The Changing Role of the Working Supervisor
1957; University of Chicago Press; Volume: 30; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1086/294147
ISSN1537-5374
Autores Tópico(s)Business Process Modeling and Analysis
ResumoTHE working supervisor in industry is a key man whose position has often been misunderstood. In many companies his job has been downgraded or eliminated. In doing so, management may defeat its own purpose of increasing supervisory efficiency. Most people think of the foreman as the lowest level of supervision. In fact, many workers take their orders from their working supervisor-the setup man, straw boss, crew chief, or group leader. In contrast to the foreman, the working supervisor spends most of his time in actual Although he does not have the right to hire and fire or even (in a formal sense) to discipline, he is the one through whom the foreman channels his orders to the rest of the work group. He is the technical co-ordinator who keeps the team pulling together. And his job is often considered a stepping stone to higher managerial positions. In the situations observed the status of the working supervisor has tended to fall in past years. In some cases the job has disappeared altogether. In others it remains, but with vastly decreased authority. College-trained foremen tend to bypass working supervisors in giving orders, and the stress on academic training limits their chances for advancement. Staff activity and explicit personnel policies tend to limit their discretion. Unions often demand the elimination of this half-worker-halfmanagement position. These changes in many cases have caused serious decline in the working supervisor's status and morale even where his job has not been abolished. In turn this has resulted in a severe shakeup in the pattern of human relations in the shop-a shakeup which has often reduced production. And in many cases management does not know what has happened, because it never appreciated the role of the working supervisor in the first place. We shall consider the following questions in turn. What was the traditional role of the supervisor? How did he lose his authority and his prestige? What has been the impact of these changes on human relations and production? And, finally, what is the working supervisor's proper place in industry, and how can we reconcile it with demands of modern personnel practice? Our analysis is based on four case studies dealing with four different kinds of working supervisors: (1) poly (polymerization) operators in a newly developed cracking still; (2) gaffers on a glass-blowing team; (3) maintenance mechanics in a plant producing metal containers; and (4) head nurses.'
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