Professional Documents
Culture Documents
INTRODUCTION TO SUPERVISION
1. Scope
5. Keep his staff informed about the objectives achievements of his group.
These are his supervisory responsibilities, and they are additional to the specific
'technical' duties which the day-to-day job requires him to carry out. Examples of
such duties might be:
3. Maintaining discipline.
These are his functional activities. It can be seen that the same supervisory
responsibilities apply equally well to production, stores, and office supervision.
Whether a supervisor is in charge of a machine shop, a supermarket, or an office,
his supervisory responsibilities are the same, although his specific functional
activities will obviously differ with the nature of the job.
3. Managerial Processes
We will now go further and consider the processes by which any manager
discharges this supervisory responsibility.
In other words, what does he actually do? He must PLAN
He must ORGANISE
He must MOTIVATE and CO-ORDINATE
He must CONTROL
By planning, he lays out a course of action to achieve a specific result.
By organising, he distributes planned work among his people and sets up the
proper work relationships.
By co-ordinating, he brings together people, equipment, and material with correct
timing so as to focus the work of his unit on common objectives.
By motivating, he stimulates men to produce results, and to work together toward
the objectives he has established.
By controlling, he guides the work of his unit in the direction it is intended to go.
These management processes are the things which constitute the whole working
day of every manager and every supervisor.
At any moment of time they will be doing one or other of them, regardless of the
functions in which they are employed or the activities for which they are held
responsible. It is the purpose of this text to consider three of these in detail:
The other two, motivating and coordinating, are dealt with elsewhere.
PLANNING WORK
The ability to make and carry out good plans is one of the most valuable assets a
manager can have. It is the first step toward easy, smooth, and certain completion
of work.
It makes work easier, since the people detailed to do the jobs know in advance
where they are going, how they can get there, and when they should arrive.
Good planning, when properly communicated to subordinates, improves working
relationships and employee morale because subordinates know the overall plan as
well as their place in it.
Good planning helps in the accomplishment of tasks by enabling subordinates to
go ahead with the minimum of direction.
Having a knowledge of the total plan enables them to go from one stage to the
next as a matter of course.
In summary, by good planning:
And, above all else, sound and competent planning gets the best out of people.
Brilliant people may well obtain fair results without much planning,
but with it average people can be made to produce infinitely better results.
5. Approach to Planning
People fail because they try to achieve major objectives in one swoop.
The task should be broken down into contributory minor objectives,
each clearly defined and each capable of detailed planning.
In this way, success in each small stage will add up to successful
achievement of the whole plan.
With the overall plan broken down and correctly phased, it becomes
possible to work out details for the accomplishment of each minor
objective.
At this stage the decisions which are necessary are:
What is to be done?
How is it to be done - resources, methods and means?
Who is going to do the job?
When is the job to be done - starting and finishing times
Where is the job to be done?
All the facts may not be known when plans are first made.
Later on, new data may become available.
For this reason, minor plans should be flexible enough to cater for
unforeseen events or emergencies.
The necessary changes, however, should be made with the major
obje0ctive 6tili clearly in view.
Sticking to detailed plans regardless of the events that take place (even
when these clearly make it advisable to change or modify the plan)
practically invites failure to reach overall objectives.
Having considered the steps involved in planning, we now turn our attention to
the way in which they should be applied. Planning must be applied downward in
any organisation, but with the active co-operation of subordinate staff all down
the line.
Once minor objectives have been decided at the top, they become in effect major
objectives for subordinates, which they in turn will sub-divide for their own
subordinates. It follows that every level should understand the planning approach
outlined and should be able to allocate priorities and work out precise details.
Only in this way can a really major objective be broken down into the mass of
detailed activities which become necessary for its accomplishment.
In the end, only a proper job of planning by the entire supervisory staff of an
organisation will ensure unified and successful action.
PLANNING THE USE OF YOUR TIME
It is therefore hardly surprising that a great deal of work goes unplanned because
managers and supervisors, particularly in the lower echelons, simply do not leave
themselves sufficient time to do it properly.
Planning the use of time is to an important a factor to leave to chance. Some
effort devoted to finding ways of controlling its use will pay dividends.
This, then, in the important aspect of supervision which we shall next discuss.
Managers and supervisors can divide their work into four categories:
1. routine work
2. regular work
3. special work
4. creative work
Routine work is that which occurs repetitively and requires little or no skill; such
as making out requisitions, duty rosters, time sheets, etc. The major portion of
every day is spent doing things which can be classed as regular work.
This includes such activities as assigning jobs, carrying out inspections, writing
reports, attending meetings, etc. the daily activities that are necessary to keep
departments going.
Then there is the special work which occurs in every department, perhaps
involving some new project or some 'rush' problem.
These special jobs are generally of an urgent nature, and demand the flexibility to
push aside routine and regular work. Finally, there is creative work, which
includes any time devoted to planning.
There can be no denying that this is the most important part of supervision,
because it is time spent on planning which leads to lowering costs, increasing
quality, improving customer service, reducing scrap, reducing waste or the
frequency of accidents, or improving some aspect of the business to make it more
efficient.
Yet most supervisors are so pre-occupied with routine, regular, and special work
that they are unable to find time to do creative work. Doing creative work takes
time. To find this time, the supervisor or manager must learn how to get all his
assigned work done in less than a full working day.
9. Establishing Priorities
What is needed to find this extra time is really no more than good work habits,
self-discipline, and organised commonsense.
There are no mysteries about the scheduling of time.
Three simple steps are needed:
Obviously, the relative importance of the items on the list will vary. The
reasons for their importance will also differ: some may be urgent, others
way involve heavy responsibility, and so on. Similarly, an item which may
be important at eight o'clock in the morning may not be important twenty
minutes later. Because of this wide variation in the relative importance of
items, it is necessary to continually adjust priorities so that the most
important matters remain at the top of the list, to be dealt with first.
3. Plan for the accomplishment of each item.
Part of the job has already been done by listing the items to be
accomplished. This spells out WHAT has to be done. It only remains, in
each case, to decide WHO is the best person to do the job, HOW it should
be done, WHERE it should be done, and WHEN it should start.
Unless the supervisor established a time budget into which he schedules the time
necessary for routine, regular, special, and creative work, he will never get round
to any creative work. He will never have time for it. He will tend to postpone
even regular and routine work in order to handle the special rush jobs. A useful
approach is to keep a record of daily activities in order to get some idea of the
time normally devoted to routine matters, to necessary regular work, and to
special jobs. After a while, this shou1d settle down into a pattern sufficiently
accurate for rough planning purposes. Based on this information, a time budget
can be calculated in which the supervisor:
Planning in this way makes all the difference between the supervisor running a
job and his letting the job run him. It starts by planning the day in writing and
using time to best advantage. It helps to find the time needed for creative work, in
the end, which really makes the biggest contribution to the successful running of
a company.
ORGANISING WORK
1. He must divide the work of his unit so that the work of one person does
not duplicate or overlap the work done by others. He must first spell 5out
everything that needs to be done, and then divide it into manageable
parcels which can be handled by individuals. Each such 'work package'
must be made up of closely-related activities which suit the knowledge,
skills, and ability of those who will do the work.
2. He must see that each person knows exactly what he is expected to do,
and to whom he should turn for direction. This means that each worker
must know what he can do and what he cannot do, who is his boss and
who is not.
If an employee has to take orders and directions from more than one superior, this
results in:
2. confused employees.
3. increased errors.
Work should therefore be organised so that each employee reports to, takes orders
from, and is responsible to, only one superior This important principle is known
as UNITY OF COMMAND To ensure the effectiveness of unity of command, the
following steps should be taken by every manager or supervisor:
7. Carefully define the content of all jobs, preferably in writing and for
everyone to see. These documents should clearly show who is in overall
charge of the work described.
We introduce the next principle by reminding ourselves that the most important
resource at the disposal of managers is the available manpower. This is not simply
a group of men and women but a collection of individuals with different talents,
background, age, and experience; and with different motivations. Each must be
set a task suitable to his ability. The problem is how best to do this in the interests
of efficiency. At first sight, efficiency might suggest that all similar activities
should be grouped together to be performed by an individual employee or a single
department. This principle is called SIMILARITY OF ASSJGNMENT. An
excellent example of this is the practice common in the car industry. In assembly-
line production each man has only one small job to do: one might place a nut on a
bolt, another run it down, and yet a third tighten it. The theory is that this
breaking down of a task assures efficiency and speed, but it is possible to have
too rigid an approach to this. What might happen in practice is that the work
would become so monotonous that men, accustomed to doing the job
mechanically, would allow their attention to wander. The result could be an
injured hand or a ruined product, but would almost certainly be a drop in
efficiency. The opposite extreme is to assign a multiplicity of functions to one
job. Here, situations arise where it is difficult for one person to have all the skills
needed to do the work, and equally poor results are likely to be obtained. A
typical case is the man employed by a small, privately-owned firm and expected
to perform all the functions of the business. For instance, a clerk in a small
furniture store might be expected to do everything connected with the operation
of the store. His job might cover everything from purchase to sales, including
receipt, storage, display, selling, recording, packing, and dispatching the product.
The result could only be inefficiency. In organising work, therefore, the manager
must stream-line it as far as possible, bearing in mind the principle of similarity
of assignment but also catering to his best advantage for the varied skills and
talents of his subordinates.
15. Span of Control
Similarly, he will need to think carefully how many employees can be directed
and controlled effectively by one man this number is known as the SPAN OF
CONTROL. In practice, the number is very much influenced by the degree of
skill involved in the work. The more routine the job, the more persons one man
can supervise, because there are less decisions to be made and standards are
easier to set and check. As work becomes more skilled more decisions have to be
made the work is more likely to be subject to close standards and checks, and
conditions and results become increasingly varied Consequently, one supervisor
can direct only a few skilled persons. Similarly, span of control will be affected
by the remoteness of the work force. The closer subordinates are, the easier it is
to direct them and supervise their work. If a supervisor has, men scattered about
the plant he can give only limited time to each. He can only see and check a
portion of the output; while he is dealing with a problem in one place, his other
workers will get no direction. In such circumstances he must reduce the numbers
reporting to him for supervision. Again, short-term jobs are easier to supervise
than long-term projects, because less direction and control are involved. In
organising work, therefore, these factors must be borne in mind and steps taken to
ensure that no one is given more sub-ordinates than he can properly handle. It
will probably be a matter of trial and error, but the following danger symptoms
must constantly be looked for:
1. flagging output
2. increased scrap
3. poor morale
DELEGATION OF RESPONSIBILITY
It is clear from what has been said so far that the manager or supervisor is always
working through people. By dividing up work and entrusting it to an appropriate
number of subordinates, he has started the process of delegation The ability to
delegate is probably the most important of all the skills a manager must possess.
Unless he can delegate properly and well, he can only end up attempting to do all
the work himself. Yet all too often there is a reluctance to 'give sub-ordinates their
heads' and to delegate work freely and completely. This reluctance arises from
human weaknesses which a manager cannot really afford to have, namely:
3. reluctance to admit that someone else might know wore than he does
But whether he likes it or not, the manager, by the very nature of his job, has no
alternative except to work through people. He must develop the capacity to do
two things:
8. Believe in people.
Too many managers in industry regard their subordinates with doubt and
suspicion, but a man should be considered innocent until events prove him
well and truly guilty. From time to time we may be let down (perhaps
badly) by this attitude, but in the end its advantages will far outweigh its
disadvantages.
The key question in delegation is: What work can a manager safely entrust to
others and what must he perform himself? Broadly speaking, the manager should
always keep responsibility for initiating plans and for final decisions, but he could
safely delegate intermediate detail, and the routine operating work he would
otherwise have to perform himself. He certainly should delegate:
1. Anything in his own job which subordinates can do better than himself,
perhaps because of more direct knowledge of the detailed phases
involved.
There are always many occasions when a manager or supervisor could safely get
a junior subordinate to stand in for him, to give him experience - e.g., meetings,
committees, etc.
Whatever is delegated; the following 'rules' should be borne in mind: (a) Nobody
should be instructed to perform a task which is beyond his capabilities, in terms
either of skill or time. (b) Delegation does not absolve the superior from his
personal responsibility. If he delegates a job to a subordinate who fails to do it
properly, the blame for failure must be accepted by the superior. The final
responsibility remains with him and not with the subordinate. In practice these
'rules' are less difficult than they might appear at first sight. By careful selection
of work, careful selection of subordinates and thorough briefing, it is possible to
delegate a great deal in complete safety, and with marked increase in overall
performance. The right approach can be summarised as follows:
2. Tell him what specific results he is expected to accomplish and give him
an exact description of what will be considered acceptable and satisfactory
3. Tell him with whom he should work, and what those others will be
expected to do
4. Tell him what kind of progress reports are wanted, when, and how often
1. what he can do on his own initiative without any reference to his superior
Without this authority, the subordinate is powerless to act on his own initiative.
He will either tackle the work in a hesitant and indecisive manner or, not knowing
the limitations, will do things it was never intended he should do - sometimes
with disastrous results - but in neither case can he be held accountable for the
success or failure of his efforts. Very little purpose, in terms of results, will be
achieved by such 'delegation'.
CONTROLLING WORK
We come finally to the last of the supervisory processes by which work entrusted
to subordinates is made to produce the results originally planned for - this is the
process of control. The results of a business enterprise are largely achieved
through the control exercised by managers and supervisors all down the line. If
each one effectively controls the activities for which he is responsible, the firm
will function according to plan. But if adequate control is not achieved, plans will
go 'off course', targets will be missed, and results will not be obtained. In
summary, therefore, controls are necessary to ensure:
2. Coordinated direction
The important thing to note is that we are talking about control procedures all
down the line. Just as important as central budgets and financial control are the
steps taken by the supervisor on the shop floor to ensure that some minor job goes
exactly according to plan, that each operator has produced what he should have
done by the time required, etc. Control is the key to good management. The basis
of control lies in setting exact performance requirements before embarking upon
a plan of work, then arranging for a continual feedback of information which will
enable progress to be checked and corrective action to be taken in good time.
First and foremost, the supervisor must obviously control the quantity of work
because costs are directly influenced by the amount of useful work produced per
man-hour. Standards of output can be set for most types of work in which the
tasks can be broken down and suitable time measurements taken. The ideal
standard is one set a little above what the average worker can do easily, day after
day. The responsibility of the supervisor, therefore, is to know exactly what the
standards are and what each of his operators is (a) producing, and (b) capable of
producing. In a similar way, he should be in a position to control the quality of
work by means of quality standards - set only as high as is necessary. He will also
be responsible for:
With this background, we are now in a position to see the whole of the control
process summarised as a series of steps for achieving results:
2. Check progress
Measure the work progress against the objectives set.
3. Interpret results
Find out the reasons for variations from the objectives. Variations may be
good or bad: if they are bad, the supervisor will have to correct them; if
they are good, he will want to plan for more such variations.
If such situations arise, we obviously have not learned: 'How to Plan, Organise and
Control'.