Case 1-A: Transition to Supervisor Tristan came in on the ground floor in his co

Question

Case 1-A: Transition to Supervisor

Tristan came in on the ground floor in his company and had excelled in his position for several years when he was promoted to a supervisory position. He was excited about the increased responsibility and money, and he also enjoyed the status and respect that came with the new title.

Tristan’s position was to supervise a new production department at a new plant site of his small regional company. In preparation he was ordered to attend a two-week supervisor’s training program at headquarters. As he expected, the training was focused on human resources (HR) concerns, customer satisfaction issues, and corporate quality production expectations. Because the new location was intended to showcase the company’s strength in quality manufacturing, he was allowed to recruit his own team from among the company’s statewide employee pool. Several seasoned workers, acquainted with him as a result of his time with the company, expressed interest in the startup department.

Lauren was hired as the departmental administrative assistant and William was hired as the new line foreman. Tristan was elated and felt that things were moving ahead quickly enough for his superiors to be pleased with the progress he was making. He continued to fill the necessary positions. Within a month the department was ready to get going. Everyone was excited, attitudes were positive, and he was looking forward to the inaugural production run.

Tristan had never held a supervisory position before, yet he knew Lauren and William were both strong employees with great work ethic. He was certain everyone he selected possessed a similar work ethic and was driven to succeed. However, this quickly proved erroneous, and when it became obvious the hoped-for production quality was nonexistent, everything became a dismal failure all at once. The department failed to produce at the expected quality level, and turmoil among the employees was widespread. During the nearly two years he was supervisor, Tristan was never able to earn the respect of his employees or experience the success in production quality envisioned by the company.

In reality, many first-time supervisors earn their position by simply doing well at their job; however, without proper training, in both supervision and leadership, disappointing outcomes like Tristan’s are more common than you would imagine. Just because an employee is good, or even great, it does not mean he or she will be a great supervisor.

RESPONDING TO THE CASE

1-10. If you envision transitioning into a supervisory position, what can you do to ensure you don’t end up like Tristan?

1-11. What supervisory competencies should you work to develop? Why?

1-12. Which of the four management functions do you believe most supervisors need help with? Why do you think this is the case?

1-13. The role of supervisor can be considered a first step toward management. What are the benefits and potential disadvantages of pursuing a management career?

Explanation / Answer

1-10. If you envision transitioning into a supervisory position, what can you do to ensure you don’t end up like Tristan?

Tristan as per the case, was a very dedicated and hardworking employee of an organization, however turns out that he is not a very good supervisor, in my opinion the points that he lack in the supervising are, though many employees showed interest in working with him, Tristan, lack the fact that he hired employees who are not very good for the particular job. He hired them on based on their face value only. He also hired all the team in a hush hush instead of giving a proper thought that why that person should be elected for the role, just to complete the work quickly.

If I was in his position, I would make sure that the team hired for the role is capable enough to do the job and will not do work in term of just completing the work.

1-11. What supervisory competencies should you work to develop? Why?

I think managing the team as a leader and making sure that the team is result oriented are the major quality that is required from a supervisor. A supervisor should think of achieving a quality result and should be consistent with his approach. Here according to Tristan, hiring good ethical people in the team does not work out as they lack the subject knowledge.

1-12. Which of the four management functions do you believe most supervisors need help with? Why do you think this is the case?

Four function that was required are :-

Planning – before starting a project, it is very essential to plan for the project, this includes, staffing, resourcing, budget, time scale. This will give an idea to a supervisor to know what is required at what level. And based on his plan, a project can go smoothly.

Organizing – after planning, it is essential to organize the resources for the plan. What needs to be done, how much staff or material is required to complete the project and so on.

Leading – every supervisor should have leadership quality that everyone listens to him in his team. Leading a team is not just making the work complete at the given time frame, but also to make sure that his team is also satisfied with the work that they are doing, whether the outcome of the project is of good quality or not, all these questions should be taken care by the manager or in our case supervisor.

Controlling – this includes, control over the resources, a supervisor should have a control among the team.

1-13. The role of supervisor can be considered a first step toward management. What are the benefits and potential disadvantages of pursuing a management career?

Benefits being a manager:

Sole responsibility for his team

Delegate work, this means that the work is given to the team member based on the skillset.

Have an advantage of appreciation if the team works well

Disadvantages

Some times being a manager is hard because you have to make sure the work is done in a given time frame.

If something went wrong , it is managers responsibility to take responsibility for it.

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