The Supervisor’s Role in Management
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter, you should be able to
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Identify the level of the supervisor’s position in a management team. Describe the major competencies supervisors are expected to bring to their work. Discuss the resources supervisors must manage and the results obtained from them. Identify the key behaviors that are likely to positively affect employee attitudes and performance. Discuss the need for balancing a concern for output and a concern for the people who perform the work.
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CONCEPT
Supervisors are an essential part of the management team.
Members of a Unique Team
What is management? Why is it important?
Management is the process of obtaining, deploying, and utilizing a variety of essential resources to contribute to an organization’s success—both effectively and efficiently. Managers are deemed effective if they achieve their goals and efficient if they do so with a minimal amount of resources for the amount of outputs produced. One of the most important resources of an organization is its employees. Managers devote a large proportion of their efforts to planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling the work of human and other resources. One clear distinction between managers and other employees, however, is that managers direct the work of others rather than perform the work themselves.
Management. The process of obtaining, deploying, and utilizing a variety of essential resources in support of an organization’s objectives. Manager. An individual who plans, organizes, directs, and controls the work of others in an organization.
Where do supervisors fit in the management process?
They are an essential part of it. Supervisors perform exactly the same functions, to a greater or lesser degree, as all other managers in their organization—up to and including the chief executive. Each specific task, every responsibility, all the various roles