OAC 3: SUPERVISING THE OFFICE STAFF

Supervisor: PLANORGANIZELEADINGCONTROLLING
RESPONSIBILITIES OF OFFICE SUPERVISOR
***working with people at all levels to develop and carry out the plans of office
work, to establish systems and procedures that include the measurement of work,
and to improve the system
***time management
***use human approachwe must become specialists in working with a diverse
workforce (employees who differ not only in their gender, age, race and culture but
also in other ways such as religion, education, lifestyle and sexual orientation.
*** Determining the work to be done and how to do it is the easiest task of
supervision because it deals with the objective/tangible phase of the position. The
most important and more difficult, however is the subjective/human wherein lies the
secret of motivating and leading a diverse workforce.

DIVERSITY
SUPERVISING DIVERSITY is the process of accepting, understanding and
appreciating differences among employees and creating an environment that allows
all kinds of people to reach their full potential in pursuit of company and personal
objectives.
Demographers have studied the period 1990-2005 and project the following
percentage increases in our labor force:
1. Sex. Women will increase by 26%; men an increase of 16%
2. Age. Young people (age 16 to 24 yrs) will increase by 13%; ages 25 to 54% an
increase of 19%; age 55 and over, an increase of 44%
3. Race. African American will increase by 32 percent; Asian and others, an
increase of 74%; Hispanics, an increase of 75%

To view employee diversity as a vital organization resource, supervisors need to

develop the skills required to:
1. Communicate effectively with employees from diverse cultural backgrounds
2. Coach and develop people who are diverse along many dimensions including
age, education, ethnicity, gender, physical ability, race. Sexual/affection
orientation, and so on.

3. Provide objective performance feedback that is based on substance rather

than on style.
4. Help create organizational climates that nurture and utilize the rich array of
talents and perspectives that diversity can offer.

Discipline
***the words discipline and disciple can be traced to the same root meaning to
teach so as to mold
***many people think of discipline as reprimanding or punishing however, to be
effective true discipline should teach at the same time it corrects.
***should be constructive and consistent and should enable employees to learn so
their behavior and performance in the future will be changed.
Example: consider the ff comments made by two supervisors as they talk to a
working returning from lunch 25 minutes late:
Supervisor A: (rushing from her desk to confront a tardy employee as he
enters the work are) Rob, youre 25 min late! So you can just make it up after
quitting time today.
Supervisor B: (calling the tardy employee, Rob, into her office) Rob, what
happened that caused you to be late in returning from lunch? Alice has been

waiting for you to get back so you two could process the orders you were
pricing. You know Rob, each of us needs to be on time in order to meet our
quotas and earn that bonus! Will you and Alice be able to pick up the slack in
the next hour to make up for your tardiness?
Need for discipline: is closely related to such problems as absenteeism, tardiness,
low productivity and poor quality output.
***Behavioral scientists believe that such problems are associated with employees
boredom, disinterest, which result from their abilities not being fully used. These
specialist look upon human talent as a valuable resource like any other capital
resource such as building.
***If work and the work environment do not support our needs, we hold back our
energies, thus human resources are underutilized, the end result is costly and
inefficient operations.
Developing a Disciplinary System: not all violations of office rules and conduct
deserve the same treatment. Therefore, a system of progressive disciplinary actions
should be designed so that employees are informed of each kind of misconduct and
its penalty:
1. Oral reprimand or warning: this formal discussion between employee and
supervisor should be documented with the supervisor retaining the
paperwork.
2. Written reprimand. Following this formal, documented discussion, the writeup is placed in the workers personnel file along with the paperwork from
Step 1.
3. Time off without pay or a probationary period. At this stage, the employee
must be mase aware that if the problem continues, termination will result.
4. Termination.
Counseling :in the office, our personal problems often affect our efficiency therefore
a supervisor should be available to talk with workers as the need arises or they
should refer troubled workers to the appropriate person either within or outside the
company.
Employee assistance program (EAP) provides especially trained persons who
diagnose and offer help in solving personal problems that affect employees job
performance and attendance.
***office supervisors should note any emotional disturbances among workers in
their departments and know how to react.
***in counseling, supervisors should listen sympathetically, only through such
listening can they come to understand their workers problem and learn why these
problems are affecting productivity.

***supervisor can sometimes help disturbed worker by granting a leave of absence

or suggesting where assistance may be found however should avoid assuming the
role of psychologist or human relations counselor in problems unrelated to the job.
Career goal planning: office workers may look to their supervisor for help in
formulating clear, practical career goals.
***supervisor works with the employees to assess their personal strengths,
weaknesses, preferences and values; to select and formulate career goals to
develop action plans to work.

Motivating the workforce: one of the major downward responsibilities of office

supervisors is to motivateto create the kind of environment in which workers are
enthusiastic and have a desire to work.
a. Building and maintaining morale.
-morale refers to our mental and emotional attitude toward the tasks
expected of us by our group and our loyalty to that group.
-a high level of morale(espirit de corps) exist when we perform our work
with satisfaction and enjoyment.
-unless a proper level of morale is built and maintained, a growing distrust
and dissatisfaction may develop among employees.
b. Primary needs (MASLOWs Hierarchy of needs)
a. Job security
-as employees, we want to know that our jobs are necessary and
permanent and that we will be provided a basic salary with pay
increases based on performance, promotional opportunities and
seniority.
b. wages and salaries.
- Prime importance to morale is the existence of fair and uniform wage
and salary rates.
c. sharing equity
- with the goals of increasing productivity, improving job performance
and appealing to the workers need for job security, some

companies share with their employees an equity, or interest, in the

ownership of the business.
- Companies usually offer options such as to buy stock or
participation in a stock ownership plan.
d. Personal security
- Contingencies for our health, employment, retirement and death.
c. Secondary needs: love, esteem, self-actualization
Assignment #1: yellow paper
research for the following, define briefly (2 to 3 sentences) and give at
least 1 example for each.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

Motivation-maintenance theory
Theory X,Y,Z
Participative management
Expectancy theory of motivation
Ethics

Quiz #1: (10 points) yellow paper

Last week, you said farewell to the supervisor of your word processing center who
took advantage of your firms early retirement policy. You have hired Pamela Chou,
age 24 with a masters degree, as the replacement. The first several days of Chous
orientation roll along very well. At the end of the week, however, one of the
operators, Betty Irwin (age 53 with no degree), tells you she will no longer take
orders from Chouthat new, young kid on the block one of your assistants also
informs you that Irwin is trying to cause friction among Chou and the other workers.
How would you handle the situation?
Quiz # 2: (30 points) yellow paper
One afternoon as Adele Hanks, an administrative manager, was returning from the
company lounge to her office, she happened to overhear one of her supervisors,
Matt Breyer, talking with a department head, Jeremy Stahl. Although the voices
were muffled, Hanks caught the gist of their conversation which was something like
this:
Breyer: .I would go back to my old job of auditing freight bills any day if I wouldnt
lose out on the bucks and my status
Stahl: im just as unhappy in my supervisory job as you. I just dont feel fit for my
job. Youll never know how many days I wish I were back operating that terminal!
Back in her office Hanks wonders about other supervisors and department heads
who may feel they are misfits. She questions to what extent such dissatisfaction
may account for the increased loss of productivity in the office. She sits back an

begins to think about what she as administrative manager, can do to solve the
problem of supervisors who are unhappy on the job and who feel they are misfits.
Assume the role of Hanks and prepare a proposal for a remedial program for top
management to consider. Your objective is to improve the quality of supervision by
selecting supervisory personnel who will fit the jobs and be happy with the quality
of their daily work.