Assignment 3.3: Supervision Scenario—Characteristics of a Good Supervisor
This assignment supports the following course outcomes:
• Review the competencies and key skills needed to be effective in a supervisory position
• Demonstrate supervision skills to meet challenges in the workplace
• Demonstrate planning, goal-setting, and organizing skills
• Demonstrate staffing, recruiting, and retention skills
• Demonstrate control process skills
Assignment Overview
Respond to the following real-world scenarios using the major principles of supervision as your guide. Be sure to demonstrate how people who may not have any formal training or background in supervision can apply these principles.
Deliverables
• A four- to six-page (1,000- to 1,500-word) report
Assignment Details
Perform the following tasks:
Step 1: Review the assignment requirements.
Demonstrate that you are prepared for a promotion by applying what you have learned in this course to successfully resolve the real-world supervisory challenges presented below. Be sure to incorporate the most relevant principles of supervision in your written response to the scenarios presented. The consultant has provided you with the following requirements:
Title: Supervision Scenario—Characteristics of a Good Supervisor
• You have been asked to take on responsibility for an additional production department of 14 people and will need to hire a supervisor for the animation and graphics group. In a short job description, define the general role of a supervisor and the key skills that are required. Be sure that these skills are clearly related to the challenges that supervisors face in the workplace. Differentiate between the process skills and the people skills that supervisors require to be effective and provide several real-life examples to highlight how these skill sets are different. Highlight an ethical consideration related to each skill set.
• You have a vacancy in your department, so it is imperative that you understand your responsibilities in the hiring process. Develop a hiring plan that demonstrates how you will utilize the support HR provides in the recruitment, hiring, and training of new employees. Your hiring plan should specifically address diversity and should outline your role as a supervisor with respect to diversity in the hiring process.
• You have been asked to contribute to an effort to create annual goals for your department based on the strategic and long-term objectives of the organization to improve quality and increase productivity. As your contribution to the strategic plan, provide two goals to meet these organizational objectives. Be sure to differentiate between strategic and tactical goals.Explain your recommendations as to how to plan to achieve those goals and the organizational and staffing changes the goals will require.
• The annual employee survey revealed that your employees are not as motivated as they could be and that they want more professional development. Retention is a huge issue at Fun Mind Works, so you have to do something to address this issue. You also have an ongoing performance issue with an employee who is consistently late for work and delivering low-quality work. Create an employee development plan to motivate and retain all your employees. In your recommendations, address when and how you plan to use the preventive, concurrent, and corrective supervisory control mechanisms to motivate and retain employees, including the employee who is not meeting performance expectations.
Step 2: Write the report.
In a four- to six-page (1,000- to 1,500-word) document, provide answers to the scenarios that meet the topical requirements listed in Step 1. Format your document in the following manner:
• All material should be contained within one document.
• Put the content in the order presented above and try to build upon the concepts you identified in previous answers.
• At the end of the report, cite the sources you used to complete it.
Remember, it is important that you not only identify the major principles of supervision but that you also show how you would use these principles to help you do your job most effectively! Follow these guidelines in writing your responses to the scenarios:
• Use clear, concise sentences.
• Use clear and relatable real-world examples to help explain concepts.
• Use language appropriate for a new supervisor with no formal training.
• Share your enthusiasm and interest in the subject matter.
• Relate the material to your personal experiences whenever possible.
• Read the report out loud to yourself before finalizing it.
Answer
Characteristics of a Good Supervisor
The supervisory position is essential to the success of the organization (Burnes 2004, p.978). The supervisors perform critical roles in organizations as workers look up to them for support and guidance in the process of them performing their duties. On the other hand, employers depend on them to monitor, mentor, motivate other workers, and encourage them to maintain adopted standards.
The primary duties associated with this role include accomplishing results production staff by effectively communicating job requirements; planning and monitoring job results, coordinating and enforcing policies as well as procedures. The supervisor is also charged with maintain and recruiting staff, counseling and disciplining workers, developing opportunities for personal growth and coaching. More so, the role requires setting and monitoring steps in the production process and setting production variables, implementing reductions in cost and developing procedures as well as systems (Austin et al. 2004, p. 472).
The key competencies required for the role include technical skills in handling production machines to provide instructions to employees on the right use of equipment. Besides, expertise in occupational health and safety welfare is required to educate employees on policies and procedures in the workplace. It is also essential for the supervisor to have sound competencies in quality control to ensure the achievement of product standardization (Burnes 2004, p.988).
Process skills required in the production department include observing by use of sense to gather information. Predicting is another process skill that supervisors need to enable them to forecast how production turns out. Planning, investigating and interpretation makes up the other skills (Austin et al. 2004, p. 475). Ethical issues to be observed in process skills include the use of real-time data and practicing honesty in making interpretations people competencies in the production department revolve around effective communication and socialization. The ethical issues involved are discrimination and prejudices from the supervisor towards the employees.
Austin et al. (2004, p. 475) explain that the role of supervisors in the hiring process include staffing, employee training and development, employee performance and management and ensuring workers follow policies and procedures. Staffing involves reviewing the needs of the employees. Supervisors stand the first chance to notice vacancies within the organization. In such cases, supervisors ensure that the vacancy is filled with the best candidate. In employee development and training, supervisors ensure that new workers are oriented into the structure and operations of the organization. Supervisors formulate training plans to ensure that employees possess the necessary expertise.
Employee performance management requires supervisors to record proper job descriptions and primary responsibilities as well as job qualifications. They also set performance standards, employee roles, and tasks. This position also requires the supervisor to appraise and assess how employees perform their duties. It is also the role of the supervisor to ensure that the personnel follow the policies and procedures of the organization (Switzer 2006, p. 472). The issues involved here include sick leave, overtime hours, confidentiality in the group information among others.
The support supervisors receive from the management indicates what the organization expects from them. The support comes in the form of being accessible at any time by ensuring they maintain an ‘’open door’’. The management also holds regular meetings to discuss the objectives and as well as issues affecting the organization. Supervisors also benefit from induction programs and supervisor networks from the management.
Proper utilization of the support from the management is well exhibited in an efficient and unbiased hiring process. The supervisor should ensure awarding of jobs according to the level of expertise. They should also ensure that jobs are categorized as skilled or unskilled to make sure that workers with low or no skills contribute to the growth of the organization.
Employment plan
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Strategic goals identify the broader context of the organization that advances overall organization and its resources. Tactics utilize particular resources in an organization to achieve sub-goals that support the distinct mission. Business strategies fall under three categories namely corporate, business unit level and market level strategy. Upper management develops strategic plans as they have a better understanding of the whole organization and emphasizes on future analysis. Lower management formulates tactical plans as they understand the daily operations of the organization (Austin et al. 2004, p. 475 develops tactical plans.
To contribute to the achievement, as a member of the production department, I would advise the following two goals to achieve the strategic plans. First, offer location-based animated games on existing top three platforms. Second, set up a marketing campaign that aims at leveraging existing customer reviews. The recommendations to achieve these goals would be to identify areas with high local demand for animated games.
| Fine Mind Workers Number | Date of the Last Job Description | ||
| Name
|
|||
| Job Title | Date of Last Performance Standards Review | ||
| Date Prepared | |||
| Proposed Areas for Improvement | Action Taken to Improve Performance | Time Frame | Evidence For Improvement |
| Retention of employees | – improve employee performance benefits
-offer training programs |
||
| Lateness | – encourage early arrival to work
-late arrivals to check in with the supervisor |
Job development plan
Additionally, to materialize the marketing campaign, the department needs support from the senior management concerning approving funds for the process. The staff members need to be reshuffled and deploy those workers with more expertise in the development and marketing teams. This reshuffling will ensure that the overall objectives are achieved.
Employee development plan is essential to motivate as well as retain employees (Switzer 2006, p. 472).The human resources department plays the role of training and developing employees. Employee development plans fall under three categories namely performance based, management by objective and succession plans. Fun Mind Works needs a performance-based employee development plan to address the retention issue and the employees coming late for work.
Recommendations
According to (Switzer 2006, p. 482), preventive mechanisms identify problems before they happen, and also consist taking of corrective measure. To avoid problems associated with employees once they are employed, I recommend through interviewing and background checks on all potential employees. This approach should be used before production process and motivate the employee by setting achievable targets.
Concurrent mechanisms identify problems as work is in progress. Fun Mind Works should introduce control standards to measure the output of each work to establish the one maintaining quality standards. This approach will ensure that future problems associated with low-quality products are avoided.
The corrective supervisory mechanism provides counteractive measures once the process is complete. The method compares out with the standards. If the deviation is big, a corrective action should be taken to avoid further damage. Better results should be used to motivate workers while unfavorable results may demotivate employees, they should be driven by providing incentives such as extra pay for overtime hours worked.
Works Cited
Austin, Michael J., and Karen M. Hopkins.Supervision as Collaboration in the Human Services: Building a Learning Culture. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2004. Print.
Burnes, Bernard. “Kurt Lewin and the Planned Approach to Change: A Re-appraisal.” J Management Studies Journal of Management Studies 41.6 (2004): 977-1002. Web.
Switzer, Merlin E. Recruitment & Retention: Best Practices Update.Sacramento, CA: Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, 2006. Print.
