Chapter Chapter 1 Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills
What is a Supervisor?
4 Types of Supervisory Skills 1) Technical-any work related special knowledge or skill 2) Human relations-more than the ability to get along. Must also inspire workers, defuse conflicts. 3) Conceptual-how does my dept affect the whole company? How do each of my employees affect my dept? 4) Decision making-get the info, analyze it, and make a decision. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 1-3
1-4 How Important Are These Skills for a Supervisor?
1-5 Supervising a Diverse Workforce Opportunities and challenges Current trends enable supervisors to draw on a greater variety of talent and gain insights into a greater variety of perspectives than ever before. The even greater diversity expected in the U.S. workforce of the future requires supervisors to work successfully with a much wider variety of people. Subtle discrimination Subtle forms of discrimination persist in every workplace, and everybody holds some stereotypes that consciously or unconsciously influence their behavior.
1-6 5 Functions of the Supervisor
1-7 Planning It is the supervisor s job to determine the department goals and the ways to meet them. Organizational goals are decided by top managers. Supervisors determine how their department can help the company achieve its goals.
1-8 Organizing If Planning is the what (what do we need to accomplish?) then Organizing is the how. How to set up the group to do the work? How to allocate resources that the group will need? How to assign work to achieve the goals efficiently? Usually involves scheduling and assigning duties (delegating) to employees.
1-9 Staffing is: identifying, hiring, and Staffing developing the necessary number and quality of employees to do the work planned. Staffing is crucial to the supervisor s successbecause his or her performance depends on the quality of results that are achieved through these employees.
1-10 Leading The supervisor needs to let employees know what is expected of them And must inspire and motivate them to do good work. Influencing employees to act (or not act) in a certain way is leading.
1-11 Controlling Monitoring performance and making needed corrections is controlling. In many organizations, the supervisor is still responsible for controlling, but may not dictate solutions to the employees. Instead, the supervisor will give the employee the resources and motivation to come up with a solution on their own.
1-12 Relationships Among the Functions Usually 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. Typically, supervisors spend most of their time leading and controlling because they re working directly with employees who make products or provide services.
Supervisor Responsibilities Carry out the duties assigned to them by higher-level managers Give managers timely and accurate information for planning Keep managers informed about your department s performance Cooperate with co-workers in other departments Be the Bridge between employees and upper managers McGraw-Hill/Irwin 1-13
1-14 Responsibilities and Accountability Whatever the responsibilities of a particular supervisor, the organization holds that supervisor accountable for carrying them out. Accountability refers to the practice of imposing penalties for failing to adequately carry out responsibilities, and giving rewards for meeting those responsibilities.
1-15 Becoming a Supervisor Typical candidates to be made supervisors: An employee with a superior grasp of the technical skills needed to perform well in the department. A person with the most seniority. An employee with good work habits and leadership skills. Recent college graduates.
Keep In Mind When you are promoted from a nonmanagement employee position to a supervisor position, you will be viewed differently by your former peers. You are now management and embody many of the negative perceptions of management that employees will sometimes have. Use your human relation skills to build trust and respect among your former employees. This will be critical to your success as a supervisor.
1-17 Preparing for the Job Learn about management through books and observation. Learn as much as possible about the organization, the department, and the job. Once on the job, continue the learning process. Acknowledge another person s feelings if they were also a candidate for the position. Great tips on pg 16.
Obtaining and Using Power and Authority Power-the ability to do certain things. Authority-the right to do certain things. To acquire power, ask your boss to make an official announcement of the promotion at a meeting. At the meeting, state your expectations, your desire to work with the team, and your interest in hearing about work-related problems. Don t rush to make changes in the department. Introduce them gradually. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 1-18
1-19 Characteristics of a Successful Supervisor
Observe A Supervisor By next class period, pick a supervisor at your job or a former job, or at a business you re familiar with, and observe that supervisor s behavior with customers, fellow supervisors, employees, etc. Observe that supervisor for the duration of this course. Interview them about supervision and their role with their company if you have the chance. By the end of the course, be able to answer these questions about that supervisor:.
(continued ) Have you observed them doing planning, organizing, leading or controlling functions? Give examples. Do they have a different way of communicating when they talk to an employee compared to an upper level manager or a customer? Please describe the differences if any and give examples. Did you observe them disciplining an employee or resolving a conflict between employees or an unhappy customer? Was the supervisor successful? Did you observe him/her using any of the following skills?
(continued.) Technical skills, human relations skills, conceptual skills, decision-making skills? Please give examples. Did you observe the supervisor interacting with employees who are minorities or female or of an older age? What took place? Do you feel the supervisor showed any subtle discrimination? Did you observe the supervisor interacting with his or her boss? Describe what happened? What special characteristics of this supervisor make him a good supervisor in your opinion? What characteristics are holding him or her back from being a better one?