Organizing refers to the management function of establishing a group, apportioning
resources, and allocating duties. Most organizations are led by Chairpersons and Chief Executive
Officers and assisted by other officials. The common categorization of organizational structures
include: Functional, product, geographic, and customer structures. Organizations can either be
mechanic or organic. Mechanic organizations are bureaucratic in nature, follow tight rules, have
specialized jobs, perform well in stable environments, and decisions are done by top managers.
Organic organizations are flexible, have less focus on rules, decisions made at lower level, and
perform well in dynamic environment. In all organizations, authority can either be formal or
informal, centralized or decentralized.
Power is the ability to make others do what they are supposed to do and avoid being
compelled to do something. Authority ensures one issue directives and uses resources while
leadership is the capacity to empower people adhere to your decisions. Some organizations
embrace job simplification to make jobs more specialized, work smarter, and enhance
performance. They do job simplification by eliminating, bringing together, and changing
sequence. Job expansion, on the other hand, makes job more specialized. Supervisors can also
delegate. Delegating involves giving others he authority and responsibility to do certain tasks.
Delegation allows employees to develop skills and value to the organization.
Chapter 11: Motivating Employees
According to the authors of the book, motivation entails providing employees with
incentives in order to act in a desired way. Psychologist Abraham Maslow believed that people
get motivation from unmet needs. Achievement-Power-Affiliation Approach theory mentions
three needs of employees: Achievement, power, and affiliation. The Motivation-Maintenance
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Approach is anchored on the belief that some factors motivate employees while others de-
motivate them. In most cases, factors that demoralize employees are connected to the work
environment while job enrichment comes as a result of increasing responsibilities to employees.
Frederick Herzberg’s research concluded that employees’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction are
caused by dissatisfaction results. Satisfaction is caused by motivating factors.
The two process theories are Vroom’s expectancy-valence theory and Skinner’s
reinforcement theory. According to Preference-Expectancy Approach theory, employees get the
motivation to work if there are possibilities of being rewarded. Reinforcement Approach theory,
on the other hand, holds employees are likely to repeat reinforced behavior unlike unreinforced
behavior. It is vital to reward employees for their efforts. Extrinsic reward (compensation) and
intrinsic reward (personal satisfaction) influence employees to achieve their goals.
Chapter 12: Problem Employees: Counseling and Discipline
Work-related activities are likely to make employees feel stressed. Organizations have to
embrace counseling in order to help employees increase productivity and motivate them. Some
of the problems that most employees encounter include absenteeism, insubordination and
uncooperativeness, drug abuse, violence, and theft. Counselors help employees to talk about
issues troubling them and find solutions to the problems. The benefits of counseling to
employees include easing worries by solving problems and improving job satisfaction and
motivation.
Supervisors can help employees by motivating and inspiring them. There are two main
ways of counseling employees. Directive counseling is where supervisors ask their employees
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questions about their problems, understand them, and handle them. Non-directive counseling is
where the supervisor listens, encourage employees to identify sources of problems and come up
with the solutions. Supervisors should be available and listen to the needs of the employees. It is
critical to give an ear to the ideas and insights of employees in order to make them feel part of
the organization. Supervisors and managers should communicate clearly and ensure all people in
the team understand their assigned work and roles to avoid mistakes.
Chapter 2: The Supervisor as Leader
A supervisor is an individual in the first-line management who monitors employees as
they do their assigned duties. A supervisor keeps an open line of communication with other
employees and motivates them by setting goals and making follow ups. A victorious leader
knows his/her responsibilities, is confident, has high energy level, empathetic, and has a sense of
humor. On leadership styles, an autocratic leader makes most or all decisions while Laissez-faire
leader permits people to make all major decisions. A democratic leader, on the other hand,
motivates others to make decisions.
For leaders to be effective, they need to show certain behaviors. Directive behavior
involves telling followers what to do and how to do it. Supportive behavior is recognizing that
employees are human beings while participative behavior involves seeking input from followers
on how to improve business operations. Achievement behavior, on the other hand, involves
setting goals and challenging employees to reach them. For a supervisor to be a servant leader,
he/she must put other people’s interests first. A servant leader should be a good listener,
empathetic, healing, aware, and persuasive.
Chapter 15: Selecting Employees
In small organizations, the supervisor helps in selection by identifying cooperative and
skilled employees who can help to solve problems. Job descriptions and specifications are
important when selecting employees. Job description is the list of the characteristics of a job and
it includes the “job title, duties, and working conditions.” Job specification refers to features
desirable in an employee. Recruitment can be both internal and external. All candidates have to
go through an interviewing process before they can be hired.
In the process of selecting employees, it is important to remember legal issues that can
influence the recruitment process. Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act bars employers from
discriminating against their employees based on gender and race among other factors. Besides,
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the Equal Pay Act helps to eliminate wage disparities among workers who do work that involve
the same skills and effort. The Rehabilitation Act (1973) is a legislative effort that ensures an
equal playing field for persons with disabilities. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC) and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance (OFCC) are the two main enforcement
agencies for creating equal employment opportunities. Sexual harassment is a major problem
people face in their workplaces because it creates a hostile work environment and interfere with
work performance.
Chapter 16: Providing Orientation and Training
Training helps to increase the skills that enable employees meet organizational goals.
After selecting employees, it is vital that they undergo an orientation process. Orientation entails
providing employees the information they require to work in the right way. Supervisors play an
important role when conducting orientation. In small organizations, supervisors conduct
orientation while in large organizations, supervisors work with the human resources department.
Orientation methods involve introducing employees to employee handbook, conducting a tour of
facilities, engaging co-workers, and following up with new employees.
There are various types of training that employees can be exposed to. On-the-job training
involves teaching a job where trainers and trainees do the job together. Apprenticeship entails
working alongside experienced people in order to learn how to do various tasks. Cross-training is
when an employee is taught a job to fill another position. The other forms of training are
vestibule training, e-learning, role-playing, classroom training, basic skills training, and
certification training. Coaching is also part of training and it involves methods on how to
perform a job to satisfy performance goals while mentoring provides guidance and
encouragement.
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Chapter 13: Managing Time and Stress
Time management involves controlling how people use time. Supervisors have to control
their time to ensure that their jobs are easier and do more within a given period. In order to plan
the use of time, organizations have to set priorities, establish objectives, and make to-do lists.
Some of the common time waters include procrastination, failure to delegate, unscheduled
visitors, paperwork, and phone calls among others.
Stress refers to body’s response to handling environmental demands. Some of the causes
of stress include work, individual factors, and work-family conflict. At work, heavy workload,
poor management, and work environment are the major causes of stress. Negativism,
helplessness, and low self-esteem can attack a person and cause stress. Type A personality,
where one tries to achieve much in a hurry, is also a major contributor of stress. It is possible to
reduce stress by ensuring proper time management, right attitude, meditation, all round activities,
and psychotherapy. Supervisors need to be friendly and concerned with the affairs of employees
in order to eliminate the possibility of stress.
Chapter 14: Managing Conflict and Change
Conflict can cause stress and frustration, reduce productivity, and destructive behavior.
The main types of conflict are intrapersonal, structural, interpersonal, and strategic conflict. A
problem can be solved by compromise, avoiding it, forcing, and conflict resolution. Compromise
is the best method when the problem is small and time is limited. It is possible to avoid a conflict
if it is not serious. For an emergency, forcing would be the best method while conflict resolution
involves confronting the issue and solve it.
The change agent, what to change, the type of change, individuals affected, and
evaluation of change can all affect change. One of the responsibilities of supervisors is to
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introduce change and oversee it. Employees who are unable to foresee how change can affect
them are likely to resist it. Change that happens despite employee opposition will be resisted for
a moment then accepted. However, when the change is in the employees’ best interests, they will
not oppose it. In most cases, resistance is caused by fear of losing job, skills and expertise,
inconvenience, and threats to interpersonal relations.
Chapter 8: Problem Solving, Decision Making, and Creativity
In order to make change, supervisors have to identify the problem, recognize alternative,
gather facts, choose the best alternative, and finally get feedback and corrective action. Some of
the factors that affect rational decision making include simplicity, bounded rationality, and
subjective rationality. However, before a supervisor makes a decision, it is imperative to first
consider the outcomes, act quickly in times of a crisis, and let the manager know, be decisive,
and avoid all traps in decision making.
Some of the tolls that help in decision making include probability theory, decision tree,
and computer software. Although group decision making allows members to contribute for ideas
and support it, an individual is likely to decide faster while domination by a subgroup can cause
inferior decisions. When making decisions in a group, members may resort to groupthink.
Groupthink is important when the urge to agree among members surpasses independent
evaluation of various actions. When making a decision, a member may also present a problem to
a group and allow other members to come up with the solution. Supervisors have to encourage
creativity by establish a positive work climate, listen attentively, implementing employees’ ideas
and giving credit, and acknowledging failure and assisting employees to see what to learn from
it.
Chapter 6: Reaching Goals: Plans and Controls
Planning is important in organizations. Supervisors have to assess the tasks completed, decide on
when to perform the tasks, and understand the planning process. Planning assist in setting
priorities and making decisions, focusing on the future, using resources wisely, and saving time
and money. Organizations have to embrace both strategic and operational planning. Strategic
planning involves coming up with future goals while operational planning entails developing
objectives and supporting organizational goals.
Controlling ensures that work goes on according to plan. Controlling ensures quality and
a proper management of costs. Supervisors must know what goes on in their areas of
supervision, correct problems, and ensures everything runs smoothly. For supervisors, the
controlling process includes establishing performance standards, monitoring performance, and
fixing problems. If an organization meets standards, it would be good to reinforce successes.
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References
Rue, L. & Byars, L. (2010). Supervision: Key link to productivity. New York: