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A supervisor, or lead, (also known as foreman, boss,overseer, facilitator, monitor, area coordinator, line-manager or sometimes gaffer) is the job title of a lower-level management position and role that is primarily based on authority over workers or a workplace. [1] A supervisor can also be one of the most senior on the employees at a place of work, such as a professor who oversees a Ph.D. dissertation. Supervision, on the other hand, can be performed by people without this formal title, for example by parents. The term supervisor itself can be used to refer to any personnel who have this task as part of their job description.
An employee is a supervisor if they have the power and authority to do the following actions (according to the Ontario Ministry of Labour):
If an employee cannot do the above, legally, they are most likely not a supervisor, but in some other category, such as a work group leader or lead hand. A supervisor is first and foremost an overseer whose main responsibility is to ensure that a group of subordinates get out the assigned amount of production, when they are supposed to do it and within acceptable levels of quality, costs and safety.
A supervisor is responsible for the productivity and actions of a small group of employees. A supervisor has several manager-like roles, responsibilities and powers. Two key differences between a supervisor and a manager are: a supervisor typically does not have "hire and fire" authority and a supervisor does not have budget authority. Supervisors are not considered part of the organization's proper management and instead are seen as senior members of a workforce. Unlike middle managers, supervisors presence is essential for the execution of work.
Lacking "hire and fire" authority means that a supervisor may not recruit employees working in the supervisor's group nor does the supervisor have the authority to terminate an employee. A supervisor may participate in the hiring process as part of interviewing and assessing candidates, but the actual hiring authority rests in the hands of a Human Resource Manager. The supervisor may recommend to management that a particular employee be terminated and the supervisor may be the one who documents the behaviors leading to the recommendation, but the actual firing authority rests on the authority of a manager.
Lacking budget authority means a supervisor is provided a budget developed by upper management within which constraints the supervisor is expected to provide a productive environment for the employees of the supervisor's work group. A supervisor will usually have the authority to make purchases within specified limits. A supervisor is also given the power to approve work hours and other payroll issues. Normally, budget affecting requests such as travel will require not only the supervisor's approval, but the approval of one or more layers of management.
As a member of management, a supervisor's main job is more concerned with orchestrating and controlling work rather than performing it directly.
Supervisors are uniquely positioned through direct daily employee contact to respond to employee needs, problems and satisfaction. Supervisors are the direct link between management and the workforce and can be most effective in developing job training, safety attitudes, safe working methods and identifying unsafe acts.
"Doing" can take up to 70% of the time - (this varies according to the type of supervisory job - the doing involves the actual work of the department as well as the planning, controlling, scheduling, organizing, leading, etc.). [2]
Supervisors often do not require any formal education on how they are to perform their duties, but are most often given on-the-job training or attend company sponsored courses. Many employers have supervisor handbooks that need to be followed. Supervisors must be aware of their legal responsibilities to ensure that their employees work safely and that the workplace that they are responsible for meets government standards.
In academia, a supervisor is a senior scientist or scholar who, along with their own responsibilities, aids and guides a postdoctoral researcher, postgraduate research student or undergraduate student in their research project; offering both moral support and scientific insight and guidance. The term is used in several countries for the doctoral advisor of a graduate student.
In colloquial British English, "gaffer" means a foreman, and is used as a synonym for "boss". In the UK, the term also commonly refers to sports coaches (football, rugby, etc.).
The term is also sometimes used colloquially to refer to an old man, an elderly rustic. The word is probably a shortening of "godfather", with "ga" from association with "grandfather". The female equivalent, "gammer", came to refer colloquially to an old lady or to a gossip. [3] The use of gaffer in this way can be seen, for example, in J.R.R. Tolkien's character Gaffer Gamgee.
In 16th century English a "gaffer" was a man who was the head of any organized group of labourers. In 16th and 17th century rural England, it was used as a title slightly inferior to "Master", similar to "Goodman", and was not confined to elderly men. The chorus of a famous Australian shearer's song, The Backblocks' Shearer (also known as Widgegoeera Joe), written by W. Tully at Nimidgee, NSW (c.1900), refers to a gaffer:
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As industrial and commercial enterprises grew in size - especially after introduction of techniques of the Industrial Revolution - the perceived need for supervisors and foremen grew in tandem. One example is the development of the hierarchical model and practices of the plantation economies in the antebellum American South, where the overseer provided the interface between the planter and the indentured servants, and later slaves. [4]
By 1894 speakers of U.S. English had begun to refer to a subordinate or assistant foreman - sometimes contemptuously - as a straw boss, [5] by analogy with the concept of a "straw man". [6]
A film crew is a group of people, hired by a production company, for the purpose of producing a film or motion picture. The crew is distinguished from the cast, as the cast are understood to be the actors who appear in front of the camera or provide voices for characters in the film. The crew is also separate from the producers, as the producers are the ones who own a portion of either the film studio or the film's intellectual property rights. A film crew is divided into different departments, each of which specializes in a specific aspect of the production. Film crew positions have evolved over the years, spurred by technological change, but many traditional jobs date from the early 20th century and are common across jurisdictions and filmmaking cultures.
Quid pro quo is a Latin phrase used in English to mean an exchange of goods or services, in which one transfer is contingent upon the other; "a favor for a favor". Phrases with similar meanings include: "give and take", "tit for tat", "you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours" "this for that," and "one hand washes the other". Other languages use other phrases for the same purpose.
Delegation is the process of distributing and entrusting work to another person. In management or leadership within an organisation, it involves a manager aiming to efficiently distribute work, decision-making and responsibility to subordinate workers in an organization. Delegation may result in creation of an accountable chain of authority where authority and responsibility moves down in an organisational structure. Inefficient delegation may lead to micromanagement.
A performance appraisal, also referred to as a performance review, performance evaluation, (career) development discussion, or employee appraisal, sometimes shortened to "PA", is a periodic and systematic process whereby the job performance of an employee is documented and evaluated. This is done after employees are trained about work and settle into their jobs. Performance appraisals are a part of career development and consist of regular reviews of employee performance within organizations.
Career development refers to the process an individual may undergo to evolve their occupational status. It is the process of making decisions for long term learning, to align personal needs of physical or psychological fulfillment with career advancement opportunities. Career Development can also refer to the total encompassment of an individual's work-related experiences, leading up to the occupational role they may hold within an organization.
Gaffer or Gaffa may refer to:
Set construction is the process undertaken by a construction manager to build full-scale scenery, as specified by a production designer or art director working in collaboration with the director of a production to create a set for a theatrical, film, or television production. The set designer produces a scale model, scale drawings, paint elevations, and research about props, textures, and so on. Scale drawings typically include a groundplan, elevation, and section of the complete set, as well as more detailed drawings of individual scenic elements which, in theatrical productions, may be static, flown, or built onto scenery wagons. Models and paint elevations are frequently hand-produced, though in recent years, many Production Designers and most commercial theatres have begun producing scale drawings with the aid of computer drafting programs such as AutoCAD or Vectorworks.
Dismissal is the termination of employment by an employer against the will of the employee. Though such a decision can be made by an employer for a variety of reasons, ranging from an economic downturn to performance-related problems on the part of the employee, being fired has a strong stigma in some cultures.
Span of control, also called span of management, is a term used in business management, particularly human resource management. The term refers to the number of direct reports a supervisor is responsible for.
Power distance is the unequal distribution of power between parties, and the level of acceptance of that inequality; whether it is in the family, workplace, or other organizations.
A retail manager is the person ultimately responsible for the day-to-day operations of a retail store. All employees working in the store report to the retail/store manager. A store manager reports to a district/area or general manager.
Organizing or organising is the establishment of effective authority-relationships among selected works, which often improves efficiency.
A flat organization is an organizational structure with few or no levels of middle management between staff and executives. An organizational structure refers to the nature of the distribution of the units and positions within it, and also to the nature of the relationships among those units and positions. Tall and flat organizations differ based on how many levels of management are present in the organization and how much control managers are endowed with.
Office administration is a set of day-to-day activities that are related to the maintenance of an office building, financial planning, record keeping and billing, personal development, physical distribution and logistics, within an organization. An employee that undertakes these activities is commonly called an office administrator or office manager, and plays a key role in any organization's infrastructure, regardless of the scale. Many administrative positions require the candidate to have an advanced skill set in the software applications Microsoft Word, Excel and Access.
Maverick! : The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace is a business autobiography by Ricardo Semler published in 1993 by Warner Books. The book relates the management succession and increasingly unorthodox ethos of Semco, which grew to become one of Brazil's largest conglomerates.
Organizational conflict, or workplace conflict, is a state of discord caused by the actual or perceived opposition of needs, values and interests between people working together. Conflict takes many forms in organizations. There is the inevitable clash between formal authority and power and those individuals and groups affected. There are disputes over how revenues should be divided, how the work should be done, and how long and hard people should work. There are jurisdictional disagreements among individuals, departments, and between unions and management. There are subtler forms of conflict involving rivalries, jealousies, personality clashes, role definitions, and struggles for power and favor. There is also conflict within individuals – between competing needs and demands – to which individuals respond in different ways.
Talent management (TM) is the anticipation of required human capital for an organization and the planning to meet those needs. The field has been growing in significance and gaining interest among practitioners as well as in the scholarly debate over the past 10 years, particularly after McKinsey's 1997 research and the 2001 book on The War for Talent. Although much of the previous research focused on private companies and organizations, TM is now also found in public organizations.
Employee silence refers to situations where employees withhold information that might be useful to the organization of which they are a part, whether intentionally or unintentionally. This can happen if employees do not speak up to a supervisor or manager.
Within organizations people often have to make decisions about whether to speak up or remain silent - whether to share or withhold their ideas, opinions, and concerns ... [The problem is that] in many cases, they choose the safe response of silence, withholding input that could be valuable to others or thoughts that they wish they could express.
— Frances J. Milliken and Elizabeth Wolfe Morrison, Shades of Silence: Emerging Themes and Future Directions for Research on Silence in Organizations
The term director is a title given to the senior management staff of businesses and other large organizations.
Managing Up and Managing Down is a part of management that details how middle managers or supervisors should effectively deal with their managers and subordinates. Promotion to management comes with additional responsibility of managing down. With the additional responsibility for managing their team while remaining accountable to their management teams, managers require additional skills and training to effectively influence up or down. Management levels within large organizations are structured from a hierarchal organization and include senior, middle, and lower management roles.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Who is a Supervisor under the Occupational Health and Safety Act? (2015) Ontario Ministry of Labour. Retrieved Feb 23, 2015.The foreman role was somewhat analogous to that of the "overseer" on slave plantations in the ante-bellum South [...].
Schultz & Schultz, Duane (2010). Psychology and work today. New York: Prentice Hall. pp. 169–170. ISBN 978-0-205-68358-1.