Perspective Management

Subject : Perspective Management

1. Explain the changing role of the supervisor in the development of management.

Ans. In an informal survey of conducted by an support team, many agencies report that transitioning supervisors either into team leader roles or into oversight and mentoring positions was difficult. "We did some training, but we should have done a lot more," another respondent observed. "Things may have gone a lot smoother."

* Traditional Role of the Supervisor

* New Roles

Traditional Role of the Supervisor. The traditional role of the supervisor has been to plan, direct, and control the work done by subordinates. Because of delayering, many Federal organizations are moving to team structures as a way of adjusting to higher subordinate/supervisor ratios. In many types of teams that still function as traditional work units (with low levels of employee empowerment in the decision making process), the traditional role of the supervisor still fits. However, in situations where teams are given more authority over how work gets done for instance in semiautonomous or self-directed teams the traditional role of the supervisor will actually hinder the development of the team. That is why it is important to the success of any team initiative to train delayered supervisors.

New Roles. But what are their new roles? According to the OPM survey, some agencies have moved their delayered supervisors to team leader or team member roles. Others have organized their former supervisors into expert teams that give technical and administrative guidance and support to other teams. Still other agencies use delayered supervisors as mentors, who foster the development of two or three teams while working on the "bigger picture" issues of the agency. Finally, many supervisors have left Federal agencies due to buyouts and early retirements.

The most difficult change seems to be transitioning from the supervisor role to the team leader or team member role,...