Types of Supervisory Skills

Technical A supervisor is a
manager at the first
Human relations level of management.
Conceptual
Decision making

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 Categorizing the Skills
 Technical skills – the specialized knowledge and
expertise used to carry out particular techniques or
procedures.
 Human relation skills – the ability to work effectively
with other people.
 Conceptual skills – the ability to see the relation of
the parts to the whole and to one another.
 Decision-making skills – the ability to analyze
information and reach good decisions.
 Knowledge skills – the ability to utilize various
communication technology to manage and
distribute continuous streams of data.
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 Relative Importance of Types of
Skills for Different Levels of Managers

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 Supervising a Diverse Workforce
 Opportunities and challenges
 Current trends enable supervisors to draw on a greater
variety of talent and gain insights into a greater variety
of perspectives than ever before.
 The even greater diversity expected in the U.S.
workforce of the future requires supervisors to work
successfully with a much wider variety of people.
 Subtle discrimination
 Subtle forms of discrimination persist in every
workplace, and everybody holds some stereotypes that
consciously or unconsciously influence their behavior.

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 General Functions of the Supervisor

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 Planning
 Itis the supervisor’s job to determine the
department goals and the ways to meet
them.
 Organizational goals are the result of
planning by top managers.
 The purpose of planning by supervisors is to
determine how the department can
contribute to achieving the organization’s
goals.
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 Organizing
 Planning is the what. Organizing is the how.
 How to set up the group
 How to allocate resources
 How to assign work to achieve the goals efficiently
 At the supervisory level, organizing usually
involves activities such as scheduling
projects and assigning duties to
employees.

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 Staffing
 Staffing is the activities involved in
identifying, hiring, and developing the
necessary number and quality of employees.
 A supervisor’s performance depends on the
quality of results that the supervisor achieves
through his or her employees.

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 Leading
 The supervisor is responsible for letting
employees know what is expected of them
and for inspiring and motivating employees
to do good work.
 Influencing employees to act (or not act) in a
certain way is the function of leading.

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 Controlling
 Monitoring performance and making needed
corrections is the management function of
controlling.
 In many organizations, the supervisor is still
responsible for controlling, but he or she
works with others to carry out this function.

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 Relationships Among the Functions
 Usually planning comes first, followed by
organizing, then staffing, then leading, and,
finally, controlling. This order occurs
because each function depends on the
preceding function or functions.
 Typically, supervisors spend most of their
time leading and controlling.

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 Supervisor Responsibilities
 Carry out the duties assigned to them by
higher-level managers
 Give managers timely and accurate information for
planning
 Keep managers informed about the
department’s performance
 Cooperate with co-workers in other
departments

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 Responsibilities in a Changing Organization

 Today’s supervisors have to be skilled at online as

well as face-to-face communication, and they have
to be prepared to change as fast as their employers
do.
 The changes occurring in the modern workplace
require supervisors to rely less on their technical
expertise and more on their ability to understand,
inspire, and build cooperation among people.
 Information technology has made it easier for
employees to do work in many locations, so
supervisors need to motivate and control
employees they may not see face to face every day.
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 Responsibilities and Accountability
 Whatever the responsibilities of a particular
supervisor, the organization holds the
supervisor accountable for carrying them out.
 Accountability refers to the practice of
imposing penalties for failing to adequately
carry out responsibilities, and it usually
includes giving rewards for meeting
responsibilities.

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 Becoming a Supervisor
Typical candidates to be made supervisors:
 An employee with a superior grasp of the
technical skills needed to perform well in
the department.
 A person with the most seniority.
 An employee with good work habits and
leadership skills.
 Recent college graduates.

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 Preparing for the Job
 Learn about management through books
and observation.
 Learn as much as possible about the
organization, the department, and the job.
 Once on the job, continue the learning
process.
 Acknowledge another person’s feelings if
they were also a candidate for the position.

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 Obtaining and Using Power and Authority

 Have the new supervisor’s boss make an

official announcement of the promotion.
 State your expectations, desire to work as a
team, and interest in hearing about work-
related problems.
 Don’t rush to make changes in the
department.

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 Characteristics of a Successful Supervisor

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