principles and challenges of supervision

principles and challenges of supervision

Supervision in the workplace is the act in which a manager oversees the activities that its employees or machines do. Supervision forms a pivotal role in any company as it can directly affect the production. Supervisors play different roles in a company. In most instances, after recruitments, new employees do not necessarily know how some duties are completed, and it is the role of supervisors to ensure they become proficient. Another function of supervisors is employee training. Sometimes a company introduces the use of new machines, and employees might not be conversant with their use. It is the role of supervisors to organize for training on the application. Also, supervisors conduct practices that help in improving the productivity of a company. Various principles can help a manager to become a good supervisor. The principles include time management, democracy, and communication. Supervision is faced with different challenges. The challenges include retention, stress, and team-building problems, among others. This paper discusses the principles and challenges of supervision.

Communication is a principle that is essential in supervision. As stated above, supervisors act as a link between high management and junior employees. Supervisors pass information from the control to the ordinary employees and vice versa. Supervisors with excellent communication skills have an advantage as they know how they can communicate effectively. He or she should know how to express, depending on the information being conveyed. A communication channel is also an essential aspect of communication in supervision. A supervisor needs to choose the best communication channel depending on the heaviness of an issue. There are issues which would require face to face communication while others can be achieved through other forms of communication such as telephone call, letter, or an email.

For instance, an issue raised by employees for salary increment would be useful if communicated face to face than when expressed on a phone call or text message. Supervisors should also have the ability to identify the receivers of information for the best results and effectivity. Serious issues need to be directly addressed to the workforce in a meeting, while less severe matters can only be sent to team leaders to pass it to the employees. Supervisors also need to understand barriers to communications such as misinterpretation and jumping to conclusions. Communication is vital in supervision as it builds trust between the workforce and the management. In return, this increases the output as well as strengthening the company.

Time management is an essential aspect in the field of supervision. Supervisors act as a link between the higher management and workforce employees in the lower levels. Though they are supposed to spend time supervising the employees when performing their duties, they are also supposed to give reports on performance to the management. In most executive meetings in organizations, supervisors are essential because they are directly linked to the production and welfare of the general employees. As a result, they have to plan their time well to ensure that there cover both ends. Poor time management can lead to reduced quality and quantity outputs. When comparing outputs in the presence and absence of a supervisor, the output is high when he or she is present. However, a supervisor with proper time management will find himself completing all these tasks without any problem. For instance, some use strategies such as team working because when people work as a group, errors are likely to below, and also each employee will act as a supervisor of the other.

Democracy is the ability to have freedom of doing things, and it is an essential aspect of supervision. A supervisor needs to give the juniors freedom of expression in workplaces. The use of this strategy makes interaction in the workplace between employees and supervisors easy, which generally helps in the improvement of outputs. The employees feel free to share challenges they are encountering as well as coming up with recommendations on how to improve the outputs. The supervisory position indeed requires the use of authority. However, some supervisors confuse the use of power and dictatorship. As a result, some of them end up applying the dictatorship model of supervising. In this case, they don’t give chances to the employees’ views and opinions, but they believe what they direct should be followed. As the phrase goes, man is to error, some of the policies that they authorize might be wrong, which leads to mistakes in the workforce. Democracy in supervision makes employees feel that they are valued, respected, and appreciated by the management or company, and this motivates them to work hard and give their best in the activities that they engage in.

Supervisors experience different challenges in their line of duty. First, supervisors link the management and the workforce in organizers. When there evolve disagreements between these parties, supervisors are the key people who should ease the tension between the parties. In many instances, it becomes difficult to side with one party because the other party feels betrayed. This can create hostility in the workplace with the party that felt betrayed. Also, due to the difference in grievances between workforce and management, supervisors are left with the challenge of solving the disputes.

Work pressure is a challenge that is experienced by supervisors in their respective departments. Some organizations are continuously recruiting new employees and remain the duty of supervisors to train and guide them until they can complete their tasks correctly. Similarly, when there work changes, supervisors have to guide and train employees to adapt to the new systems. This is challenging because employees have different learning rates; some employees will understand faster than others. All this makes it challenging for supervisors to meet deadlines and the quality of the output. Inadequate production sometimes leads to disagreements with the upper management, which in turn makes them put pressure on the employees. When employees are unable to hold work pressures, they tend to quit the employment, and the process of hiring and training repeats itself. This makes it hard for supervisors to meet deadlines most of the time.

Team building is another challenge that is faced by supervisors. Most companies use teamwork as the primary strategy of achieving their goals. It remains the role of supervisors to make the teams, which are a difficult task. Employees are diverse in terms of skills, culture, and talent, and this may contribute to disagreements in the workplace. Some employees also believe in individual work, and thus it becomes challenging for them to work as a team. Other employees do not have excellent skills to relate to others, and therefore they find it difficult to interact with other group members. All these factors make it challenging for supervisors to come up with strong teams, and this affects the outcome. Also, to create strong teams, a supervisor needs to have a good understanding of individual strengths and weaknesses in terms of skills, talents, and attitude, among others. Some things, such as attitudes and relationship skills, need more time to learn.

Lastly, supervisors play a significant role in motivating employees to improve their performance. It becomes challenging to encourage employees who repeat mistakes in the workplace. When you continuously correct an employee, the employee may develop low self-esteem, and motivating such an individual can be challenging. Also, some factors like family issues, pressure from higher management might contribute to supervisors to become stressed and have bad feelings in the workplace, which in one way or another demotivates employees.

Supervisors play an essential role in the organization. They link the management to the workforce and vice versa. To become an influential supervisor, an individual must have proper time management, communication skills, and also give employees chances to share their opinions. The duties of a supervisor are also challenging. Becoming an effective supervisor requires a person to be a creative and fast thinker to overcome the challenges which will contribute to positive results.