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Reprint: R1112B Executives don’t realize it, but a hierarchy of managers exacts a hefty tax on any organization: Managers are expensive, increase the risk of bad decisions, disenfranchise employees, and slow progress. In fact, management may be the least efficient activity in any company. Yet it’s clear that market mechanisms alone can’t provide the degree of coordination and control that many companies require. Is there any way to get the flexibility of a market system and the discipline of a tightly knit hierarchy—without a management superstructure? Morning Star, the global market leader in tomato processing, proves that there is. Morning Star, which has seen double-digit growth for the past 20 years, has no managers. That’s right—no bosses, no titles, no promotions. Its employees essentially manage themselves. Workers negotiate responsibilities with their peers, anyone can issue a purchase order, and each individual is responsible for acquiring the tools needed to do his or her work. Compensation decisions are handled by local committees elected by the employees, and pay reflects the contributions that people make—not their status. And if staffers find themselves overloaded or spot a new role that needs filling, they simply go ahead and initiate the hiring process. Morning Star’s self-management model has two cornerstones: the personal mission statement, and the Colleague Letter of Understanding, or CLOU. In a personal mission statement, each employee outlines how he or she will help the company achieve its goals. The CLOU, which must be hammered out every year with colleagues, is an operating plan for fulfilling it. A CLOU covers as many as 30 activity areas and spells out relevant performance metrics. The system isn’t without its challenges, and it isn’t for everyone. But it has produced a dedicated workforce with exceptional initiative and expertise. And its success shows that it is possible for organizations to transcend the seemingly intractable trade-off of freedom versus control.
Listen to an interview with Gary Hamel. Management is the least efficient activity in your organization. A version of this article appeared in the December 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review.
The guidelines and resources in this topic are not sufficient to develop strong competencies in supervision. Those competencies come from extensive experience in applying that information. Sections of This Topic IncludeGetting Started in SupervisionAdditional ResourcesAlso consider Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to SupervisionIn addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have posts related to Supervision. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources. What is Supervision?Supervision is a widely misunderstood term. Many people believe it applies only to people who oversee the productivity and development of entry-level workers. That’s not true. The term “supervisor” typically refers to one’s immediate superior in the workplace, that is, the person whom you report directly to in the organization. For example, a middle manager’s supervisor typically Supervisors typically are responsible for their direct reports’ progress and productivity in the organization. Supervision often includes conducting basic management skills (decision making, problem solving, planning, delegation and meeting management), organizing teams, noticing the need for and designing NOTE: Many people also use the term “supervisor” to designate the managerial position that is responsible for a major function in the organization, for example, Supervisor of Customer Service. This topic in the Library does not address that context of supervision, but rather addresses the context described in the above paragraphs. To Truly Understand Supervision, Be Acquainted With Its Broader ContextKnow How Organizations Are Typically Structured and OperateWithout knowing about organizations in general, your role as a supervisor will be extremely limited. For example, perhaps the greatest affect on how you work and the success of your department is the culture of the organization. Supervisors should fully understand the mission and strategic goals of the organization. Also, the expectations, resources and influences to do your job usually come from other parts of the organization, whether it comes from the management levels above you or other departments that you serve. Collaboration between other departments in the organization is often one of the most effective ways for the departments to do their job. Your employees’ questions are often about other parts of the organization, as well. The likelihood of your promotion depends on how well you understand the rest of the organization. See Organizational Structures and Design Know Major Functions in Management in OrganizationsTraditionally, management is interpreted as be an integration of planning, organizing, leading and coordinating resources. The role of supervision is essentially a management role. For example, you are planning your department’s goals, how to reach those goals, the resources that you will need, and who will doing what and by when to achieve those goals. You will be organizing resources, including jobs, people, funding and facilities. You will be leading individuals and teams in your department. You will be continually coordinating your department’s activities to make sure that activities are being conducted as planned. You will take measures to get things back on track when needed. Therefore, it is very important that you understand best practices in management. Those practices are often quite similar across the organization, but just of a different scope and impact. See What is Management? How Do I Manage? Know Which Leadership Approach to Use and When in OrganizationsSimply put, leadership is the set of activities to clarify direction and priorities, and influence people toward those. Leadership is a strong component in a supervisor’s overall activities of management. You are responsible for leading other individuals, teams and your department and — perhaps most important — leading yourself. Especially for first-time supervisors, the role can be quite stressful because they are now faced with responsibilities they have never had before — they are leading people, not just activities that usually have clear-cut and routine tasks. Therefore, it is extremely important for supervisors — especially first-time supervisors — to understand principles and various styles of leadership, including which style to use and when. See What is Leadership? How Do I Lead? Typical Roles in SupervisionThe job of a supervisor is a very dynamic one, depending on the culture of the organization, complexity of the department’s goals, access to sufficient resources and expertise of the people in the department, and especially on the supervisor’s ability to successfully delegate to their direct reports. A supervisor might play different roles even in the same day. AdvocateThe supervisor is often responsible to represent the employee’s requests and to management, along with also representing the employee’s case for deserving a reward. For example, if an employee deserves a promotion, the supervisor often must justify the case for promotion to the supervisor’s supervisor, as well. If the employee has a rather unique personal situation that warrants special consideration by the rest of management, the supervisor must explain this situation and how it can be handled. The supervisor is also responsible to advocate for upper management when it wants all employees to understand and embrace a major management decision. It’s not unusual for employees to sometimes see the supervisor as part of “management” while at other times seeing the supervisor as a personal friend. BossThere are many different names for leaders in organizations and how they are viewed. However, the most conventional term and the most widely understood is that of boss. The supervisor is deemed to be the boss when people in the department are ultimately looking for direction and guidance in their jobs. The ways that a supervisor carries out that role can vary from strong direction, advice and deadlines to consensus-based decisions, thoughtful questioning and adaptive deadlines.
CoachThe term coach has taken on an entirely new meaning with the recent growth of the field of personal and professional coaching. Coaches in that field are experts at supporting others to bring out and apply their own wisdom. Often, they pose thoughtful questions to help that happen. Still, supervisors might guide their employees to increased performance and satisfaction in a variety of ways ranging from useful advice and feedback to thoughtful questions and support.
FacilitatorThe job of a facilitator is to support a group of people to clarify their desired results and achieve their results by working with each other. The nature of how facilitators do their job ranges from rather directive advice (especially when the group is getting started) to thoughtful questions, paraphrasing and summarizing. Thus, with an established team, a facilitator works much like a coach. MentorA mentor is a person who helps another (a mentee) to develop in their job and career. The mentor may have officially accepted that role, for example, as part of an overall mentoring program, or informally accepted the role based on a mutual relationship. The mentee sees themselves as being able to count on the mentor for help. The mentor might use a variety of methods to help the mentee ranging from advice and materials to thoughtful questions and guidelines. Mentoring TrainerThe supervisor is often the first person who is considered when a new employee needs to learn the job or when an employee is struggling to improve performance in the job. Employees also often turn to the supervisor to ask about personnel policies. Progressive employees might ask about the organization’s culture. The supervisor is responsible to ensure that training occurs, and might do the training themselves or arrange it through a subject matter expert. Training could be done in a variety of ways ranging from ongoing on-the-job advice to participating in a formal, systematic training program. Employee Training and Development: Reasons and Benefits Suggested Core Competencies to Supervise in Any SituationVarious experts would disagree on what skills and practices should be required for supervisors. Various roles and skills are listed throughout the next sections in this topic. However, it would be difficult to undertake them without having the following core skills. Also consider Staffing (Human Resource Management)NOTE: Many of the following staffing activities are designed by a Human Resource Department (HR) if an organization has that type of department. Still, the activities are best carried out in collaboration with the supervisor who brings strong knowledge of the needed skills in the department. Organizations without an HR Department usually rely on the supervisor to conduct the activities, hopefully in accordance with up-to-date personnel policies. Ensuring Conformance to Personnel PoliciesThe activities of supervision should always be respectful, fair and equitable and should always conform to relevant laws, rules and regulations. The best way to make sure that those conditions will continue to exist is to work from up-to-date personnel policies. Thus, staffing activities usually start by ensuring the personnel policies are up to date. Supervisors should be acquainted with all of the relevant policies as well as to make sure that the employees are, as well.
Ensuring Diversity and InclusionEspecially in today’s highly diverse organizations, the ability to work with people having diverse values and cultures is extremely important. An organization’s culture is driven by the values throughout that organization. Employees need to feel included — that their values are being recognized, understood and respected. They need to feel that their ideas and concerns are being heard. Those conditions create strong motivation and momentum for strong satisfaction and performance in their jobs. Personnel policies should include guidelines to ensure a workforce is diverse and inclusive. Designing Job RolesThere are several occasions when a job role needs to be created or updated. For example, supervisors would be designing a new role when there is sufficient evidence that enough new tasks that a new role was required. Another occasion would be if a current job needed to be updated. Ideally, planning for a new role is done during strategic planning or when a new product or service is added to the organization.
Deciding Compensation and BenefitsWhen designing a new job role, it should be associated with a suitable salary range that ensures sufficient compensation and benefits for the types of responsibilities needed in the role. Compensation includes topics in regard to wage and/or salary programs and structures, for example, salary ranges for job descriptions, merit-based programs, bonus-based programs, commission-based programs, etc. Employee benefits typically refers to retirement plans, health life insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, vacation, employee stock ownership plans, etc. Recruiting Good CandidatesAfter the job role has been specified and approved by management, the supervisor is ready to recruit job candidates who might fill the job role. There are a wide variety of ways to recruit job candidates. The best methods are those that are most likely to reach out to the most suitable candidates. Screening Job CandidatesThe thoroughness and professionalism you use to interview candidates can make a strong, positive impression on candidates. It also conveys to them that you expect the same from them if they are hired by your organization. In an effort to mitigate the risk of a bad hiring decision, companies can use multiple tools in their hiring strategy. One of those, background screening, can help identify if your candidate is included in the 56% of applicants that provide false information on their resume. Hiring EmployeesHiring employees involves a variety of tasks, any of which if not done effectively, could result in a mismatch between the needs of the department and that of the new hire. Thus, one of the most important tasks of a supervisor is hiring highly suitable employees. That includes going to as many sources as possible for finding good candidates, screening the candidates’ resumes and conducting interviews, and then coordinating the activities to making — and accepting — a formal offer for employment. Orienting EmployeesA new employee should be sufficiently oriented to the organization and its employees so that the employee feels familiar enough to begin doing a good job in the role. Planning an orientation to employees should be as carefully done as planning a systematic approach to training. For example, there should be overall goals that you want to accomplish with the orientation. There should be carefully chosen activities and materials used in the orientation to achieve the goals. Retaining EmployeesOne of the most expensive labor costs is the replacement of employees. Fortunately, there are many things a supervisor can do to increase the likelihood that good employees will remain. The supervisor can ensure the employee understands the job, is fully oriented and trained to do it, has suitable compensation, is effectively led, has a job design that helps the employee to be motivated, shares useful feedback, and supports the employee’s career development.
How to Retain Your Rewarding EmployeesThere are a variety of ways for a supervisor to reward employees for the quality of the work they do in the workplace. For example, rewards can be in the form of money, benefits, time off from work, acknowledgement for work well done, affiliation with other workers or a sense of accomplishment from finishing a major task. Rewarding Employee Performance Employee Performance ManagementEmployee performance management includes the activities to ensure that all employees are effectively and efficiently working toward the departmental goals that are assigned to them. That means assigning appropriate goals to the employee, ensuring the employee is sufficiently equipped to achieve the goal, monitoring and measuring the employee’s activities and accomplishments, and rewarding the employee for accomplishments or addressing situations where goals are not being achieved in a high-quality and timely manner. There are a variety of different styles in implementing a performance management process. Setting GoalsGoals can be established for a variety of reasons, for example, to overcome performance problems, qualify for future jobs and roles, take advantage of sudden opportunities that arise and/or give direction to training plans. Goals provide clear direction to both supervisor and employee. They form a common frame of reference around which the supervisor and employee can effectively communicate. They clearly indicate success, and can facilitate strong sense of fulfillment for employee and supervisor. Also they help clarify the roles of the supervisor and employee. Training EmployeesEffective training includes clarifying the goals that are to be achieved by the employee, assessing the gap between the employee’s current capabilities and those needed to achieve the goals, and then ensuring suitable training to close those gap. High-quality training also ensures that gap has been closed over time. The supervisor might conduct the training or arrange it to come from another source. Training could range from on-the-job advice to more formal training programs. Leading Employees (Delegating, Coaching, Mentoring, etc.)Supervisors provide ongoing guidance and support to their employees in a variety of ways to suit the nature and needs of both the supervisor and employees. Good leadership involves providing the right context for each employee to motivate themselves. Delegation involves clarifying the result desired by the supervisor and encouraging the employee to decide how best to achieve the result. Coaching might be used to bring out the employee’s own wisdom to address a current situation. Mentoring involves ongoing advice and coaching to help an employee to develop in their jobs and careers. Motivating EmployeesA major function of supervisors is to support the motivation of their employees. Different people can have quite different motivators, for example, by more money, more recognition, time off from work, promotions, opportunities for learning, or opportunities for socializing and relationships. Therefore, when attempting to help motivate people, it’s important to identify what motivates each of them. Ultimately, though, long-term motivation comes from people motivating themselves. Sharing FeedbackThe “life’s blood” of successful supervision is the continued and effective feedback between the supervisor and employee. Feedback to employees is information regarding their performance and also is information they can act on. Feedback must be shared in a manner that is understandable to them and is perceived by them as being provided in a highly respectful manner. Sharing feedback involves skills in effective listening, verbal and non-verbal communications, and working in multi-cultural environments. Conducting Performance ReviewsRegular performance reviews are critical. Performance reviews help supervisors feel more honest in their relationships with their employees and feel better about themselves in their supervisorial roles. Employees are assured clear understanding of what’s expected from them, their own personal strengths and areas for development and a solid sense of their relationship with their supervisor. Addressing Performance ProblemsSupervisors should promptly respond to occasions where an employee’s performance is not acceptable. Performance issues on the actual behaviors of the employee, whether they were insufficient for the job or inappropriate in the workplace. Any special circumstances that caused those behaviors should be understood. The supervisor should carefully document the notification in the employee’s file. Terminating EmployeesAs with the other activities in staffing and employee performance management, the termination of an employee should be done in accordance with the procedure described in the personnel policies. The policies might specify, for example, that the supervisor first issues a verbal warning to the employee and then a written warning before the formal action to terminate an employee. Team Performance ManagementThe activities in team performance management are very similar to those of employee performance management, as listed above. Team performance management refers to the cycle of activities to enhance the performance of a team. The activities to first develop the team are often referred to as team building. Team BuildingHigh-quality teams need strong and trusting relationships between members. However, they also need a firm foundation of structures, including a clear purpose and goals, sufficient resource, adaptable guidelines for assigning and changing leadership, reliable means to sustain continual communications among members and the organization, and means to make group decisions and solve problems. Leading TeamsAfter a team has been built, it needs ongoing direction, guidance and support from upper management for the team to continue to be successful in achieving its goals. Help from the supervisor can range from strong involvement with ongoing directives to a more indirect and supportive role. Team Performance PlanningThis is the initial phase in team performance management where the supervisor works with the team to specify the goals to be accomplished by the team and by when. The supervisor explains how the goals are directly aligned with achieving the strategic goals of the organization. The supervisor and team might associate specific and measurable milestones toward those team goals. They document the results of their planning into an overall team performance plan. In a progressive approach, this phase could be done in a highly collaborative approach between the supervisor and members of the team. Team Performance ReviewsDuring this phase, the supervisor conducts ongoing observations and monitoring to assess how well the team goals are being achieved. The supervisor decides if the quality of the team’s performance has exceeded or met expectations and decides how to reward the team accordingly. This phase could be done in a highly collaborative manner between the supervisor and members of the team. Team Improvement PlanningDuring this phase, a plan is developed for how the team could improve its performance to more effectively achieve or exceed the team goals. The plan might suggest further training, providing more resources or adjusting the goals to be more realistic. Getting Started in SupervisionTypical Experience of First-Time SupervisorThe job of supervisor, especially for new supervisors, can be one of the most confusing, frustrating and stressful jobs in an organization. Many times, a person is promoted to a supervisor role, not because the person has already shown strong skills in supervising people, but because the employee continued to do a high-quality job that was much more technical in nature than leading people. Thus, after the person is promoted, it can be an entirely new situation for the employee. There are several more reasons for this, including:
Realities of SupervisionBy Marcia Zidle Here are insights from years of working with managers, teams, and new leaders on the realities of supervision. For some of you it may be “old hat”; for others an “ah’ha”. In either case, know that the moment you start taking things for granted, you stop being effective. So what can you learn from these seven supervisory principles. 1. There is no routine to management work. Changes are that your old job came with a familiar routine. You performed the tasks assigned to you and you did them in a prescribed order. Some things had to be done by noon, while others had to be completed before you left for the day. As a rule, when the day’s 2. People and issues arrive un-prioritized. As a manager, you now have more people and issues to deal with. It’s your job to filter them for urgency and importance, and help employees stay focused by doing the same. 3. People start acting differently towards you. You’re still the same person, but you’re in a different role. Some people withdraw from you; others want to get closer. Ultimately, your employees are dealing with managerial change in their own way and trying to figure out what kind of manager you really are. 4. You have to give up your old job. You have a new job so don’t hang on to your old one. This can be hard. After all, it’s because of your previous success that you’ve been promoted. But failure to let go of your old job causes more problems for first-time managers than anything else. 5. Guard against the perception that certain people are your favorites. Yesterday you had co-workers; today you have employees. While it’s only natural to like some individuals more than others you no longer have that luxury as manager. Employees are keenly aware of who has direct access to you. In the 6. Employees want their manager to manage them. Friendly behavior is great, but it shouldn’t be a substitute for good managing. Your employees expect you to deal with poor performers at work. You need to demonstrate that you won’t tolerate poor performance. If you’re fair and decisive, your good performers will give you their hard-earned respect and best effort. 7. Don’t hold on to information, rather communicate, communicate, communicate. When you’re on an airplane and it encounters turbulence or the flight is delayed, you want to know what’s happening. Not knowing makes you nervous. Employees also want to know what’s happening — what’s causing the bumpy ride. If people don’t understand, then anxiety mounts, trust declines and rumors fly. The next thing you see is morale plummeting and work not getting done. That’s why ongoing communication is so important. Management Success Tip Understand your role had changed. You are now in charge tasked with getting work done through others. You must move from doing to delegating; from being liked to being respected; from holding on to letting go; from knowing all the answers to getting input from others. Make Sure You Supervise YourselfThe job can be stressful and it can be tempting to continue to focus on the job and your employees. However, there is an old saying that you can’t effectively lead others, unless you can first effectively lead yourself. That means:
How Can You Develop Your Supervisory Skills?You can improve your skills in a rather informal approach or in a carefully designed and systematic approach. The latter is often referred to as a supervisor development program. Here are guidelines for either approach. How to Design Your Supervisor Development Program Free Basic Guide to Leadership and SupervisionHere is a link to a complete, well-organized set of guidelines for the basic functions in supervision. The guidelines comprise a basic guidebook, which can be printed. Free Basic Guide to Leadership and Supervision (html format) For the Category of Supervision:To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources. Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
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Which of the following is any organizational department or unit under the supervision of a single person who is responsible for its activity?
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