CHAPTER 2

SUPERVISING
Office Employees

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 Leadership Role
Factors that determine amount of
leadership ability of supervisors:
• Hierarchical level of the supervisor
• Number of individuals for whom the
supervisor is responsible
• Nature of the work performed by the
subordinates
• Background of the work unit

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 Leadership Styles
• Leadership is one ability to get things
done trough and with others.
• Two types of behavioral theories of
leadership:
i. Leadership styles
ii. Leadership orientation

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 Autocratic Approach
• superiors make decisions without seeking
the ideas, suggestions and
recommendations of their subordinates.
• Keep their power themselves and tend to
exert extensive control over the behavior
and action of their subordinates.
• Supervisor rarely deviate from the norm.
• Supervisor tend to be inflexible

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 Autocratic Approach
Situation in which autocratic approach may
be appropriate:
• An emergency situation
• A situation that requires an immediate
decision
• A new employee who is unfamiliar with
the tasks he or she is expected to perform
• An insubordinate employee

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 Democratic Approach
• Style of dealing with subordinates in
which superiors consult their
subordinates in the decision-making
process.
• Supervisor make extensive use of the
ideas, suggestions and recommendations
of their subordinates.
• Supervisor often invite subordinates to
participate in making decision. This is known
as participative management.

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 Democratic Approach
• Participative management is which
subordinates are invited to participate in the
decision making process but the manager is
ultimately responsible for the decision that is
made.
• More flexible than the autocratic approach.
• Investigate the reasons for subordinates
error or misconduct before they decide
whether disciplinary action is appropriate.

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 Democratic Approach
Management by Objective Technique (MBO)
• Makes extensive use of democratic
processes.
• Employees and their supervisors jointly
establish objectives about employees’ task.
• Progress toward objective achievement is
periodically evaluated.

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 Democratic Approach
MBO is well suited in these situation:
• Work group is well educated
• Work group is self-motivated
• Work group is goal oriented

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 Laissez-Faire Approach
• Supervisor expect their subordinates to
maintain a high level of output regardless
of the impact of productivity expectations
on the employees.
• Give subordinates considerable freedom
and provides little supervisory input.
• Supervisor who use this approach are not
concerned about their subordinates.

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 Laissez-Faire Approach
Laissez-Faire approach is well suited for these
situation:
• Work group is highly skilled
• Work group is well educated
• Work group is comprised of a number of
temporary or leased employees

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 Leadership Orientation
• As a behavioral theory, examines the nature
of the supervisor’s orientation toward
subordinates.
• Achievement-oriented supervision
Mainly concerned about subordinates’
achievements.
• Subordinates-oriented supervisor
Mainly concerned about subordinates’
welfare

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Situational Theory of Leadership
• Is based on the belief that the amount of
leadership a supervisor should exert will
vary from situation to situation.
• Some situations require extensive amounts
of leadership, other situations require
much less
• Amount of leadership exerted ranges
between boss-centered (autocratic) and
subordinates-centered (democratic)
extremes.

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 Functions of Supervision
Five functions of supervision:
• Planning – Supervisors are responsible for
ensuring that their planning efforts are
consistent with the organization’s mission
statement and vision statement.
• Organizing – Assigning jobs to the appropriate
individuals.
• Staffing – Hiring, orienting and training new
employees.
• Directing – Involved in leading, motivating,
developing, and recognizing efforts of
subordinates.
• Controlling – Comparing actual results with
anticipated results.
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Characteristic
of Effective Supervisors

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Characteristics of Effective Supervisors

Getting Others to Cooperate

Listening to Others Characteristics Building Teams

of Effective
Supervisors
Delegating Tasks Understanding Subordinates

Treating Others Equitably

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Getting others to Cooperate
• Make them aware that higher level
management is dependent on them for
ideas, suggestions, and productivity.
• Providing as much variety as possible in the
daily routine.
• Should be able to answer subordinates’
questions.
• Providing subordinates with a rationale
rather than telling them that a task has to
be done in certain way because that is the
way it has always been done.

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 Listening to Others
• Extent to which supervisor is willing to
listen to a subordinate is often related to
the feelings the supervisor has about the
subordinates.
• The supervisor must pay attention to or
concentrate on what subordinate has to
say.
• Good listener is the ability to hear what the
subordinates is actually saying and not just
what supervisor wants to hear.

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 Listening to Others
• Active listening is generally more effective
than passive listening.
• In active listening, one “hears” the message
as well as the feelings being communicated.
• In passive listening, one “hears” neither the
message nor the feelings.

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 Delegating Task
• Is a critical skill for supervisors.
• Effective delegation helps extend the
supervisors’ capabilities, encourages
teamwork and results in higher
productivity.
• Supervisors must remember the need to
give others authority commensurate with
responsibility.

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 Delegating Task
• Reasons supervisor are reluctant to
delegate:
 They believe they can perform certain tasks
more effectively than those to whom they
might delegate.
 They find that it is easier to perform the tasks
themselves than to teach someone else.
 They want the tasks done their way, which
might be different from the way the
subordinates might choose to do them.

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 Delegating Task
• Delegation guidelines:
 Select the appropriate person to perform the
task to be delegated.
 Select tasks that can be delegated.
 Help the person to whom tasks have been
delegated.
 Make sure that work assignments are fully
understood.

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Understanding Subordinates
• Supervisors have to understand
subordinates’ needs, drives, interest and
attitudes.
• Without this background knowledge, a
supervisor may have difficulty inspiring
each subordinate to perform to the best of
their ability.

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Understanding Subordinates
• Requires understanding a number of
background characteristics, including:
 Ability to think
 Social traits
 Personality traits
 Character
 Work habits
 Relations with others

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 Treating Others Equitably
• A perceived lack of fairness is often as
damaging to the relationship as a real lack
of fairness is.
• A lack of fairness often stems from the
feelings the supervisor and subordinate
have toward each other.
• Effective supervisors treat all subordinates
in a consistent manner in similar situations.

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 Building Teams
• When employees work together in a team,
productivity increases, quality of work
improves and employees feel they play a
more significant role within the
organization.
• The end result is a happier and more
satisfied workforce.

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 Building Teams
• Benefits of team building:
 Employees have greater control over their jobs.
 Teams encourages individual creativity and use
of creativity in solving a variety of work-related
problems.
 Teams give employees the feeling that they play
a more significant role within the organization.

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 Special Skills of Supervisor
• Supervisors need conceptual, human, and
technical skills, as well as skills in teaching,
coaching, counseling, and communicating.
• It is developed through supervisory training
experiences.

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 Special Skills of Supervisor
• Conceptual, Human, and Technical Skills
 Conceptual skills enable the supervisor to
assess the full impact of a change or a variety of
changes.
 Human skills are needed for a supervisor to
work effectively with others, including
subordinates, peers and superior.
 Technical skills are often a prerequisite to how
well a supervisor understands certain
operations or tasks for which he or she has
responsibility.

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 Special Skills of Supervisor
• Teaching Skills
 Supervisor responsible for teaching and training
subordinates with prior training in this area.
 Two important elements of teaching:
 Supervisor should be skilled and demonstrating and
explaining.
 Supervisor teaching skills are effectively learned
through college and university courses and through
supervisory training experiences.

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 Special Skills of Supervisor
• Coaching Skills
 To improve job skills and to increase the
subordinate’s understanding of the technical
aspects of the job.
 Coaching is more comprehensive as an
example, coaching might involve helping a
subordinate develop managerial skill.

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 Special Skills of Supervisor
• Counseling Skills
 Supervisor must listen to some of the
subordinates’ problems to maintain an effective
relationship.
 He or she must also use good judgment in
selecting the areas in which to become
involved.
 Supervisor is able to know which problems to
deal with and which to refer to others who are
better equipped to deal with them.

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 Special Skills of Supervisor
• Communication Skills
 Well-developed communication skills are
needed if the supervisor-subordinate
relationship is to be maximized.
 The forces that impede the communication
process:
 Lack of knowledge or background information
 In appropriate vocabulary usage
 Presence of bias or prejudice
 Impact of filtering

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 Special Skills of Supervisor
• Communication Skills
 Effective communication is depends on trust
and ability to show
 empathy and concern for others.
 Avoid developing a defensive attitude.
 Supervisor can use a direct approach when it is
appropriate and an indirect approach when it
is appropriate.

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 Supervisory Responsibility
• Career Goal Planning
 Employees with clear goals are often more productive
and satisfied than those lacking clear-cut career goals.

 Helping subordinates attain their career goals and play a

vital role in helping them in their career planning effort.

 Subordinates will have clear-cut when supervisor helps

them by:
 Assess their strengths and weaknesses
 Develop strategic plans to attain their goals
 Put their plans into actions

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 Supervisory Responsibility
• Ethical Behavior
 Ethics are rules or codes of conduct that guide one’s
behavior. E.g. of unethical behavior: making long-
distance call from office, stealing, etc.

 Supervisors can be a “role model” by displaying good

ethical behavior.

 Supervisors who tells his or her subordinates that ethical

behavior is important but then engages in unethical
behavior is not likely to make a significant impact on
motivating his or her subordinates.

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 Supervisory Responsibility
• Tardiness
 Tardiness can be quite a problem to the organization over
a period of time. It is the supervisor’s responsibility to
evaluate the tardiness-producing situations e.g. Traffic
Jams, automobile breakdown, etc.

 To deal with this situation, supervisor can give an oral

and written reprimand, a pay reduction, and employee
can be given a week’s layoff without pay.

 One of the best way in eliminating tardiness is to reward

employees for being punctual such as monetary reward,
public recognition, faster promotion, etc.

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 Supervisory Responsibility
• Absenteeism
 The absenteeism rate is a concern in many organizations.
Absenteeism is costly not only in terms of salaries, but
also in terms of lost productivity.

 However, supervisor should understand some absences

are unavoidable such as illness, injuries, illness of family
members, etc.

 Some of the ways that helps to reduce absenteeism:

 Adding extra day or two in employee’s vacation time
 Giving monetary bonus
 Giving higher salary and faster promotions
 Recognizing each employee who has a good attendance
record

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 Supervisory Responsibility
• Alcoholism and Drug Abuse
 Supervisors should also observe employees who have a
substance-abuse condition and drug-addiction condition.
 Organization can develop sophisticated programs
designed to help their addicted employees such as:
 Treatment
 Willingness to provide assistance
 Commitment to the employee as long as improvement is made
 Thorough communication of program elements to all employees
 Because most supervisors are not in position to help
employees overcome alcoholism, it is best to place them
under appropriate individuals such as counselors.
 When evidence of drug addiction is found the supervisor
generally refers the individual to a professional.

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 Supervisory Responsibility
• Alcoholism and Drug Abuse
 Supervisors should also observe employees who have a
substance-abuse condition and drug-addiction condition.
 Organization can develop sophisticated programs
designed to help their addicted employees such as:
 Treatment
 Willingness to provide assistance
 Commitment to the employee as long as improvement is made
 Thorough communication of program elements to all
employees
 Because most supervisors are not in position to help
employees overcome alcoholism, it is best to place them
under appropriate individuals such as counselors.
 When evidence of drug addiction is found the supervisor
generally refers the individual to a professional.

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 Supervisory Responsibility
• Stress and Burnout
 Stress is the physical, chemical or emotional state of a
person experiences at the time of a crisis or subjected to
irritations and unpleasant situations.

 Stress and burnout is commonly caused by having too

much to do in short time, doesn’t have clear objectives,
not being involved, not being challenged and having
personal problems.

 Technostress is a stress caused by the introduction of

technology. E.g. staff are introduced to a new system
which may requires them to cope with the new system.

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 Supervisory Responsibility
• Stress and Burnout
 Some of the ways of coping with stress:
 Develop appropriate attitude towards life and work
 Transfer to less stressful position
 Join therapy group
 Seek professional help
 Take advantage of opportunities for physical activity
 Take advantage of vacation time
 When stress becomes excessive, employees may begin to
experience burnout.
 Symptoms of burnout are lack of concern for the job,
poor-quality work, failure to meet deadlines, frequent
absenteeism and tardiness, etc.

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 Supervisory Responsibility
• Multicultural Issues
 Organizations are becoming multicultural in terms of
their workforce.
 Some culture may be different in terms of beliefs,
attitudes, mores, work habits, ethics and so forth.
 Supervisors can learn to deal with multicultural diversity
in a number of ways, including the following:
 attending seminars and workshops on multicultural
diversity
 engaging self-study
 enrolling in courses dealing with multicultural diversity
 discussing various multicultural issues.

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 Disciplining Employees
• Disciplining a subordinate will not cause
irreparable damage to the supervisor-
subordinate relationship
• Discipline should be seen as a teaching or
enabling endeavor as well as a correcting
endeavor.
• Characteristic of effective discipline:
 Consistent enforcement of the organization’s
rules
 It provides an appeal and higher review process

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 Disciplining Employees
• Before a supervisor disciplines an employee, a
thorough understanding of the situation is
crucial.
• An increasing number of organizations are
incorporating disciplinary interviews into the
employee discipline process.
• The fivefold purpose of disciplinary interviews
are:
 Appropriate environment
 Opportunity to outline the nature of the disciplinary
action
 Formal and official documentation
 Help and teach the employee

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 Disciplining Employees
• Some suggestions are offered for effective
disciplinary interview:
 Prepare a written document that contains the
supervisor’s comments
 Remain unemotional and rational during the interview
 Conduct interview in privacy
 Discuss only the situation at hand
 Mention only relevant, objective facts
 Criticize the work, not the worker
 Offer growth opportunities
 Listen fully to the employee’s side of the story

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