Chapter 01 – Supervision in a Changing Workplace
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CHAPTER 1
Supervision in a Changing Workplace
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Define supervision.
2. Describe the work of a supervisor.
3. Present the types of skills necessary to perform the job of supervision.
4. State the key reasons for supervisory success.
5. Define diversity in the workplace.
6. Explain the glass ceiling.
7. Explain who is an entrepreneur.
8. Describe a small business.
SUGGESTIONS FOR PRESENTATION
Analyze the Needs of Your Students
This exercise helps you to determine how homogeneous your mix of students is in any group. It
also lets you know their individual and collective attitude toward certain supervisory skills. And,
it gives you a means of feedback to the group so people can visually determine where they are in
relation to their peers’ attitudes. It can, in that way, reinforce that people have come to the class
with different attitudes and needs, and that you won’t be able to meet each one individually.
A form for this exercise is included at the end of this section in the Instructor’s Manual. Use it to
make one handout for each student and an overhead transparency.
The students should make a check mark somewhere along the continuum between extremes in
response to each of the questions. It should take only four or five minutes to complete this.
Student names need not be on the form, but some identifying mark should be made so they can
be handed back.
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You can then return the forms to the students; show the overhead transparency and discuss each
of the questions. You can also take the response into consideration when you plan future lessons.
For example, if most people indicated a strong preference for working with individuals, you can
emphasize group skills more carefully when you cover chapters 6, 9, 10, 14, and 17.
Have students interview their supervisor at work.
Compare notes to the textbook and to each other next class.
LECTURE OUTLINE
Supervision Dilemma
Jane and John are offered positions as supervisors and they wonder what the job entails.
I. What is Supervision?
II. Who are Supervisors?
• The need for supervision dates back to biblical times. Figure 1.1 shows the forms of
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o Regardless of the name, a supervisor is the manager who serves as the link between
III. Sources of Supervisory Talent
• The vast majority of supervisors are promoted from the ranks of operative employees.
• Employees with good technical skills and good work records are the ones who are
normally selected by management for supervisory jobs.
o However, good technical skills and a good work record do not necessarily make a
person a good supervisor.
▪ In fact, sometimes these attributes can act adversely to productive supervisory
practices
IV. The Activities of Supervision
• Supervisors engage in five basic activities—planning, organizing, staffing, leading and
controlling.
• Planning involves determining the most effective means for achieving the work that is to
be done by the work group. Generally, planning includes three steps:
o Determining the present situation
o Determining the objectives
o Determining the most effective way of attaining the objectives
• Organizing involves distributing the work among the employees in the work group and
arranging the work so that it flows smoothly.
• Staffing is concerned with obtaining and developing good people.
• Leading involves directing and channeling employee behavior toward the accomplishment
of work objectives and providing a workplace where people can be motivated to
accomplish the work objectives.
• Controlling determines how well the work is being done compared with what was
planned.
• Supervisors spend the largest portions of their time on the leading and controlling
activities.
o The other activities are not necessarily less important, but they usually take less of
the supervisor’s time.
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A. Skills of a Supervisor
• The supervisor’s work can be examined in terms of the types of skills required. Three
basic types of skills have been identified:
o Conceptual skills are those that help supervisors understand how different
parts of an organization relate to one another and to the organization as a
whole.
o Human relations skills are those that supervisors need to understand and work
well with people.
o Technical skills are specific abilities that employees use to perform their jobs.
• All levels of management require some combination of these skills.
o Different skills are more important at different levels of management.
B. Key Reasons for Supervisory Success
• Supervisors are successful for many reasons. However, five characteristics are
important keys to supervisory success:
o Ability and willingness to delegate
o Proper use of authority
V. The Changing Nature of the Supervisor’s Environment
A. Changes in Information Technology
• Rapid changes are occurring in lifestyles, information technology, and the work
environment.
o These changes influence the supervisor.
• The phenomenal improvements in computer hardware have been accompanied by
improvements in software and user compatibility.
o Modern computers and software are much more user friendly than those of the
past.
• Rapid technological change requires supervisors to have increased technical skills.
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o Furthermore, these changes require more skilled and trained employees.
o Higher levels of skill and training require new approaches to motivation and
leadership.
o Thus, the supervisor needs more skill in the human relations area.
B. Changes in Outlook toward the Work Environment
• Some forecasters predict that there will be more emphasis on quality of work life in
the future.
• The factors that can improve the quality of work life include:
o Safe and healthy working conditions.
o Opportunity to use and develop individual capabilities.
o Opportunity for personal and professional growth.
C. Changes in Demographics
• Diversity in the workforce means including people of different gender, races
religions, nationalities, ethnic groups, age groups, and physical abilities.
o The increasing diversity of the workplace represents a major social change in
the United States.
• A multicultural workplace presents challenges for both employees and supervisors.
o Communication problems are certain to occur, including misunderstandings
among employees and managers as well as the need to translate verbal and
written materials into several languages.
• Greater diversity presents new opportunities.
o Diversity contributes to creating an organization culture that is more tolerant of
different behavioral styles and wider views.
• Despite these changes, most senior managers in the United States are still white men.
o The problems women and minorities have had winning promotions to senior
management positions gave rise to the term glass ceiling.
o Glass ceiling is the invisible barrier that prevents women and minorities from
moving up in the organizational hierarchy.
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o Much emphasis is expected to be placed on breaking the glass ceiling.
VI. Role of Entrepreneurs in Business
• Senior, middle, and supervisory managers are all professional managers.
o Professional managers work for businesses, but they do not own them.
• Entrepreneurs are people who launch and run their own businesses.
o When they start out, they must perform many of the basic management functions that
professional managers perform.
• Entrepreneurs start with an idea for creating or modifying a product or service that they
believe in.
o Entrepreneurs like the idea of making decisions and being their own bosses.
• Entrepreneurs own their businesses, but they can choose among several different types of
ownership.
o Some entrepreneurs are sole proprietors, or people who run their businesses single-
handedly.
o Other entrepreneurs may form partnerships, especially when a large sum of money is
involved.
o Still other small businesses may choose to incorporate, or become a corporation, to
avoid being held personally liable for financial losses.
• Entrepreneurship within a large or medium-sized company is sometimes called
intrapreneurship.
VII. Importance of Small Businesses
• A small business is a company that is independently owned and operated.
• The Small Business Administration (SBA), the government agency that lends money to
small businesses, considers a business small if it has fewer than 100 employees.
• The small businesses play an important role in the U.S. economy.
• Small businesses tend to produce more innovations than larger businesses.
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VIII. Supervision: Key Link to Productivity
• Successful supervision requires the knowledge of, and ability to use, a multitude of skills.
• The primary measure used in determining a supervisor’s success or failure is the
productivity of the supervisor’s work unit.
Solution to the Supervision Dilemma
After studying this chapter Jane and John understand the role they need to play as supervisors.
Supervision Illustrations
1-1: What is a Real Professional?
1-2: Diversity at Novartis
1-3: Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg
1-4: Diane Barrentine: A Successful Entrepreneur
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What is Supervision?
2. What are the three general levels of management?
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3. Give five names (or job titles) of supervisors.
4. Name three sources that organizations can use when seeking to fill supervisory positions.
5. What are the five activities that a supervisor performs?
6. Identify five characteristics that make supervisors successful.
7. What is the impact of the following changes on supervision?
a. Changes in information technology
b. Changes in outlook toward the work environment
c. Changes in demographics
a. Changes in information technology
b. Changes in outlook toward the work environment
c. Changes in demographics.
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8. Describe diversity.
9. Explain the glass ceiling.
10. Explain entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurs are people who launch and run their own businesses. When they start out,
Entrepreneurs and professional managers often have different personal characteristics.
Entrepreneurs tend to be more independent than managers, and they may have less formal
11. Identify what a small business is.
SKILL BUILDING QUESTIONS
1. “A good supervisor in a manufacturing plant could be a good supervisor in a bank.”
Discuss.
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2. Do you think that supervision can be learned through books and study, or only through
experience? Why?
3. Do you think that the best worker also makes the best supervisor? Why or why not?
4. “A good supervisor should be able to do any job that he or she supervises better than any
of the operative employees.” Present your views on this statement.
ADDITIONAL READINGS
Refer p.16 for more details of related books on supervision.
SKILL BUILDING APPLICATIONS
Incident 1-1: Promotion into Supervision
This case is designed to show how and why organizations sometimes select supervisors.
1. Do you think Roy would be a good supervisor?
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2. What qualities does Roy possess that support your answer?
3. Do you agree with Bill Lindsay’s statement that “a good supervisor just needs to know
how to handle people”?
Students’ answers may vary.
4. What do you think would be the reaction of the employees if Roy accepted the job?
Incident 1-2: Not Enough Time to Supervise
This case describes a supervisor who lacks the ability to delegate effectively and thus spends
more time in controlling rather than supervising.
1. Is Pam Levine right?
2. What does Len need to know about supervision?
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3. What do you think of the reasons given for Len’s promotion?
Exercise 1-1: Understanding the Job of a Supervisor
The purpose of this exercise is to allow the students to analyze a position description according
to the structure of supervision presented in the text.
While some of these overlap, the duties and responsibilities listed in Exhibit 1.1 could generally
be classified as follows:
Exercise 1-2: Required Attributes of a Supervisor
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Exercise 1-3: The Supervisor’s Personal Inventory
Information regarding completion of this exercise is included in the text. See page 18-19.
Exercise 1-4: Understanding Diversity
Man-hours: Work hours, Work-time
Girl Friday: Administrative assistant, secretary, “gopher”
Layout man: Layout person, Layout personnel
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Exercise 1–5: What Does a Fast-Food Restaurant Manager Do?
Exercise 1–6: Would You Like to Be or Become a Supervisor?
SUPERVISORY ANECDOTES
Modern managers in many companies speak in the language of enlightened leadership but act
like police. A manager’s job is to spark excitement about where a department is headed and to
always put people first. Graniterock (Watsonville, California) is a small, privately held
construction-materials-supply firm that has a right-minded, people-centered leadership free of
any traces of bullying. Founded in 1900, Graniterock is one of 12 finalists for the 1990 Malcolm
Baldrige National Quality Award. Bruce W. Woolpert, Graniterock’s president, says that people
can only do their best work when they cannot lose anything and when they are free to question
what is going to produce stronger service and products for customers. High-quality achievements
feed on enthusiasm, commitment, curiosity, momentum, respect, and trust. Spying and bullying
will sabotage these sentiments.
In the rush to gain the advantages of employee involvement, many management teams have
disregarded a group of individuals that can have a profound impact on the organization—first-
line supervisors. There are 2 ways in which managers can improve their involvement of
supervisors. The first is involvement in day-to-day decision-making and problem solving. The
2nd way is to involve supervisors in planning for and carrying out the move to a high-
involvement culture. Several key reasons for a lack of supervisor involvement are tall
organization structures, competition for available work, upper management myopia, and the
misperception that managers make the best operating decisions. An even more critical need for
supervisor involvement develops when management decides to transform the organization from
traditional and control-oriented to high involvement. By including the supervisors in planning for
and carrying out the transition, supervisors will be more likely to accept the changes that will
inevitably have an impact on their jobs. It is the first-line supervisor who will ultimately
determine whether the change to high involvement is successful.
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RELATED VIDEOS
1. After All. You’re the Supervisor, CRM Films, 20 mins. This video provides a clear,
objective overview of the job, skills needed, pitfalls, etc.
6. What They Never Told You About Supervising, American Management Association, 12
mins. This video shows a day in the life of a new supervisor.
SELECTED SUPERVISORY AND RELATED PERIODICALS
Note: The next page is the Supervisory Training Needs Analysis which was referred to in the
suggestions for presenting the material. It can be reproduced for handouts and used as the
transparency master.
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1. I am more comfortable if I am given:
2. I tend to make decisions:
3. On the job, I am personally:
4. I personally use my time so I:
5. I am most comfortable working on a project:
6. As a supervisor, I am most concerned about:
7. I would rather communicate with people by:
8. I can deal more effectively with:
9. When training a new worker for a job I know, I’d rather:
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10. Most of my subordinates will usually:
11. I discuss job performance with my subordinates:
12. I would personally prefer to get from a supervisory training program: