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Chapter 1
Supervisory Management Roles and Challenges
After reading and studying this chapter, the student
should be able to:
Explain why management is needed in all
organizations.
Describe the different levels of management.
Discuss what managers do.
Explain the basic skills required for effective
management.
Explain where supervisors come from.
Clarify the different relationships supervisory
managers have with others.
Discuss the emerging position of supervisory
managers.
Discuss some trends challenging supervisors.
Brief Outline
The Need for Management
What Is Management?
Levels of Management
What Do Managers Do?
Functions Performed by Managers
How the Functions Are Related
Roles Played by Managers
Skills Required for Effective
Management
Conceptual Skills
Human Relations Skills
Administrative Skills
Technical Skills
The Transition: Where Supervisors
Come From
Supervisory Relationships
Personal Relationships
Organizational Relationships
The Emerging Position of
Supervisory Managers
Some Current Trends Challenging
Supervisors
Dealing with a More Diverse
Workforce
Emphasizing Team Performance
Coping with Exploding Technology
Adjusting to Occupational and
Industry Shifts
Meeting Continued Global
Challenges
Improving Quality and Productivity
Improving Ethical Behavior
Responding to Crises
Final Note: The Supervisor and
Leading
Learning Objectives
SUPERVISORY MANAGEMENT Instructor’s Manual
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
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Jackie Schultz, Supervisor
This chapter begins with a profile of Jackie Schultz, supervisor for Panera Bread. The profile highlights
several concepts that will be discussed throughout the text. Schultz joined Panera Bread while she was a
high school senior. She cross-trained for multiple associate jobs and, within six months, was named an
associate trainer. A year later, she was promoted to shift supervisor and training specialist. The associates
in Jackie’s store are representative of a diverse group of employees. The profile demonstrates the
importance of working through associates to achieve goals. As a supervisor, the core of Jackie’s daily job
is making sure Panera’s commitment to quality is reflected in her associates’ job performance. The profile
also lists the activities that Schultz performs and the skills she uses.
I. The Need for Management
• Whenever a group of people works together in a structured situation to achieve a common
objective, they form an organization.
• The main objective of an organization is to produce a product or provide a service.
• To reach the objectives, management must perform three basic organizational activities:
o Operations, or producing the product or service
o Marketing, or selling and distributing the product
o Financing, or providing and using funds
A. What is Management?
• Management can be defined as the process of working with and through people to achieve
objectives by means of effective decision making and coordination of available resources.
• The basic resources of any organization are human resources, which are the people involved;
physical resources, which include buildings, furnishings, machinery, computers, equipment,
materials, and supplies; and financial resources, such as money, capital, and credit.
B. Levels of Management
• Except in very small organizations, the different levels of management are usually based on the
amount of responsibility and authority required to perform the job.
• Authority is the right to tell others to act or not act in order to reach objectives.
• Responsibility is the obligation that is created when an employee accepts a manager’s
delegated authority.
• Large organizations usually have at least three levels of management, plus a level of operative
employees. These levels are generally referred to as:
Preview
Lecture Outline
CHAPTER NOTES Chapter 1
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o Top management is responsible for the overall operations of the entire organization or
oversees a major segment of the organization or a basic organizational activity.
o Middle management is responsible for a substantial part of the organization.
o Supervisory management has control over the operations of a smaller organizational
unit.
• Supervisory managers or supervisors are the organization’s primary link with most of its
employees.
II. What Do Managers Do?
A. Functions Performed by Managers
• Managerial functions are the broad classifications of activities that all managers perform.
• The functions are planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling.
1. Planning
• Planning involves selecting goals and future courses of action and deciding how to achieve
the desired results.
• All other basic managerial functions depend on planning because it is unlikely that they will
be successfully carried out without sound and continuous planning.
2. Organizing
• Deciding what activities are needed to reach goals and objectives, deciding who is to
perform what task, dividing human resources into work groups, and assigning each group to
a manager are tasks that make up the organizing function.
• Another aspect of organizing is bringing together the physical, financial, and human
resources needed to achieve the organization’s objectives.
3. Staffing
4. Leading
• The leading function involves guiding, influencing, and motivating employees in the
performance of their duties and responsibilities.
• It consists of coaching and empowering employees, facilitating their activities,
communicating ideas and instructions, and motivating employees to perform their work
efficiently.
5. Controlling
SUPERVISORY MANAGEMENT Instructor’s Manual
• The controlling function involves comparing actual performance with planned actions and
taking corrective action, if needed, to ensure that objectives are achieved.
• Control can be achieved only by setting up standards of performance, checking to see
whether they have been achieved, and then doing what is necessary to bring actual
performance in line with planned performance.
B. How the Functions Are Related
• Although the five management functions must be performed by managers in all types of
organizations and at all management levels, they may be performed in different ways and given
different emphasis by various managers.
• The functions are interrelated, interactive, and interdependent.
C. Roles Played by Managers
• Managers play roles—parts played in the performance of their functions—as if they were
actors, and these roles change rapidly and frequently.
• A landmark management study identifies 10 roles, grouped as follows:
o Interpersonal roles
o Informational roles
o Decision-making roles
• Managers vary in how they interpret the roles, the time they devote to them, and the importance
they assign to them.
III. Skills Required For Effective Management
• Although many basic skills are needed to perform the managerial functions and play the managerial
roles most effectively, a few of the most common ones are conceptual skills, human relations skills,
administrative skills, and technical skills.
A. Conceptual Skills
• Conceptual skills involve the ability to acquire, analyze, and interpret information in a logical
manner.
• All managers need to understand the environments in which they operate, as well as the effects
of changes in those environments on their organization.
• Top managers particularly need strong conceptual skills because changes affecting the
organization tend to be more important at their level than at other managerial levels.
B. Human Relations Skills
• Human relations skills consist of the abilities to understand other people and to interact
effectively with them.
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• These skills are most needed in performing the leading function because they involve
communicating with, motivating, leading, coaching, empowering, and facilitating employees, as
well as relating to other people.
• These skills are important to managers at all levels, but especially to supervisory managers, who
spend almost one-half of their time using human relations skills.
C. Administrative Skills
• Administrative skills are the skills that permit managers to use their other skills effectively in
performing the managerial functions.
• These skills include the ability to establish and follow policies and procedures and to process
paperwork in an orderly manner.
• By lending coordination, order, and movement to tasks, administrative skills underlie the ability
some people have to “make things happen” and “get things done.”
D. Technical Skills
• Technical skills include understanding and being able to supervise effectively the specific
processes, practices, or techniques required to perform specific duties.
• Technical skills are more important for supervisors than for top managers, since supervisors are
closer to the actual work being performed.
• Recently, the concept of emotional intelligence has become a popular way to view a specialized
skill set involving people’s emotions.
o Emotional intelligence, or EI as it is often referred to, is the capacity to recognize and
accurately perceive one’s own and others’ emotions, to understand the significance of
these emotions, and to influence one’s actions based on this analysis.
IV. The Transition: Where Supervisors Come From
• Each year, several hundred thousand nonmanagers become supervisors or managers
• Most of the positions are filled by current employees.
• Internal promotions make sense for at least three reasons:
o An inside candidate understands the organization and its culture.
o Management has firsthand knowledge of the employee’s record of accomplishment and can
use this as a predictor of success.
o To promote someone internally serves as a reward and as an incentive for those employees
who have an interest in management and demonstrate management potential.
• Unfortunately, organizations commonly make two crucial mistakes when selecting supervisors:
o One is to automatically select the best present performer.
▪ Although the best performer may have excellent technical skills, other skills,
especially human relations skills, are also important.
o Another crucial mistake made by organizations stems from inadequately preparing the
employee to assume a supervisory position.
▪ Ideally, an organization should take great care when identifying potential candidates
CHAPTER NOTES Chapter 1
o Therefore, the association between the supervisor and the union steward may be
competitive or even combative.
3. Supervisor-to-Manager Relationships
• Supervisors have a reverse manager-to-employee relationship with their immediate manager.
o As a result of downsizing, reengineering, empowering, and similar new managerial
approaches, this relationship is being upgraded.
• In addition to a supervisor’s direct manager, staff managers in other departments, such as
legal and research, may also tell supervisors what to do.
• Often, supervisors have an upper manager who serves as mentor and acts as advocate,
teacher, and advice giver.
4. External Relationships
• Supervisory managers must also deal with people outside the organization.
• Some of the people who must be served or catered to are the owners of the business,
customers or clients, etc.
• These relationships can be quite difficult and frustrating for supervisors, who represent their
organizations but usually do not have the authority to make decisions and enforce them.
VI. The Emerging Position of Supervisory Managers
• No matter what type of role supervisors play, their goals are the same—getting out production,
maintaining quality, holding down costs, maintaining high morale, and otherwise serving as
management’s representative while also acting as a spokesperson for employees.
and quantity production while maintaining good human relationships.
• A study of supervisors in two plants within the same company illustrates the point.
o One plant followed traditional organizing practices—the supervisor had authority to
supervise, to determine working conditions, to plan the work and schedule it, and to control
it.
o In the other plant, “team advisors” were used instead of supervisors, with the focus being on
facilitation rather than traditional direction of the work teams.
o As it turned out, “exceptional” and “average” supervisors at both plants, whether they were
called supervisors or team advisors, exhibited characteristic behaviors.
o “Exceptional” supervisors:
▪ Were competent, caring, and committed both to getting the job done and to supporting
their employees
▪ Pushed for high quality, provided clear direction, and motivated employees with
timely, accurate feedback
▪ Willingly shared information with personnel, even if the system didn’t require it
▪ Were committed to teamwork and employee participation in the department’s
SUPERVISORY MANAGEMENT Instructor’s Manual
decisions
▪ Shared skills and knowledge willingly and saw their role as one of coach rather than
driver
▪ Understood what was involved beyond their own units, from the broader perspectives
of the plant
▪ Took the initiative in implementing changes and new approaches
o Supervisors considered only “average” in the two differently organized plants also exhibited
similar behaviors. These supervisors:
▪ Were less flexible, less innovative, and less willing to change
▪ Maintained tighter controls and were uncomfortable practicing participative
management
VII. Some Current Trends Challenging Supervisors
A. Dealing with a More Diverse Workforce
• Diversity refers to the wide range of characteristics that distinguish employees, such as sex,
age, race, ethnic origin, and other factors.
• At no time in history has the U.S. workforce been so diverse, and this trend is expected to
continue.
• Although men and women are entering the workforce at about the same rate, men, who have
been in the workforce longer, are retiring at a faster rate.
o Thus, like racial and ethnic minorities, women will continue to occupy many types of
jobs and positions that were previously the domain of men, including supervisory and
management positions.
• Providing opportunities for women is particularly challenging, as there appears to be a glass
ceiling in many organizations.
o These ceilings are considered invisible barriers that limit the advancement of women into
higher levels of the organization.
o Thus, supervisors will be expected to design programs to attract and to develop women
and minority employees and to provide them with a full range of opportunities for growth
and development, the same as they do for all other employees.
• Along with changes in gender, race, and ethnicity, the workforce is aging, as is the rest of the
U.S. population.
o Those in the 55 or older age group made up 19:5 percent of the 2010 workforce, but their
number will increase by more than 10 million employees and comprise 23 percent of the
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• As organizations seek to equip employees to function on their own, less direct supervision is
required.
o This empowerment results in supervisors increasingly working with work groups or
who share responsibility with the team for maintaining cost, quality, and prompt and
effective delivery of products.
C. Coping with Exploding Technology
• The primary effect of exploding technology on supervisors will be the need to keep personally
abreast of changes that can potentially improve effectiveness, improve training of employees,
and overcome employees’ resistance to change.
• Change brings with it uncertainty, and because most people resist that which is uncertain,
overcoming employee resistance to technological change becomes an increasing part of the
supervisor’s job.
D. Adjusting to Occupational and Industry Shifts
• Emphasis on the traditional industries has declined, with a concurrent shift toward more people–
related activities such as services and marketing.
o Along with these shifts, many organizations have been reinventing themselves,
dramatically changing their size, organizational structure, and markets.
• Many of the large companies have also been reengineering their activities.
o Reengineering activities resulted in another trend, called downsizing, in which an
organization strives to become leaner and more efficient by reducing its workforce and
consolidating departments and work groups.
• With the recession that began in 2008, downsizing has become necessary as organizations
adapted to the resulting decreased demand for services and products.
o However, organizations also downsize to become more efficient.
E. Meeting Continued Global Challenges
• As business activities have become more global, those interested in supervisory management
need to understand that they may have to operate in a one-world market.
• A result of the global challenge is that the large number of U.S. businesses are foreign owned.
o This changing ownership may lead to differing cultures and management styles,
especially at supervisory levels.
F. Improving Quality and Productivity
• The view of quality being embraced today reflects a comprehensive organizational approach to
customer satisfaction through continuous improvement in organizational processes.
CHAPTER NOTES Chapter 1
implement change.
o No longer do they rely on authority as the primary means to achieve the goals, but on
influence and persuasion.
The PowerPoint slides correlated with the Lecture Outline above are available on the Instructors CD-
ROM and on the product support website.
PowerPoint Slide 1-1 Chapter 1 Title
PowerPoint Slide 1-2 Learning Objectives
PowerPoint Slide 1-3 Learning Objectives (cont’d)
PowerPoint Slide 1-4 Need for Management
PowerPoint Slide 1-5 Management
PowerPoint Slide 1-6 How Management Combines the Organization’s Resources into a Productive
System (Text Exhibit 1-2)
PowerPoint Slide 1-7 Authority and Responsibility
PowerPoint Slide 1-8 How Management Authority and Responsibility Increase at Higher Levels (Text
Exhibit 1-3)
PowerPoint Slide 1-9 How the Management Functions Are Related (Text Exhibit 1-5)
PowerPoint Slide 1-10 Roles Played by Managers (Text Exhibit 1-6)
PowerPoint Slide 1-11 Roles Played by Managers (Text Exhibit 1-6)
PowerPoint Slide 1-12 Roles Played by Managers (Text Exhibit 1-6)
PowerPoint Slide 1-13 Skills Required for Effective Management
PowerPoint Slide 1-14 Emotional Intelligence (IE)
PowerPoint Slide 1-15 The Relative Importance of Managerial Skills at Different Managerial Levels
(Text Exhibit 1-7)
PowerPoint Slide 1-16 Where Supervisors Come From
PowerPoint Slide 1-17 Why Supervisors and Managers Fail (Text Exhibit 1-8)
PowerPoint Slide 1-18 The Supervisor’s Network of Relationships (Text Exhibit 1-9)
PowerPoint Slide 1-26 Trends Challenging Supervisors
PowerPoint Slide 1-27 Trends Challenging Supervisors
PowerPoint Slide 1-28 Important Terms
Visual Resources
SUPERVISORY MANAGEMENT Instructor’s Manual
1. Why do people form organizations?
2. Identify the five functions every manager must perform and briefly explain each.
The five functions every manager must perform are:
• Planning—is selecting goals and future courses of action and deciding how to achieve the
3. Why is management needed in organizations?
4. What are the three levels of management found in large organizations? Describe each, giving its
responsibilities.
The three levels of management are:
5. Identify the four skills that managers need. Can someone be weak in one of these skill areas and still
Solutions to the Questions for Review and Discussion
CHAPTER NOTES Chapter 1
function effectively as a supervisor? Explain.
Many skills are needed by managers. The most common ones are:
• Conceptual skills—involve the mental ability to become aware of and identifying relationships
6. How are most supervisory positions filled? Explain why this is so.
Most supervisory positions are filled by promoting current employees. There are many reasons for
hiring from within the organization. An inside candidate understands the organization and its culture.
7. What are the three types of supervisory relationships? Explain.
The three types of supervisory relationships are as follows:
• Personal relationships—supervisors’ relationships with their families and their friends
SUPERVISORY MANAGEMENT Instructor’s Manual
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
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unionized), and the supervisor’s managers.
o Supervisor-to–employee relationships—supervisory managers must relate to their own
employees and to people from other units who perform some type of service for them. A
manager-to-employee relationship exists where the supervisor facilitates and directs
nonmanagerial personnel.
o Relationships with peer supervisors and union steward—there are essentially two sets of
horizontal relationships:
▪ Those with other supervisory managers
▪ Those with the union steward or other representative(s) of the employees
8. Identify each of the trends challenging today’s supervisors and explain how each impacts
supervisors.
The eight major trends are:
• Dealing with a more diverse work force—diversity refers to the wide range of characteristics
that distinguish employees, such as sex, age, race, ethnic origin, and other factors. At no time
overcoming employee resistance to technological change becomes an increasing part of the
supervisor’s job.
• Adjusting to occupational and industry shifts— emphasis on the traditional industries has
declined, with a concurrent shift toward more people-related activities such as services and
marketing. Along with these shifts, many organizations have been reinventing themselves,
comprehensive organizational approach to customer satisfaction through continuous
improvement in organizational processes. The supervisor, as management’s direct link with
CHAPTER NOTES Chapter 1
employees, plays an important role in an organization’s quality initiatives. It is the supervisor
who is challenged to find ways to gain employee commitment to high-quality performance.
negative impact on entire organizations or on individual managers or supervisors—has always
been part of managerial life. Recently, however, the scope of such events has been
dramatically increasing. One such crisis was the collapse of the U.S. and global credit markets
in 2008 and the economic recession that followed. However, crises also take other forms, such
as mergers and acquisitions, illegal mismanagement, and even acts of terrorism or natural
9. What are some reasons why “leading” is such a critical skill for supervisors and managers today?
Skill Builder 1-1
Analysis of Supervisor/Management Job Descriptions
Works with SCANS competencies: Interpersonal Skill, Information, and Technology
Instructions:
• Think about a supervisory/management position that interests you. The position must be a first-line
particular supervisor/manager position.
Solutions to the Skill Builders
SUPERVISORY MANAGEMENT Instructor’s Manual
• Visit Monster.com at http://www.monster.com.
This is a career resource website (job search, resume writing, etc.).
supervisory/management listing was.
• Scroll the listings, viewing job titles and the names of the organizations for which there are position
vacancies. Find a position/organization that looks of interest, and click the job title. You will then
find the company’s job description for the position.
• Be prepared to discuss your results in class, individually or in teams, as determined by your
instructor.
differences in responsibilities, duties, and requirements for the positions.
Skill Builder 1-2
The Personal Interest Inventory
Works with SCANS competencies: Interpersonal Skill and Information
Instructions:
The Personal Interest Inventory should give you some insight into the strengths you would bring to a
managers must use in doing their job:
• Things: Technical skills
• People: Human relations skills
• Ideas: Conceptual skills
SUPERVISORY MANAGEMENT Instructor’s Manual
form the motivation may take. In some instances this can involve participatory management and shared
decision making. Other times it may be clearly defined responsibilities and caring supervision. Every
“disloyal,” “self-serving,” or just plain “unfriendly.” Ineffective managers have failed to win the worker’s
respect. The relationship is often adversarial, whereas the relationship of the effective supervisor with
workers is usually cooperative.
Skill Builder 1-4
Do You Have the Makings to Become a Great Supervisor?
Works with SCANS competencies: Information
Based on what you learned from the exercise about effective supervisors, do you believe that you have the
makings of a great supervisor? Do you have the desire to become a great supervisor? Assuming that you
do, what are your strengths and weaknesses that would assist or hinder you in becoming a successful
supervisor? Brainstorm and create a separate list for each.
completing this course/your degree? Be specific. If you were to select one weakness to work on
improving this term, which one would it be, and what specifically can you do to make strides in this area?
The last aspect of your improvement plan should include a self-evaluation at the end of this term to assess
your progress in this area.
Case 1-1
Coach X: Effective Hospital Administrator
1. Respond to the following question: Would X be someone whom you would consider as a viable
potential candidate for the hospital administrator position, despite his limited technical expertise?
2. Suppose that the position being sought was that of supervisor of the hospital’s computer technology
department. Would your answer to the question be the same? Why?
Solutions to the Case
CHAPTER NOTES Chapter 1
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Students’ answers may vary. However, many of them may say that technical skills are more
important for middle management and first-line supervisors. Upper-level managers manage the
operations of the entire organization. While Coach X may have the conceptual and human relations
skills required for the hospital administrator position, he or she would need more technical skills to
be able to supervise the hospital’s computer technology department.
3. In groups of four to six, discuss your answers, and be prepared to report highlights of your
discussion to the overall class.