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The practice of supervision predates the industrial revolution considerably (think about your childhood), and would seem to be an essential ingredient of order and therefore productivity as well. But it is not. This misconception goes all the way back to the discovery of mass production methods that touched off the industrial revolution. The craft production methods used earlier involved small numbers of highly skilled craftspeople working in small, operator-owned shops. |
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Mass production effectively reversed this, using large numbers of unskilled workers on assembly lines, in large factories owned by entrepreneurs. In mass production, each worker is given a very restricted and specialized job to perform. The idea behind this extreme division of labour was that workers would learn to perform the task faster and faster, by virtue of sheer repetition. (Job Specialization) |
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This also meant that any worker could be easily replaced, as the level of skill was kept very low. This allowed supervisors to train new employees in a matter of minutes. In this mass production system, workers were seen as little more than "cogs in the well-oiled machine". |
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Getting a return on investment for these large factories with assembly lines and other expensive machinery required the maximization of economies of scale. That is, higher cost efficiency through greater numbers. High volume production became a necessity, and this in turn meant that management needed to get all that they could from their workers. The managers of that era attempted this through supervision. Thus was born the unwritten, but widely accepted rule, that efficiency requires supervision. |
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Ironically, we now know that supervision is a form of administrative overhead - a drain on efficiency. Supervision does not add any value to the products and services of a company. Moreover, supervision can complicate matters as it adds delays and makes the operation more unwieldy. (Corporate Governance)
Think about it. No one champions the cause of supervision – not even career supervisors. At best it is defended as a necessary evil. The fact is, supervision is an unnecessary evil – which is not to malign supervisors by any means. Quite the opposite, there is much more challenging and important work for these managers to do in this increasingly complex era. (Management Innovation) |
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The New Managerial work begins when supervisors ask how they can add value, or help others to do so. The answer must come from an appreciation of the difference between efficiency and effectiveness. So what is the difference? Efficiency is defined by management, and it pertains to quantity. Effectiveness is defined by customers, and it pertains to quality. |
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In this highly competitive business world, the wants, needs and desires of customers are infinitely more important than those of supervisors. (The Importance of Teamwork)
For companies to compete and succeed in the new millennium, we must develop an intimate, and shared understanding of our customers, and use that understanding to produce and provide products and services with no equal. This is why today’s managers must be expert communicators like never before, in order to help employees conceptualize what their customers want, in the most concrete terms possible. |
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