Supervision: Authority and Responsibilities

Khan Sarfaraz Ali∗

The term which is interrelated with leadership style is supervision. The act of overseeing the
accomplishment of the work to be done is called supervision. Supervision has two important
components – authority and responsibility. Authority is the designated right to act and make
decisions on assigned responsibilities. On the contrary, responsibilities mean the assigned
obligation to perform a task. Supervisor’s authorities and responsibilities are:
a) recognizing the existence and the influence of each employee’s personal doctrine,
previous training, loyalty and experience upon his work attitude and behavior;
b) gaining mutual understanding with superior regarding extent of formal authority that can
be exercised to carry out each major responsibility;
c) obtaining and using the facts along with judgment in all decision making;
d) giving group members the opportunity to participate in decision-making;
e) using discretion and recognizing that the degree of decision-making, participation varies
with the type of issues the caliber of employees, and the urgency of the situation; and
f)encouraging employee group interaction to reach tentative goals and decisions;
g) finding better ways to achieve desired results;
h) improving group’s member’s technical knowledge and skill and developing attitude to
get along with others;
i) developing a good team effort; and
j) preparing requested reports, interpreting policies and enforcing organization regulation.

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Associate management Counselor, Bangladesh Institute of management (BIM)
01817528067 / sarfarazbim@gmail.com