Effective Relationships in a Tribal Organization

Efficient Supervisor-Employee Relationships
Within a Tribal Organization

Tina M. Phillips
Qualitative Business Methods
Pam Houston, Instr.
Research Report
Fall 2012 Semester
Abstract

The purpose of my research report is to draw both positive and negative conclusions to the following questions:

* Do the Supervisor-Employee relations within a tribal organization consist of friends or enemies? * Do supervisors within the tribal organizations make attempts to have professional relationships with their employees ? * Do Supervisors teach their employees about change within a tribal organization and is it implemented in the organization?

The present day supervisors within tribal organizations are all women and though some are men the majority of the workforce are women and could this be the reason for the high employee turnover and lack of skills on the part of the supervisors within the tribal organization.

After interviewing my 6 participants at this time for this research report it is clear that both supervisors and employees and of both gender classes with both recanting stories of how difficult it became when personal issues were brought to work and try to deal with them at work. With three of the participants being employees and three participants being supervisors within a tribal organization. These participants were asked a total of 10 questions mostly dealing with employee issues, supervisor attitudes and learning techniques.
Subordinate complaints are that supervisors tend to get into their personal business while they are on the job and this further complicates the problem as the employees need to learn that dealing with a Supervisor is strictly for professional types of problems and not personal issues.
It was also asked of the participants not to lay blame or criticize others as this was not my intention but to find out how employees within a tribal organization implement and teach about change to their employees.

5% of all responses from the employees were questions answered about their present day supervisor

Introduction

The significance of this study is to find out if dealing with personal issues at your workplace is really such a good idea because work issues are what an employee should be dealing with at work and not personal issues. The management problems within the supervisory process within the tribal organization is whether the decision making process for the selection of supervisors from a pool of candidates could be improved by the use of training and also by the use of Literature suggests that personality traits may be effective indicators of individual behaviors and how this relates to how supervisors treat their employees while on the job in a working environment.
The significance of my research will be to determine the degree to which each supervisor uses their authority. This subject is a matter of importance because placing the right person in the right job can have a profound impact on organizational performance. Global and nationwide competition has increased the speed of change within the American business environment.
World-wide pressure has forced many organizations to send first-line and senior supervisors to training to examine the need for creating a sustainable and competitive advantage, one that will allow Tribal organizations to compete and succeed in an ever increasingly competitive business environment.

After securing permission from the Mr. Wayne Ducheneaux to interview and total of 6 people 3 being employees from different programs and 3 supervisors from 3 different programs to see how each group reacts to a series of 10 questions from which I posed to both the employee and the supervisor when interviewed them in separate sessions.
When an employee is first hired the supervisor of his/her department should sit down and go through certain issues with their employees such as pay, leave time, and what hours of work are and what the employees responsibilities are. They should also be taught by the supervisor how to implement change within the organization

Methods

The methods I chose to use for my report was a narrative presentation and focus groups method, where I spent about 1 hour on each focus group wanting to hear all the stories and explanations that were given by my research participants, and was very satisfied with what I was given while doing this project. I did decipher what I feel is tangible or intangible evidence from these series of interviews. It was a pleasure to meet so many different people from different programs here on the reservation. I feel my action to do a focus group amongst these two groups was very effective and gave me the information that I needed for this research project. A qualitative evaluation shall be utilized for this research paper using such subjective methods such as interviews and observations to collect substantive and relevant data. These interviews shall be conducted with (3) employees who work within a tribal organization for various programs, (3) supervisors shall be chosen to interview also.
The focus group method allowed me to use this approach to the varying degrees of experience for both the employees and supervisors alike. Focus groups provide insights into how people think and provide a deeper understanding of the phenomena being studied.

Another method was used to gain more deeper insight and more information would be given because group interaction between members of a target population during focus groups may encourage participants to make connections to various concepts through discussions that may not occur, it is for this purpose that I have used this type of interaction is observation data for analytical purposes to stress the point of my research report.
Careful analyses were done on the questions posed by each individual and their responses were used to derive such information from these interviews that I see fit to use in my research report.

Literature Review

Important and costly issues such as employee turnover, efficiency, productivity, goal setting and achievement are all directly attributed to what is believed to be the most important position, after that the CEO, is the first-line supervisor . The success of the tribal organization is heavily influenced by the performance of the supervisors that are hired to run and operate programs. It has become imperative for supervisors within the programs to develop better screening techniques for their incoming employees.
In order to establish the importance of first-line supervisor selection, a number of important management questions must be addressed. The questions to be addressed are: What skills are needed by supervisors in order to be successful? What has changed or what forces are at work to suggest that the traditional approach is ineffective? Why is the issue of the supervisor effectiveness important? Has any type of change been implemented within the past year in this organization?

Business Management and Leadership literature can best answer the questions of what skills are required for a successful supervisor and employee relationship within the workplace, the changes or forces at work that suggest that the supervisor and employee can have a civil and friendly relationship while at work and on a personal level.
Organizations reach a higher level of success and profitability when workplace relationships are positive and productive and in doing so organizations can overcome the obstacles that non-productive supervisors and organizational profitability suffer from when positive workplace relationships are not formed.

Results

After interviewing all the participants within the tribal organization it has come to my attention that what the employees are experiencing in their workplaces does not just deal with personal issues, the real problem within this workplace is that the supervisors though they may have years of experience in their positions, do not implement change in their departments or programs and from reading over my notes from the interviews it has also grabbed my attention that employees want to learn more, be more part of the organization in which they are working in, they want to learn how to go beyond their job descriptions and learn more and more technological ways and how to better serve the organization in which they are a part of.

It has been shown that certain managerial skills and behaviors positively influence organizational results in the relatively uncommon situations in which change initiative was successful. Leadership is often cited as a significant barrier to or resistor of change within an organization. Identifying skills and abilities positively associated with success is executing change include, coaching, communicating, involving others, motivating, rewarding and building teams, this allows for each employee to be a part of what is happening in the workplace environment.
Given the critical nature of change in the global economy, the value is placed on leading change is increasing ever so in the business environment this demonstrates the perceived importance of specific leadership skills and abilities necessary for successful organizational change.
The importance of approaching change from a person-centered perspective that organization leaders who address issues of motivation and communication are more likely to successfully implement change within the organizational structure.
The supervision process is a complex teaching task, requiring a substantial commitment of time and energy by both supervisor and employee. In reviewing supervisor literature this indicates that no one formula is dependent up the characteristics of the person’s involved, knowledge has advanced and the different tasks facing employees due to the demands in their different fields.
Employees must develop communication skills with supervisors to develop a professional competence so that each team member in the workplace environment does feel that their contribution with the organization is meaningful.
Supervisors should be concerned with the mechanics of ethical, technical, and methodological problems that can be minimized or prevented, in this way the employee-supervisor relationship can strive to achieve clear expectations in what employees in their respective roles is within an organization.

Discussion

I can further investigate and then report that if most of my questions were answered and
How they affect the programs that they are in I cannot say because my results have still
Not been fully worked out to the point where I can tell you what type of supervisors tribal organizations have and if they are effective and if the employees are working to have effective working relationships within the programs in which they work.
The supervisor seeks to prevent the development of potential stressful situations, removes worker from stress, and helps the employee adjust to stress. When a supervisor is attentive and approachable this communicates confidence to the employee and provides opportunities for independent functioning and for probable success for the employees.
The supervisor who follows Kapustin’s model of supervision which highlights the following areas:
Administrative Support- The promotion of maintenance of good standards of work, co-ordination of practice with policies and procedures of administration, and the assurance of an efficient and smooth running workplace environment. This carries the responsibility to both ensure that agency policy is implemented which implies a controlling function and a responsibility to enable employees to work at the best of their ability and not to lose touch with the rationale of the agency.

Educational Support- This aspect deals with the educational development of each individual worker in a manner calculated to evoke her fully to realize her potential usefulness in the office. The primary goal for this type of support is for the supervisor dispels employee ignorance and ineptitude and upgrade skill with this task is to encourage reflection and exploration of work. Employees are helped to: * Understand the client better * Become more aware of their own reactions and responses to clients * To understand the dynamics of how they and their clients are interacting. * Explore other ways of working with these and other client situations.

Supportive- The main of harmonious working relationships this deals with employee satisfaction and morale in the office setting.

Conclusion
It is clear that the potential to increase market competitiveness and growth is within the control of an organizational leadership. It is through the deliberate and disciplined action of management officials that organizations can effectively implement change initiatives that cultivate success.
Effective leaders who engage their motivation and communication skills and translate these into explicit behaviors to influence change positively. Organizations and their leaders who fail to recognize the importance of these skills will become another statistic in the failure rates of change, only until tribal organizations are willing to train supervisors in a positive way will change never is able to happen within these organizations.

Annotated Bibliography

Works Cited

References

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