DailyPost 184
SUPERVISION & SUPERVISORY MANAGERS
Supervisors as is generally understood is a professional, whose job is to get the task/project professionally completed. He is with the team supervising the work, to guide and extract work as predefined as per the timeline / quality. There is no denying the fact that the complexities of modern organisations and the delivery has grown considerably. The supervisory roles have risen considerably, the rationale behind it does not stand the scrutiny of reason .
Jack Welch the legendary CEO was the main proponent of delayering cutting down jobs in a big way in GE simultaneously improving efficiency and creating a more functional GE, the company he was heading. The Administrative Reforms Commission talks of only three levels from the initiation to final decision making. Despite all facts and thoughts on the contrary, the present situation is moving for more and more supervisory roles. The staff functions have a different narrative, seemingly growing for their own satisfaction. The final impact of efficiency & productivity remain undecided.
The whole supervisory top brass feeds on the actual executioners both by way of business and profits generated and also siphoning off their time which could have been better used in the interest of the projects at hand . Too many supervisory levels / thought processes / working styles and formats generates more confusion than clarity and focus, which it is intended to bring about.
The ideal synthesis ought to happen, a scientific, empirical and objective analysis of the nature of supervision required and the commensurate supervisory levels, strict clarity of their jobs and what each would deliver both in the interest of project and towards the stated objectives of the organisation.
Irrational supervisory roles adds to clutter and in reality is detrimental to the business health of the organisation.
LEAN PROFESSIONAL SUPERVISION IS EFFECTIVE SUPERVISION.
Sanjay Sahay