supervisors Problem:
Gaining Acceptance as a New Supervisor
When you become a supervisor, no one can guarantee that the employees in your group will be as thrilled as you are. In fact, you may have to convince themas well as your own managerthat youre ready and able to tackle the challenges of your new job. Thats what happened to Tyrone Dugan when he was hired to be assistant manager at the Qdoba Mexican Grill in Florissant, Missouri. Qdoba is a nationwide chain of almost 200 fast-food casual Mexican restaurants, where food is prepared as customers watch. Although the company describes its work environment as casual and fun, the casual dress and hands-on interaction between supervisors and employees do not necessarily translate into a simple job. Supervisors working closely with their employees must figure out how to meet goals while maintaining a positive environment. Charged with leading a staff of 10 employees, Dugan quickly realized that some of them were waiting to see if he could prove himself as their supervisor. Listening and watching carefully, Dugan learned that employees were observing his performance and commenting to his manager if they thought he fell short in some way, such as not starting a process on time. One employee in particular seemed to question Dugans leadership, though none of the employees expressed their opinion to him directly. Reflecting on the challenges of this transition, Dugan believes that at first he was too passive with
his employees. With experience, he discovered that he got better results by setting clear standards and following up with employees to be sure they were meeting those standards. Dugan also worked hard to establish positive communications with his employees. He explains, I just started talking to them. Recognizing that envy can fuel resentment of a supervisor, he assured the employees that they could have the same opportunity [for promotion] that I had if they were willing to work hard. His encouragement evidently succeeded. Several of Dugans employees eventually took on supervisory positions at other Qdoba locations. New supervisors sometimes face the problem of proving to their employees that they are capable and ready to assume new responsibilities, as Tyrone Dugan did. 1. What sort of job-related skills can help Dugan demonstrate he has the knowledge to handle the job? 2. What type of people skills can help him in his new position?
Source: Based on Sonja D. Brown, Congratulations, Youre

a Manager! Now What? Black Enterprise, April 2006, downloaded from Business & Company Resource Center, http://galenet.galegroup.com; Qdoba Mexican Grill Web site, www.qdoba.com, accessed June 29, 2006.
supervisor
A manager at the first level of management
Tyrone Dugans experience of learning to be a good supervisor is significant because supervisors are critically important to their organizations. Supervisors like Dugan inspire employees to do their best. By motivating employees to perform at their peak, the supervisor enables an organization to benefit from their commitment, talent, and enthusiasm. A supervisor is a manager at the first level of management, which means the employees reporting to the supervisor are not managers. The Taft-Hartley Act embellishes this definition by indicating that a supervisor is any individual having authority, in the interest of the employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward or discipline other employees, or responsibility to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend such action, if in connection with the foregoing the exercise of such authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judgment.1 Many different kinds of organizations need supervisors. Figure 1.1 reprints actual want ads for a variety of supervisory jobs. The basic job of a manager is to see that an organization meets its goals, yet there are distinctions. For the top executives of an organization, managing is about making sure that the organizations vision and business strategy will allow it to meet its goals through the years ahead. Managing at the supervisory level means ensuring that the employees in a particular department are performing their jobs
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4 Part One
What Is a Supervisor?
FIGURE 1.1
A Sampling of Supervisory Positions to Be Filled
Advertising PRODUCTION MANAGER Electronic desktop production agency seeks self-starting, problem-solving Production Manager to supervise catalogue/retail page construction in Mac platform. Minimum 5-7 yrs. experience in managing production and personnel required. Service bureau background a plus. Send resume and salary requirements to: Dept. A-7 P.O. Box 200 Ski Springs, CO 80300 AUTOMATIC SCREW MACHINE SECOND SHIFT SUPERVISOR Established growing suburban manufacturer looking for qualified individual to supervise second shift of manufacturing operations. Must have knowledge and experience on multiple/single spindle machines. Enjoy excellent working conditions in a new plant. Very good salary and full benefit package. Submit resume to: P.O. Box 1234 Industrious, IN 46000 SALES MANAGEMENT Our growing organization is seeking an experienced Sales Management candidate to lead our expanding Color Copier Department. The successful candidate will have 3-5 years sales management experience in planning, organizing, hiring, and motivating a team of sales professionals. Previous sales experience, account development techniques, and vertical market success are required. Familiarity with printing, graphic arts, office equipment or other related industry experience helpful. To be considered for this exceptional career opportunity, please send your resume with salary requirements to: Dept. 001 Suburbanite, NJ 07000 Health Care CHIEF PHYSICAL THERAPIST Rural health care consortium has an immediate opening for a licensed physical therapist to develop a progressive, sophisticated therapy delivery system. The ideal candidate should understand sound management principles and possess strong assessment and clinical skills. Candidate must also be willing to assume department leadership. Competitive salary and benefit package. Send resume to: Director of Human Resources Quality Care Health Services Minuscule, NM 87000
SECRETARIAL SUPERVISOR Large law firm seeks Secretarial Supervisor to join our secretarial management team. Responsibilities include orienting, coordinating, and evaluating a secretarial staff of approximately 200. Previous law firm experience (supervisory or secretarial) preferred. Ideal candidate will be able to work well with a variety of personalities in a demanding, fastpaced environment. We offer state-of-the-art technology, an excellent benefits package and salary commensurate with experience. For immediate, confidential consideration send resume and salary history to: Human Resources P.O. Box 987 City Center, TN 38000
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF HOUSEKEEPING Large luxury hotel is accepting resumes for an Assistant Director of Housekeeping. College degree and 4-5 years of Housekeeping Management experience required. Preferred applicants will have experience as a Director of Housekeeping for a small to medium size hotel or Assistant Director at a large hotel. Must have excellent administrative and supervisory skills. Interested candidates should send resume in confidence to: Luxurious Suites 1000 Upscale Blvd. Villa Grande, CA 90000
so that the department will contribute its share to accomplishing the organizations goals. Usually, supervisors focus on day-to-day problems and goals to be achieved in one year or less. This chapter introduces what supervisors do and what skills and characteristics they need to be effective.
SUPERVISION: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

In studying supervision, keep in mind that present-day theories about how to be a supervisor are based upon management and supervision research findings that have continuously evolved over many years. Management research findings are important since supervision is management at the lowest level of the organization. Cleary, some early management research findings related to supervision are just as important today as when the actual research was conducted. A few of these early research findings are introduced next. More detail on this research, as well as more recent research, is integrated and discussed throughout.
Supervisors Should Focus on Efficiency

Frederick W. Taylor (18561915) is often referred to as the father of scientific management. Taylor believed that in order to improve efficiency, it is important to consider the best way in which a job could be completed. By applying scientific knowledge to the study of production, it was feasible to maximize efficiency.
Chapter 1
Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills
While working at the Bethlehem Steel Company, Taylor studied the best way to maximize efficiency for employees whose sole responsibility involved shoveling materials. As he observed the workers while they were performing their job, Taylor considered several factors. First, what kinds of shovels worked best with what materials? Second, was it most productive for workers to shovel 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, or 40 pounds at a time? Third, how quickly can a shovel be pushed into a pile of materials and then pulled out properly loaded? Fourth, how much time is required to swing a shovel backward in order to throw the given horizontal distance at a given height? Taylor also considered the size of each worker, the weight of the materials, and the distance that the materials were to be thrown. He then developed a detailed plan that described the conditions under which employees could be most efficient. Three years after his plan was implemented, the total number of shovelers was reduced from 600 to 140, and the average number of tons shoveled per worker per day rose from 15 to 59. Also, wages increased and the cost of handling a ton of material dropped significantly. Clearly, the application of science to the study of production can result in maximal employee efficiency.
Supervisors Should Focus on Functions to Be Performed

Henri Fayol (18411925), a French industrialist, is often regarded as the pioneer of administrative theory. The ideas that he generated relative to general management principles are still considered to be important among contemporary thinkers. Mr. Fayol asserted that all managers have primary management functions to perform in organizations. More detailed information about these functions follows later. These functions include: Planningsetting goals for an organization, and developing an overall strategy for achieving the goals. Organizingassigning tasks to specific members of the organization. Leadingmotivating the employees of the organization to achieve the tasks that were given to them, as well as handling conflicts as they arise. Controllingoverseeing the various tasks that are being completed and ensuring that they are done in the expected manner.
Supervisors Should Focus on People

Because they deal directly with employees and have knowledge about an organizations customers, supervisors emphasize a people orientation. This focus recognizes that the quality of an organization is often affected by the quality of interactions among its members. Consistent with this approach is the idea that supervisors must recognize that above all, their employees should be treated in a humane fashion. Abraham Maslow (19081970), a pioneering psychologist who is perhaps the best-known contributor of the people focus, recognized that people have different sets of needs that are met in a hierarchical pattern. The most basic needs of any human being are physiological needs, such as food and shelter. Once those needs are met, then safety needs must be considered. Safety needs include security of job, family, health, and property. Next on the hierarchy are needs related to love and belonging, including friendship, family, and intimate relationships. The fourth level of the hierarchy includes esteem needs, including self-esteem and confidence. The final part of the hierarchy includes self-actualization, which includes an attitude of acceptance, a lack of racial biases, and creativity. Based upon Maslows findings, supervisors must help workers to satisfy their personal needs while being productive in organizations.
6 Part One
TYPES OF SUPERVISORY SKILLS

Although a supervisor in a Pizza Hut restaurant and a supervisor in a Ford Motor Company factory work in very different environments, the skills they need to be successful fall into the same basic categories. These categories of skills are used by all levels of managers in all kinds of organizations. Skills developed during a beginning supervisory job will prove useful in every job held throughout a management career.
Classic Understanding of Management Skills

For many years, experts have considered managers success dependent on three basic categories of skills: technical, human relations, and conceptual. In addition, the application of those skills requires a fourth skill: decision making. Technical skills are the specialized knowledge and expertise used to carry out particular techniques or procedures. A United Way fundraisers ability to persuade executives to write big checks is a technical skill. A mechanics ability to bring an automobile engine back to life relies on technical skills. Other technical skills may involve bookkeeping, selling, and many other types of work. To be technical, skills do not have to be mechanical or scientific; they can involve any work-related technique or procedure.2 Human relations skills are the skills required to work effectively with other people. These skills include the ability to communicate with, motivate, and understand people. Supervisors use their human relations skills to impress their superiors, inspire employees, defuse conflicts, get along with co-workers, and succeed in many other ways. Conceptual skills involve the ability to see the relationship of the parts to the whole and to one another. For a supervisor, conceptual skills include recognizing how the departments work helps the entire organization achieve its goals and how the work of various employees affects the performance of the department as a whole. Decision-making skills involve the ability to analyze information and reach good decisions. Someone with strong decision-making skills can think objectively and creatively. Chapter 9 provides a more detailed look at how to make decisions effectively. The relative importance of each type of skill depends on the level of management. As shown in Figure 1.2, human relations skills are important at every level of management. However, supervisors rely more on technical skills than do higher-level managers because employees who have a problem doing their jobs
Human Relations Skills DecisionMaking Skills
technical skills
The specialized knowledge and expertise used to carry out particular techniques or procedures
human relations skills

The ability to work effectively with other people
conceptual skills
The ability to see the relation of the parts to the whole and to one another
decision-making skills
The ability to analyze information and reach good decisions
FIGURE 1.2
Relative Importance of Types of Skills for Different Levels of Managers Technical Skills
Conceptual Skills
Top Managers
Middle Managers
Supervisors
Chapter 1
go to the supervisor and expect help. Also, top managers tend to rely more on decision-making skills simply because they tend to make more complex decisions.
Modern View of Management Skills

Expanding on the classic view of management skills, current thinkers have taken a fresh look at the activities a manager typically performs.3 This way of thinking starts with a list of activities and then identifies the skills required to carry out those activities successfully. The typical managers activities fall into three groups: 1. Task-related activities: Efforts to carry out critical management-related duties, such as planning, setting objectives for employees, and monitoring performance. 2. People-related activities: Efforts to manage people, such as by providing support and encouragement, recognizing contributions, developing employees skills, and empowering employees to solve problems. 3. Change-related activities: Efforts to modify components of the organization, such as monitoring the environment to detect a need for change, proposing new tactics and strategies, encouraging others to think creatively, and taking risks to promote needed changes. To carry out these activities, supervisors and other managers rely on a diverse set of skills, including those listed in Table 1.1. Situations vary, so individual supervisors may need skills beyond those listed here. TABLE 1.1
Skills of Successful Managers Clarifying roles Monitoring operations Short-term planning Assigning tasks; explaining job responsibilities, task objectives, and performance expectations Checking on the progress and quality of the work; evaluating individual and unit performance Determining how to use personnel and other resources to accomplish a task efficiently; determining how to schedule and coordinate activities efficiently Checking with people before making decisions that affect them; encouraging participation in decision making; using the ideas and suggestions of others Being considerate; showing sympathy and support when someone is upset or anxious; providing encouragement and support when a task is difficult or stressful Providing praise and recognition for effective performance, significant achievements, special contributions, and performance improvements Providing coaching and advice; providing opportunities for skill development; helping people learn how to improve their skills Allowing substantial responsibility and discretion in work activities; trusting people to solve problems and make decisions without getting approval first Presenting an appealing description of desirable outcomes that the unit can achieve; describing a proposed change with enthusiasm and conviction Taking personal risks and making sacrifices to encourage and promote desirable change in the organization Challenging people to question their assumptions about the work and consider better ways of doing it Analyzing information about events, trends, and changes in the external environment to identify threats and opportunities for the work unit
Consulting
Supporting
Recognizing
Developing
Empowering
Envisioning change
Taking risks for change Encouraging innovative thinking External monitoring
8 Part One
SUPERVISION AND DIVERSITY

THE LARGEST ETHNIC MINORITY GROUP
Hispanicsimmigrants and descendants of immigrants from Latin Americahave become the largest ethnic minority group in the United States. More than 1 in 10 U.S. workers are Hispanic, and their share of the workforce is expected to grow. That means many supervisors will have Hispanic employees in the coming years. A wide variety of Americans wear the label Hispanic. Their origins are diverse, and they include both well-paid professionals and entry-level workers at the low end of the wage scale. The majority of them trace their roots to Mexico, almost one-tenth have a Puerto Rican heritage, and Cubans are the third largest group. While the broad ethnic group Hispanic actually includes great diversity, supervisors may benefit from recognizing some cultural norms that are common among Hispanic workers. One is a tendency to stress personal relationships. Hispanic workers may rely heavily on personal contacts to locate a new job and may respond well to goals and rewards set for the whole group. They generally appreciate face-to-face instruction and hands-on training to learn new skills. Hispanic workers may talk with one another while working more than workers from some other cultures do. However, the supervisor may discover that Hispanic workers do not talk much to the supervisor. This difference expresses another value that is often stressed in Hispanic communities: respect for authority. A supervisor might find that many Hispanic employees do exactly as directed, no more and no less, out of respect for the supervisors authority in directing them. If the supervisor is hoping employees will offer suggestions and try new ways of working, the supervisor may have to ask specifically for such behavior. Of course, describing expectations clearly is a helpful skill for supervisors to use with employees of any cultural background.
Source: Based on Nestl Professional, The Hispanic
Workforce, Mix, www.nestleprofessional.com, accessed November 7, 2008; and EthnoConnect, Ten Myths about Latina Workers, EthnoConnect News, www.ethnoconnect.com, accessed November 7, 2008.
To develop the variety of skills needed to be a good supervisor, you should learn and practice the concepts discussed in this book. Get to know good supervisors and managers and observe how they handle situations. Supervisors who continually develop their skills in each area are the ones most likely to be promoted to higher levels of management.
Supervising a Diverse Workforce

Good human relations skills are especially important in todays environment because of the increasing diversity of the U.S. workforce.4 In 1980, just over half (51 percent) of the workforce consisted of white men; this groups share of the workforce is expected to fall to 43 percent by 2014.5 While the share of white men in the workforce declines, the share of black, Hispanic, and Asian workers is expected to rise. (See the accompanying Supervision and Diversity to learn more about Hispanics, the largest ethnic group.) Women are entering the workforce at almost the same rate as men, and they now make up more than 46 percent of the adult labor pool, holding a majority of the jobs in 140 occupations.6 In addition, the segment aged 65 years and over is expected to represent more than 16 percent of the U.S. population by 2020.7
Opportunities and Challenges

Together, these changes mean that supervisors can expect to have more employees who are female, nonwhite, and experiencedperhaps senior citizens holding a job after retirement. Consider Al Aurilio, who supervises workers sorting scrap
Chapter 1
materials that arrive at the warehouse of Pacific Iron and Metal Company, located in Seattle, Washington. With more than 60 years of experience at the company, Aurilio has become an expert in the metal composition of the items to be sorted, and he willingly shares his knowledge with employees.8 As described in subsequent chapters, this growing diversity enables supervisors to draw on a greater variety of talent and gain insights into more perspectives than ever before. Diversity is not a new issue. During the 1800s, for example, immigrants from Germany settled in the region from Pennsylvania west to Minnesota. They opened schools and businesses for their communities and published German-language newspapers. The working-class town of Cicero, Illinois, was once populated mostly by people of Czech, Polish, and Slovakian heritage. Today, Cicero is dominated by a growing share of Mexican immigrants, who have opened shops, taken jobs in factories, and elected Ramiro Gonzalez, a Mexican immigrant, town president (equivalent to mayor).9 Although diversity is not a new issue, the even greater diversity expected in the U.S. workforce of the futurecoupled with laws and policies intended to ensure fair treatment of various groupsrequires supervisors to work successfully with a much wider variety of people. Some of the people from other backgrounds may be the supervisors own managers, partly owing to todays global economy. When Mike Burch took a job as maintenance supervisor in a then-new Honda Power Equipment Manufacturing plant in North Carolina, management of the Japanesebased company expected him to learn Hondas ways of operating. Burch, who had barely traveled outside his home state, flew to Japan to experience firsthand Hondas emphasis on cleanliness and safety. At first, the experience felt strange, but Burch came to respect his Japanese bosses. More than 20 years later, Burch says working for people from another culture has made him more open-minded about people in general. That trait helps Burch manage the diverse group of employees now reporting to him.10
Subtle Discrimination
Today hardly anyone would say that it is all right to discriminate or that a manager should be allowed to give preference to employees of the managers race or sex. However, subtle forms of discrimination persist in every workplace, and everybody holds some stereotypes that consciously or unconsciously influence their behavior.11 The subtle discrimination that results may include ignoring the input from the only woman at a meeting or mistaking an African-American professional for someone with a less prestigious job. Supervisors and other managers can use several tactics to improve attitudes: Have employees work with someone who is different, which gives the employees a chance to educate themselves about the customs and values others hold. Use the kind of behavior they expect employees to exhibit, including demonstrating respect for others. Question negative stereotypes. When an employee makes an offensive comment, point out the damage it does, and ask the employee to avoid such remarks in the future. Unfortunately, many supervisors still work for organizations that fail to see the advantages of hiring and developing a diverse workforce. Even in an organization whose management is not committed to these goals, supervisors can provide advice and coaching to female and nonwhite employees, helping them get along in the organization. Supervisors also can make a point of learning about the
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Part One
individual employees in the department, such as what motivates them and what their career goals are. Throughout this book, you will find more specific ideas for meeting the diversity challenge as it relates to the chapter topics.
GENERAL FUNCTIONS OF THE SUPERVISOR

Jennifer Plotnick is a supervisor of her citys board of education. Her responsibilities include ensuring that the employees in her department are doing a good job, preparing a budget for her department, making sure not to spend more than the budgeted amounts, explaining to employees what they are expected to do, and justifying to her manager why she needs to add people to her department in the following year. In contrast, supervisors in other settings may spend most of their time enabling employees to do their jobs and handle fewer responsibilities than Plotnick. Although settings and degrees of responsibility may differ, supervisors and other managers carry out the same types of functions. To describe these common activities, management experts categorize them as planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling. The management functions are illustrated in Figure 1.3, which shows that all of the activities should be directed toward enabling employees to deliver high-quality goods and services, whether to customers of the organization or to colleagues in another department.
Planning
planning
Setting goals and determining how to meet them
Common sense tells us that we do our best work when we know what we are trying to accomplish. The supervisors job includes determining the departments goals and the ways to meet them. This is the function of planning. Sometimes a supervisor has a substantial say in determining the goals themselves, whereas another supervisor must focus on how to achieve goals set by higher-level managers. As mentioned previously, the supervisors job is to help the organization meet its goals. Organizational goals are the result of planning by top managers. The purpose of planning by supervisors, then, is to determine how the department can contribute to achieving the organizations goals. This includes planning how much money to spendand, for a retailer or sales department, how much money to bring inwhat level of output to achieve, and how many employees will be
FIGURE 1.3
Functions of Supervisors and Other Managers
Co
g llin ro t n
Pla nn in
g
Quality
gan
S t a ffi n g
Or
izin g
L e a din
g
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needed. Computer technology has made new planning tools possible as well. Chapter 6 discusses planning in greater detail.
Organizing
organizing
Setting up the group, allocating resources, and assigning work to achieve goals
Once the supervisor figures out what needs to get done, the next step is to determine how to set up the group, allocate resources, and assign work to achieve those goals efficiently. This is the function of organizing. Somebody has to decide how to set up the overall organization, creating departments and levels of management. Of course, few supervisors have much of a say in those kinds of decisions. At the supervisory level, organizing usually involves activities such as scheduling projects and assigning duties to employees (or, as will be discussed subsequently, enabling employees to carry out these organizing tasks). In addition, modern supervisors are increasingly responsible for setting up and leading teams of workers to handle special projects or day-today operations. Virtual teams rely on electronic communication to function effectively when team members and supervisors are widely separated. Chapter 7 discusses organizing in greater detail, and Chapter 3 addresses leading a team.
Staffing
The supervisor needs qualified employees to carry out the tasks that he or she has planned and organized. The activities involved in identifying, hiring, and developing the necessary number and quality of employees are known as the function of staffing. Whereas an operative (nonmanagement) employees performance is usually judged on the basis of the results that the employee has achieved as an individual, a supervisors performance depends on the quality of results that the supervisor achieves through his or her employees. Therefore, staffing is crucial to the supervisors success. The various activities of the staffing function are addressed in Chapters 1517.
staffing
Identifying, hiring, and developing the necessary number and quality of employees
Leading
Even if the supervisor has the clearest and most inspired vision of how the department and its employees should work, this vision will not become a reality unless employees know and want to do their part. The supervisor is responsible for letting employees know what is expected of them and inspiring and motivating employees to do good work. Influencing employees to act (or not act) in a certain way is the function of leading. Good leadership is even more important for supervisors in this time of rapid change, fueled by the widespread use of the Internet and other technologies. Organizing draws heavily on the supervisors conceptual skills, but leading requires good human relations skills. The supervisor needs to be aware of and use behaviors that employees respond to as he or she desires. Chapter 8 includes a more detailed discussion of leading. Other chapters discuss the ways in which supervisors influence employees to act, such as by communicating (Chapter 10), motivating (Chapter 11), and disciplining (Chapter 12).
leading
Influencing people to act (or not act) in a certain way
Controlling
The supervisor needs to know what is happening in the department. When something goes wrong, the supervisor must find a way to fix the problem or enable employees to do so. Monitoring performance and making needed corrections is the management function of controlling. Today, technology may help supervisors carry out this responsibility more accurately and therefore more fairly. In call centers, for example, computers monitoring phone calls may use a technique called
controlling
Monitoring performance and making needed corrections
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speech analytics to flag calls in which the characteristics of the voices indicate that the employee is having difficulty with a customer and may need assistance or coaching. Supervisors can deliver computerized training targeting specific weaknesses to agents right at their desks, so they can improve without having someone stand over them and criticize. When employees believe that help and feedback are related to their true skills and performance, they are more motivated to improve.12 In an increasing number of organizations, the supervisor is not supposed to control by dictating solutions. Instead, the supervisor is expected to provide employees with the resources and motivation to identify and correct problems themselves. In these organizations, the supervisor is still responsible for controlling, but he or she works with others to carry out this function. Chapter 6 discusses these and more traditional principles of controlling in more detail.
Relationships among the Functions

Notice that Figure 1.3 shows the management functions as a process in which planning comes first, followed by organizing, then staffing, then leading, and finally controlling. This order occurs because each function depends on the preceding function or functions. Once the supervisor has planned what the department will do, he or she can figure out the best way to organize work and people to accomplish those objectives. Then the supervisor needs to get the people in place and doing their jobs. At that point, the supervisor can direct their work and inspire their efforts. The results are then evaluated by the supervisor to ensure that the work is getting done properly. During the controlling function, the supervisor may wish to revise some goals, at which point the whole process begins again. Of course, real-life supervisors do not spend one week planning, then one week organizing, and so on. Instead, they often carry out all the management functions during the course of a day. For example, a patient care coordinator in a hospital might start the day by checking the nurses performance (controlling), then attend a meeting to discuss the needs of the patients (planning), and then help resolve a dispute between a nurse and a physical therapist (leading). Thus, Figure 1.3 is a very general model of managing that shows how the functions depend on one another, not how the supervisor structures his or her work. Typically, supervisors spend most of their time leading and controlling, because they work directly with the employees who are producing or selling a product or providing support services. Planning, staffing, and organizing take up less of a supervisors time. In contrast, higher-level managers are responsible for setting the overall direction for the organization; thus, they spend more time on planning and organizing.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE SUPERVISOR

A supervisor with a poor understanding of his responsibilities once accompanied a boom truck operator into a storage yard to pick up a piece of equipment called a crusher liner. Under and near an electric power line, they worked together, with the truck operator watching the supervisor, who handled the lift line. Tragically, the boom swung into the power line, and the powerful current killed the supervisor. Carl Metzgar, a safety expert who analyzed this incident, points out that the accident occurred because the supervisor was not supervising. A supervisor who had focused on observing, coaching, and following up on work would have observed the arrangement of the equipment and the power line and directed the employee to perform the task in a safe manner. In Metzgars words, A supervisor
Chapter 1
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TABLE 1.2
Responsibilities of Supervisors
Sources: Nolo.com, When Youre the Boss, reprinted at www.workingwoman. com/wwn/article.jsp? contentId=513&ChannelID= 210; Rona Leach, Supervision: From Me to We, Supervision, February 2000, p. 8.
Recognize the talents of each subordinate. Share your vision of where the organization wants to go. Treat employees with dignity and respect. Conduct necessary meetings efficiently and ensure they accomplish their intended tasks. Keep your staff informed and up to date. Be accessible to those under your supervision. Conduct periodic evaluations of your groups progress. Provide an opportunity for employees to evaluate you. Praise your staff for their accomplishments. Keep in touch with your industry. Be able to perform the duties of those you supervise. Keep a sense of humor. Be fair. Follow proper hiring practices. Know the law as it applies to your company and your job. Adhere to workplace safety rules and regulations. Keep accurate employee records. Avoid sexual harassment and discrimination based on gender, age, race, pregnancy, sexual orientation, or national origin. Know how to fire an employee without violating his or her rights.
should be in charge of the big picture.13 An employee who becomes a supervisor assumes all the responsibilities listed in Table 1.2. In summary, though supervisors have more power than nonmanagers, they also have many responsibilitiesto higher management, to employees, and to co-workers.
Types of Responsibilities
Supervisors are responsible for carrying out the duties assigned to them by higher-level managers. This includes giving managers timely and accurate information for planning. They also must keep their managers informed about the departments performance. Supervisors are expected to serve as a kind of linchpin, or bridge, between employees and management. Thus, their responsibilities include building employee morale and carrying employee concerns to the relevant managers. Some supervisors may question the notion that they have a responsibility to their employees. After all, the employees are responsible for doing what the supervisors say. Nevertheless, because supervisors link management to the employees, the way they treat employees is crucial. Supervisors are responsible for giving their employees clear instructions and making sure they understand their jobs. They must look for problems and correct them before employees performance deteriorates further. They also need to treat their employees fairly and speak up for their interests to top management. Finally, supervisors are responsible for cooperating with their co-workers in other departments. They should respond promptly when a co-worker in another department requests information. They should share ideas that will help the organizations departments work together to accomplish common goals. And supervisors should listen with an open mind when co-workers in other departments make suggestions about improving the way things are done. When supervisors learn from one anothers ideas, the whole organization benefits, and the supervisors have the satisfaction of working together as members of a team.
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Responsibilities and Accountability

accountability
The practice of imposing penalties for failing to adequately carry out responsibilities and providing rewards for meeting responsibilities
Whatever the responsibilities of a particular supervisor, the organization holds the supervisor accountable for carrying them out. Accountability refers to the practice of imposing penalties for failing to carry out responsibilities adequately, and it usually includes giving rewards for meeting responsibilities.14 Thus, if customer service supervisor Lydia Papadopoulos effectively teaches the telephone representatives on her staff to listen carefully to customers, the company might reward her with a raise. In contrast, a higher-level manager who gets frustrated with a supervisor who fails to provide information about what is happening in the department might eventually fire the supervisor for not carrying out this responsibility.
BECOMING A SUPERVISOR
Most supervisors start out working in the department they now supervise. Because technical skills are relatively important for first-level managers, the person selected to be supervisor is often an employee with a superior grasp of the technical skills needed to perform well in the department. The person also might have more seniority than many other department employees. Good work habits and leadership skills are also reasons for selecting an employee to be a supervisor. Sometimes a company will hire a recent college graduate to be a supervisor, perhaps because the person has demonstrated leadership potential or a specialized skill that will help in the position. Unfortunately, none of these bases for promotion or hiring guarantee that a person knows how to supervise. A hotel employee promoted to a supervisory position, for instance, might be at a loss for ways to motivate those who now report to her. Likewise, when Carol Hymowitz took on her first supervisory role as The Wall Street Journals Pittsburgh bureau chief, she had to develop her human relations skills. She recalls that in her first week on the job, an inexperienced reporter asked for feedback on her writing. Hymowitz immediately began pointing out all the areas for improvement. The reporters expression of dismay showed Hymowitz that if I wanted creative and hard-working employees, I needed to keep my style in check and make sure that I applauded my staffs strengths as much as I targeted their weaknesses.15 Becoming a supervisor marks a big change in a persons work life. The new supervisor suddenly must use more human relations and conceptual skills and devote more time to planning ahead and keeping an eye on the departments activities. Also, a change occurs in the supervisors relationships with the employees in the department. Instead of being one of the crowd, the supervisor becomes a part of managementeven the target of blame or anger when employees resent company policies. All these changes are bound to lead to some anxiety. It is natural to wonder whether you are qualified or how you will handle the problems that surely will arise.
Preparing for the Job

One way to combat the anxiety is to prepare for the job. A new supervisor can learn about management and supervision through books and observation. He or she can think about ways to carry out the role of supervisor. More important than friendliness are traits such as fairness and a focus on achieving goals. A supervisor can also strive to learn as much as possible about the organization, the department, and the job. To see what awaits a new supervisor, refer to Figure 1.4. Once on the job, a supervisor needs to continue the learning process. More important than understanding the layout of the workplace is learning about
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FIGURE 1.4
What Awaits the New Supervisor?
Congratula
tions!
Accountability
h, B. Smit r o is v Super
Focus on Human Relations Skills
Changed Work Relationships
Focus on the Group
Power and Authority
the employees in the department or work group. Who are the quiet but productive workers, for example, and who are the unofficial leaders? To get to know employees, a supervisor can talk to his or her own manager and read performance appraisals, but the most reliable sources of information are the employees themselves. Particularly in the early days on the job, a supervisor should take time to discuss goals with employees and observe their work habits. A supervisor may learn that one or more employees had been candidates for the supervisors job and therefore may be jealous. One constructive approach that a supervisor might take to this problem is to acknowledge the other persons feelings, ask for the employees support, and discuss his or her long-term goals. An important aspect of this approach is that the supervisor is helping employees meet or exceed their own goals. For example, a sales supervisor can help a potentially jealous salesperson increase sales. Most employees will regard someone who helps them make more money as a better manager.
Obtaining and Using Power and Authority

To carry out his or her job, a supervisor needs not only knowledge but also power (the ability to do certain things) and authority (the right to do certain things). To acquire power upon assuming the job of supervisor, it may help to have the new supervisors boss make an official announcement of the promotion. When accepting the job, a supervisor can ask his or her boss to announce the promotion at a meeting of the employees. There the supervisor can take the opportunity to state
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Part One
TIPS FROM THE FIRING LINE

BECOMING A SUPERVISOR
Often, a new supervisor takes on his or her position as the result of a promotion. That means the supervisors relationships with others in the department will change. How do you maintain positive working relationships with people when you are now responsible for ensuring they get their work done correctly and efficiently? Here are some suggestions for making the transition smoothly: Set limits on your behavior. Some kinds of behavior that co-workers commonly engage ingossiping, grumbling about work, choosing friendswill interfere with your role as supervisor. Employees are counting on you to be fair and objective. If some employees expect favors based on friendship, they are not true friends. Dont be a rescuer. Instead of jumping in to get the work done whenever a problem arises, teach the employees in your group to do the tasks you once handled. Training can be harder than doing the job yourself, but it builds a stronger work group. Figure out how to measure success. How can you tell if each person is succeeding in terms of quality, cost, and timeliness? As a supervisor, you need to see when employees are on track toward meeting their goals and when you need to step in. Communicate with everyone. Make a point of talking to each member of your work group so that you can understand each persons goals and everyone knows what your expectations are. Show employees how each persons efforts benefit the whole group. Be firm. Sometimes employees test a new supervisor to see if rules and standards will be enforced. If that happens, you will need to make it clear that you are serious about the whole groups success. Learn from others. Get to know other supervisors and managers who will share the wisdom gained from their experience.
Sources: Based on Brandi Britton, Making the Move from Peer to Supervisor, Los Angeles Business Journal, October 10, 2005; Ed Lisoski, From Peer to Supervisor, Supervision, May 2005, both downloaded from Business & Company Resource Center, http://galenet.galegroup.com.
his or her expectations, desire to work as a team, and interest in hearing about work-related problems. A new supervisor should not rush to make changes in the department but instead should first understand how the department works and what employees expect. Making changes quickly and without seeking their input can alienate employees and put them on the defensive. The supervisor can build support for change by introducing it gradually after inviting suggestions when appropriate. For more ideas on becoming a supervisor, see Tips from the Firing Line. Also, many chapters in this book will provide ideas that will help with this transition. For example, Chapter 7 discusses the delegation of authority, and Chapter 14 covers the sources and types of power, along with more information about managing change.
CHARACTERISTICS OF A SUCCESSFUL SUPERVISOR

Unfortunately, many of us have worked for someone who seemed to stifle our best efforts or angered us with unfair decisions. Many of us also have worked for a supervisor who taught us new skills, inspired us to do better than we thought possible, or made us look forward to going to work each day. What is behind the success of this second category of supervisors? Figure 1.5 illustrates some characteristics of successful supervisors. Complete the Assessing Yourself exercise on page to see whether supervising is a good fit with your current traits and interests.
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FIGURE 1.5
Characteristics of a Successful Supervisor
Fai rne ss
municat Com Skills ion
lty ya Lo
A successful supervisor has a positive attitude. Employees tend to reflect the attitudes of the people in charge. When the supervisors attitude toward work and the organization is positive, employees are more likely to be satisfied with and interested in their work. In addition, managers and co-workers alike prefer working with someone who has a positive attitude. Successful supervisors are loyal. As a part of the management team, they must take actions that are best for the organization. This responsibility may include making decisions that are unpopular with employees. In such situations, supervisors must recognize that taking on a supervisory job means they cannot always be one of the gang. Successful supervisors are fair. Supervisors who play favorites or behave inconsistently will lose the support and respect of their employees and not be able to lead effectively. Also, when supervisors make assignments and decisions on the basis of whom they like best, they will not necessarily make the assignments and decisions best suited to the organization. Another aspect of being fair is to follow the rules yourself. The supervisor can set a good example, for instance, by being on time and refraining from doing personal tasks on the job or taking supplies home. Supervisors also need to be good communicators.16 Employees and bosses alike depend on the supervisor to keep them informed of what is happening. Employees who receive clear guidance about what is expected of them will not only perform better but also be more satisfied with their jobs. Good communication also includes making contact with employees each day and listening to what they have to say. Chapter 10 takes an in-depth look at the communications skills that supervisors need to develop. To be successful, supervisors must be able to delegate, that is, give their employees authority and responsibility to carry out activities. Since supervisors tend to have excellent technical skills, delegating may be a challenge. They may resist giving an assignment to an employee who may not carry it out as easily or as well as they, the supervisors, could do. Nevertheless, supervisors cannot do the work of the whole department. So, they must assign work to employees. Equally
to y ilit t e A b lega De
D e s i r e fo r the Jo b
Po A t s iti v tit e ud e
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Part One
SUPERVISION ACROSS INDUSTRIES

AUTO INDUSTRY SUPERVISOR DEPENDS ON PEOPLE SKILLS
Arthur Little started his career with Honda Motor Company as an assembler at the companys plant in Marysville, Ohio. One of the major requirements was physical endurance. Although Little was young (in his early twenties) and fit from two years of active duty in the Navy, he found the experience of assembling vehicles exhausting. But his co-workers encouraged him, and he became used to the demands of the job. He began to think of Hondas employees as kind of a familythe part of the job he liked best. Little was eager to learn, so he next took a position at the Honda plant in which he learned several jobs and rotated among them. In that way, he became familiar with procedures in various parts of the Marysville plant. He began substituting occasionally for the plants supervisors, called team leaders. By taking these assignments, Little earned points in Hondas system of rewarding workers for their work experience. Eventually, a supervisors position became vacant, and Little applied for the job. The points he had earned helped him win the slot. Now that Little is a supervisor, he has to focus on his role of ensuring that workers are safe and productive. He continues to see Hondas workers as one of the companys assets, saying their attitude makes his work almost easy: You dont have a bunch of guys waiting around for something to happen. Senior staff engineer Brad Alty agrees with the priority Little places on human relations, saying that the main skill needed in a Honda team leader is to be a people person. He explains, You have to be willing to work with others, you have to be motivated and believe in teamwork, and you have to have honesty and integrity.
Source: Based on James Cummings, Ohio Plant Supervisor
Builds on Experience to Rise through Ranks at Honda, Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, May 23, 2005, downloaded from Business & Company Resource Center, http://galenet. galegroup.com.
important, a supervisor should give employees credit for their accomplishments. This, in turn, makes the supervisor look good; the employees successes show that the supervisor is able to select and motivate employees as well as delegate effectively. Chapter 7 discusses delegation in greater detail. Finally, a successful supervisor must want the job. Some people are happier carrying out the technical skills of their field, whether it is carpentry, respiratory therapy, or financial management. People who prefer this type of work to the functions of managing will probably be happier if they turn down an opportunity to become a supervisor. In contrast, people who enjoy the challenge of making plans and inspiring others to achieve goals are more likely to be effective supervisors. For an example of such a supervisor, see the Supervision Across Industries box.
ABOUT THIS BOOK

This book introduces the many kinds of activities supervisors must carry out to accomplish their overall objective of seeing that employees contribute toward achieving the organizations goals. Part One is devoted to a broad view of the supervisors role. Chapter 1 serves as an introduction to the general activities and responsibilities of supervisors. Part Two describes the challenges modern supervisors face in meeting their responsibilities. The ever higher expectations of customers, business owners, and the general public have made high quality at low cost a necessary concern of
Chapter 1
19
employees at all levels, including the supervisory level. Therefore, Chapter 2 addresses how supervisors can understand and carry out their role in maintaining and constantly improving quality and productivity. Chapter 3 covers groups and teamwork, reflecting the increasingly common role of the supervisor as a team leader. Supervisors (and others in the organization) also must consider the ethical implications of their decisions, the topic of Chapter 4. The value of diversity is the topic of Chapter 5. Part Three takes a deeper look at the supervisory functions introduced in this chapter. Chapter 6 discusses how supervisors use planning and controlling to enable their work groups to reach goals and objectives. Chapter 7 covers the function of organizing, including supervisors use of delegation to share authority and responsibility. Chapter 8 examines the supervisors role in carrying out the management function of leading. Chapter 9 explains how supervisors can be effective at creatively solving problems and making decisions. Part Four describes the skills needed by supervisors in all kinds of organizations. Individual chapters cover the ways supervisors can communicate, motivate their employees, supervise problem employees, manage time and stress, and handle conflict and change. These skills are important at all levels of management and in all types of organizations. A special appendix follows this part and emphasizes how supervisors can negotiate and handle organizational politics. The last part of this book addresses activities related to managing the organizations human resources: its employees. Chapter 15 covers the supervisors role in selecting new employees. Chapter 16 discusses the process of training new and current employees. Chapter 17 describes how supervisors appraise employees performance. Finally, an end-of-book appendix introduces some of the many government laws and regulations that guide supervisors roles and decisions with regard to human resources. It focuses on health and safety issues, labor relations, and fair employment practices. Throughout the book, the chapters include special features designed to help you apply the principles of supervision to the practice of supervising real people in a real organization. These features include Tips from the Firing Line and Supervisory Skills, which discuss actual examples of modern supervisory challengescreativity, innovation, and teamworkas well as provide practical tips for effective supervision. Supervision and Diversity boxes demonstrate how the diverse workforce of the future is already affecting the lives of supervisors. Supervision across Industries boxes demonstrate the applicability of supervision practices in a wide variety of business areas. Supervision and Ethics boxes illustrate how supervisors are able to meet the demands of their job in an ethical manner. Chapter-opening cases and end-of-chapter cases show how real supervisors and organizations have approached the issues covered in the chapter and solved common problems in the workplace. An end-of-book notes section, divided by chapter, provides source and additional reading material for various topics covered within the chapters. The glossary at the end of this text provides a quick reference to all key terms. For review, each definition is followed by the number of the page where the boldfaced key term is defined. The Skills Modules at the end of each chapter contain self-assessments, skillbuilding exercises, role-playing exercises, information applications, and miniature case studies. These exercises allow you to use the concepts from the text and develop leadership abilities.
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Part One
SKILLS MODULE PART ONE: CONCEPTS Summary

1.1 Define what a supervisor is. A supervisor is a manager at the first level of management. That is, the employees reporting to the supervisor are not themselves managers. 1.2 Summarize research findings that have led to basic ideas of what managers should do. Frederick Taylor showed that supervisors and other managers can improve efficiency by directing how employees carry out their work. Henri Fayol pioneered administrative theory, which identified four management functions: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Abraham Maslow is among the best known of the human behavior experts who emphasized meeting employees basic human needs. 1.3 Describe the basic types of supervisory skills. According to the classic model, the basic supervisory skills are technical, human relations, conceptual, and decision-making skills. Technical skills are the specialized knowledge and experience used to carry out particular techniques or procedures. Human relations skills enable the supervisor to work effectively with other people. Conceptual skills enable the supervisor to see the relation of the parts to the whole and to one another. Decision-making skills are needed to analyze information and reach good decisions. A more recent model identifies skills needed to succeed in task-related, people-related, and change-related activities. These skills include clarifying roles, monitoring operations, and planning for the short-term; consulting, supporting, recognizing, developing, and empowering employees; and envisioning change, taking risks, encouraging innovative thinking, and monitoring externally. 1.4 Describe how the growing diversity of the workforce affects the supervisors role. Compared with the current makeup of the U.S. workforce, an increasingly large share of employees will be female, nonwhite, and older. As a result, supervisors in the future will typically manage a more diverse group of employees. This reality means that supervisors can benefit from a greater variety of talents and viewpoints, but it also requires them to draw on more sophisticated human relations skills than in the past. 1.5 Identify the general functions of a supervisor. The general functions of a supervisor are planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling. Planning involves setting goals and determining how to meet them. Organizing is determining how to set up the group, allocate resources, and assign work to achieve goals. Staffing consists of identifying, hiring, and developing the necessary number and quality of employees. Leading is the function of getting employees to do what is expected of them. Controlling consists of monitoring performance and making needed corrections. 1.6 Explain how supervisors are responsible to higher management, employees, and co-workers. Supervisors are responsible for doing the work assigned to them by higher management and for keeping management informed of the departments progress. They link higher management to employees. Supervisors are responsible for treating employees fairly, making instructions clear, and bringing
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employee concerns to higher management. Supervisors also are responsible for cooperating with co-workers in other departments. Organizations hold supervisors accountable for meeting these various responsibilities. 1.7 Describe the typical background of someone who is promoted to supervisor. Most supervisors begin as employees in the department they now supervise. They usually have superior technical skills and may have seniority or demonstrate leadership potential. 1.8 Identify characteristics of a successful supervisor. A successful supervisor is usually someone who has a positive attitude, is loyal, is fair, communicates well, can delegate, and wants the job.
Key Terms
supervisor, p. decision-making leading, p. technical skills, p. skills, p.
controlling, p. human relations planning, p. accountability, p. skills, p.
organizing, p. conceptual skills, p. staffing, p.
Review and Discussion Questions
1. What are some ways that a supervisors job is similar to those of managers at other levels? How does a supervisors job differ from those of other managers? 2. Imagine that you have just been promoted to supervise the cashiers in a supermarket. List the specific technical, human relations, conceptual, and decisionmaking skills you think you might need to succeed at this job. How might you develop them continually to achieve the job of store manager? 3. Identify whether each of the following skills relates most to task-related, people-related, or change-related activities. a. The ability to communicate well with ones manager. b. The ability to evaluate whether sales clerks are delivering polite and timely service. c. The ability to plan a safety training program for the housekeeping staff. d. The ability to involve employees in making good scheduling decisions to accommodate their vacation preferences. e. The ability to see how new technology can help the department meet its goals. f. The ability to teach an employee how to machine a part without unnecessary changes in the setup of equipment. 4. Population trends suggest that the workforce will become increasingly diverse. What are some advantages of greater diversity? What challenges does it pose to the supervisor? 5. What are the basic functions of a supervisor? On which functions do supervisors spend most of their time? 6. What responsibilities do supervisors have to each of these groups? a. Higher management. b. The employees they supervise. c. Co-workers in other departments. 7. Emma has just been promoted to an office manager position in a small real estate office. Some of the people she will supervise are her former peers; she is
22
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aware that one of them also applied for the office managers job. How can Emma prepare for her new position? What might be the best way to approach the co-worker who did not get the managers job? 8. What are some ways a new supervisor can use power and authority effectively? 9. List the characteristics of a good supervisor. In addition to the characteristics mentioned in the chapter, add any others you believe are important. Draw on your own experiences as an employee and/or supervisor.
PART TWO: SKILL-BUILDING
YOU SOLVE THE PROBLEM

Reflecting back on page , consider the challenges faced by Tyrone Dugan. List the skills that you consider most important for establishing authority and a positive work environment. Which of these skills did Dugan use? What additional advice can you give Dugan for establishing himself as a successful new supervisor? With your group, prepare a report offering your recommendations.
Problem-Solving Case: Refereeing the Referees of the Atlantic Coast Conference

When basketball teams from Duke, Georgia Tech, and the other 10 members of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) play, most eyes are on the players and the scoreboard. Some avid fans also watch the referees, sometimes challenging their calls. Few would notice one important observer: John Clougherty, supervisor of the ACCs officials. To carry out his job, Clougherty attends dozens of games every season and watches the rest on DVDs at home. At the ready is a legal pad, on which he takes notes about the number of fouls called on each team and data about particular calls he needs to discuss later with individual officials. When they make a mistake, Clougherty lets them know right after the game. In fact, quick feedback is one of this supervisors priorities. Right after he became supervisor, he began requiring that each game be recorded on DVD and that a disc be delivered to the officials minutes after the end of the game. If there is a disagreement about a call and Clougherty is at the game, he might review the recording immediately with the officials. The information also helps him communicate effectively with team coaches. Clougherty uses his DVD recordings as an important resource for teaching the referees. Occasionally, they also provide a record in support of disciplinary actions. During a recent game between Florida State and Duke, a crew of officials improperly called a technical foul on a Florida State basketball player and then failed to review the play on the courtside monitor. Clougherty responded with a suspension. In addition to training and discipline, Clougherty is also responsible for hiring. He has brought several new officials to ACC games. For his hiring expertise, he draws on his extensive experience: After 30 years [as a college referee], I think I have a pretty good idea for talent. In fact, he has plenty of firsthand experience. During those 30 years of officiating, Dougherty worked at a dozen Final Four games and four national title games. 1. Which supervisory skills seem to be most important to Cloughertys job? Why? 2. What types of responsibilities does he undertake? 3. How important do you think Cloughertys experience as a referee was in preparing him to
Chapter 1
23
be a supervisor? Other than that work experience, what experiences and qualities do you think would be important for someone to succeed in Cloughertys job? Do those experiences and qualities apply to most supervisory jobs?
Sources: Ed Miller, ACC Official Supervisor, a Relatively Thankless Job, (Norfolk, Va.) Virginian-Pilot, March 6, 2006, downloaded from Business & Company Resource Center, http://galenet.galegroup.com; Atlantic Coast Conference, This Is the ACC, ACC Web site, www.theacc.com, accessed June 29, 2006.
Assessing Yourself
Is Supervising Right for You? Answer each of the following questions Yes or No. 1. Do you consider yourself a highly ambitious person? 2. Do you sincerely like people and have patience with them? 3. Could you assume the responsibility of decision making? 4. Is making more money very important to you? 5. Would recognition from others be more important to you than taking pride in doing a detailed job well? 6. Would you enjoy learning about psychology and human behavior? 7. Would you be happier with more responsibility? 8. Would you rather work with problems involving human relationships than with mechanical, computational, creative, clerical, or similar problems? 9. Do you desire an opportunity to demonstrate your leadership ability? 10. Do you desire the freedom to do your own planning rather than being told what to do? Total
Yes ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______
No ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______
______ ______ ______ ______
______ ______ ______ ______
Give yourself 1 point for each Yes answer. If your score is 6 or more, you might be happy as a supervisor. If your score was 5 or less, you should think hard about your preferences and strengths before jumping into a supervisory job.
Source: From Supervisors Survival Kit: Your First Step, by Elwood N. Chapman. Copyright 1993 Pearson Education Inc. Reprinted by permission of Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Class Skills Exercise
Recognizing Management Skills Which of the five management functions would you rely on in each of the following situations? Discuss your choices in class. 1. One of your employees is chronically late for work. 2. Your department has switched to a new word-processing program and some people are having difficulty making the change. 3. Your manager has asked you to have your staff complete a special project without incurring any overtime. 4. It is time to prepare your departments budget for the coming year. 5. Your teams productivity is not meeting the standards the team set.
24
Part One
Building Supervision Skills
Defining Your Role as Supervisor Instructions 1. Imagine you are the supervisor in each scenario described below, and you must decide which supervisory function(s) you would use in each. 2. Many of the scenarios require more than one function. The Answers column lists the number of functions your answer should include. Mark your answers using the following codes:
Code P O S L C Supervisory Function Planning Organizing Staffing Leading Controlling Brief Description Setting goals and determining how to meet them Determining how to set up the group, allocate resources, and assign work to achieve goals Identifying, hiring, and developing the necessary number and quality of employees Getting employees to do what is expected of them Monitoring performance and making needed corrections
3. As a class, compare and discuss your answers and the reasoning you used in determining them. Scenarios Your groups work is centered on a project that is due in two months. Although everyone is working on the project, you believe that your subordinates are involved in excessive socializing and other time-consuming behaviors. You decide to meet with the group to have the members help you break down the project into smaller subprojects with mini deadlines. You believe that this will help keep the group members focused on the project and that the quality of the finished project will then reflect the true capabilities of your group. Your first impression of the new group you will be supervising is not too great. You tell your friend at dinner after your first day on the job: Looks like I got a babysitting job instead of a supervisory job. Your boss asks your opinion about promoting Andy to a supervisory position. Andy is one of your most competent and efficient workers. Knowing that Andy lacks leadership skills in many key areas, you decide not to recommend him at this time. Instead you tell your boss you will work with Andy to help him develop his leadership skills so that the next time an opportunity for promotion occurs, Andy will be prepared to consider it. You begin a meeting of your work group by letting the members know that a major procedure the group has been using for the past two years is being significantly revamped. Your department will have to phase in the change during the next six weeks. You proceed by explaining the reasoning management gave you for this change. You then say, Take the next 5 to 10 minutes to voice your reactions to this Answers (four functions) 1. ______________
(three functions) 2. ______________
(one function) 3. ______________
(three functions) 4. ______________
Chapter 1
25
change. The majority of comments are critical of the change. You say, I appreciate each of you sharing your reactions; I, too, recognize that all change creates problems. However, either we can spend the remaining 45 minutes of our meeting focusing on why we dont want the change and why we dont think its necessary, or we can work together to come up with viable solutions to solve the problems that implementing this change will most likely create. After five more minutes of an exchange of comments, the consensus of the group is that they should spend the remainder of the meeting focusing on how to deal with the potential problems that may arise from implementing the new procedure. You are preparing the annual budget allocation meetings to be held in the plant managers office next week. You decide to present a strong case to support your departments request for money for some high-tech equipment that will help your employees do their jobs better. You will stand firm against any suggestions of budget cuts in your area. Early in your career you learned an important lesson about employee selection. One of the nurses on your floor unexpectedly quit. The other nurses pressured you to fill the position quickly because they were overworked even before the nurse left. After a hasty recruitment effort, you made a decision based on insufficient information. You regretted your quick decision during the three months of problems that followed, until you finally had to discharge the new hire. Since that time, you have never let anybody pressure you into making a quick hiring decision.
(one function) 5. ______________
(two functions) 6. ______________
Source: This team-building exercise was prepared by Corinne Livesay, Belhaven College, Jackson, Mississippi.
Building Supervision Skills
Leading a Team In Chapter 1 (Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills), you learned two ways to categorize the different skills that supervisors use to decide which skills apply in any given situation. Here, you will apply your knowledge of the classic skill categories to several team-building situations. Instructions Imagine that you are the supervisor in each of the following situations. Decide which of the following skills will best help you build a team: technical, human relations, conceptual, decision making. Each situation requires more than one skill. 1. As the supervisor of a group of production workers in a plant that manufactures parts for telephones, you have been asked by upper management to join a team of supervisors from different departments. Your objective will be to investigate ways to improve the time required to fill large orders from major customers. Which two skills do you think will be most important to you on this team? 2. You supervise 20 telephone operators on the night shift at a mail-order catalog company. You used to be an operator yourself, so you know a great deal about the job. Management has been pressing you and other supervisors to reduce the amount of time operators spend on the telephone for each order. You
26
Part One
believe that a potentially negative situation for your employees can be solved with a friendly competition between two teams of operators. There are no punishments for the team that comes in second, but there is a reward for the team that wins. Team members are encouraged to find new ways to reduce telephone time without reducing customer satisfaction. Which two skills do you think would be most important as you get your teams up and running? 3. You are a supervisor in the engineering department and a member of a team that includes people from production, finance, marketing, and engineering. After conducting marketing research, your team must determine whether to recommend that your company expand its operations overseas. Which three skills do you think would be most important in your contribution to the team?
Part One Video Cases

MANAGERS HOT SEAT VIDEO 1: VIRTUAL WORKPLACE: OUT OF THE OFFICE REPLY Changing technologies in the workplace present new possibilities and challenges for both the supervisor and employee. For example, employees now have the freedom to work from home or another location than the office if approved by their employer. Read the following scenario describing the video selection Virtual Workplace: Out of the Office Reply, then watch the video selection. Next, answer the three questions that pertain to the specific challenges in this supervisor-employee situation. SCENARIO Three months ago, Ralph Ramos assigned a number of employees to work as telecommuters to alleviate the lack of space in their office building. Among them was Angela Zononi, an employee and friend for more than four years, who was delighted to work from home since her commute to the office was particularly time-consuming. Although things went relatively smoothly for the first six weeks, since then, communication and performance have taken a steady downturn. Angela has biweekly meetings with Ralph in his office. Lately they have had unprecedented arguments and frequent misunderstandings. QUESTIONS 1. The characteristics of a successful supervisor are (a) a positive attitude, (b) loyalty, (c) fairness, (d) good communication, (e) the ability to delegate tasks, and (f) enjoyment of the job. How does Ralph specifically show (or not show) each of these qualities in the meetings he has with Angela? 2. Refer to Table 1.2 on page . Which responsibilities of a supervisor does Ralph exhibit? Which others could he have integrated that would have contributed to a positive outcome throughout the whole situation? 3. If you had been Ralph, what would you have handled differently in setting up the work situation? Could you have avoided the problem issues with Angela? How? MANAGERS HOT SEAT VIDEO 2: LISTENING SKILLS: YEAH, WHATEVER In the previous video case, we could see that as a supervisor, Ralph felt that listening to Angela was one of his most important priorities. This video, Listening Skills: Yeah, Whatever, shows a supervisor handling an employee who does not listen effectively. Read the following scenario describing the video selection, then watch the sections The Meeting and Afterthoughts. Next, answer the three questions that pertain to the specific challenges in this supervisor-employee situation. SCENARIO At Midnight Visions, account managers oversee four to six accounts at any given time. Some of Miguel Valentinos (the young creative director) current accounts are Jezebel, Antonioni, and HotSpot. This is the first time Miguel has had three high-profile accounts at the same timea result of shifting schedules and production slow downs. Pilar Grimault (senior account manager) has a lot of confidence in Miguel, but because Miguel has had less experience than most, she watches over him more closely. In addition to reviewing the account reports, she has casually checked in with some team members and clients about Miguels performancemost of the news is great with a few things that could and should have been handled better. This is really a positive review, and the trouble spots at this stage of the game are minor. But they still need to be addressed. The trouble spots she is most concerned with involve the Jezebel
(continued) 27

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Part One What Is a Supervisor?

1. Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills

Successful Supervisors Plan, Organize, Staff, Lead, and Control

Chapter One Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills

Gaining Acceptance as a New Supervisor

Source: Based on Sonja D. Brown, Congratulations, Youre

SUPERVISION: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Supervisors Should Focus on Efficiency

Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills

Supervisors Should Focus on Functions to Be Performed

Supervisors Should Focus on People

TYPES OF SUPERVISORY SKILLS

Classic Understanding of Management Skills

human relations skills

Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills

Modern View of Management Skills

Taking risks for change Encouraging innovative thinking External monitoring

SUPERVISION AND DIVERSITY

Supervising a Diverse Workforce

Opportunities and Challenges

Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills

GENERAL FUNCTIONS OF THE SUPERVISOR

Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills

Relationships among the Functions

RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE SUPERVISOR

Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills

Responsibilities and Accountability

Preparing for the Job

Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills

Focus on Human Relations Skills

Changed Work Relationships

Focus on the Group

Power and Authority

Obtaining and Using Power and Authority

TIPS FROM THE FIRING LINE

CHARACTERISTICS OF A SUCCESSFUL SUPERVISOR

Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills

SUPERVISION ACROSS INDUSTRIES

ABOUT THIS BOOK

Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills

SKILLS MODULE PART ONE: CONCEPTS Summary

Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills

supervisor, p. decision-making leading, p. technical skills, p. skills, p.

controlling, p. human relations planning, p. accountability, p. skills, p.

organizing, p. conceptual skills, p. staffing, p.

Review and Discussion Questions

PART TWO: SKILL-BUILDING

YOU SOLVE THE PROBLEM

Problem-Solving Case: Refereeing the Referees of the Atlantic Coast Conference

Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills

Yes ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______

No ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______

______ ______ ______ ______

______ ______ ______ ______

Class Skills Exercise

Building Supervision Skills

(three functions) 2. ______________

Yes __

No __