THE CHANGING STATUS OF THE SUPERVISOR*
| Date | 01 November 1973 |
| Author | ANGELA M. BOWEY |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1973.tb00876.x |
| Published date | 01 November 1973 |
THE
CHANGING STATUS
OF
THE
SUPERVISOR*
ANGELA
M.
BOWEY?
As
many other writers have noted, there have been major changes in the
tasks and prestige of the supervisor in industry in the past twenty years.
These changes can be attributed
to
a
number
of
different processes
resulting from different causes-advancing teclinology and automation,
increasing trade unionism
of
the shop floor, changes in top management
philosophy, increasing standards of education of manual workers, in-
creasing supply
of
college graduates into industry and
so
on. In
a
recent
article Loveridge’ discussed the general trends in British industry which
have affected the work and the prestige of white-collar workers, and the
ways in which these workers have responded to the changes. But the rates
at which these different processes have been and are now occurring varies
from industry to industry, and even within
an
industry, from firm to firm
and region to region. Consequcntly the jobs and prestigc of the supervisor
have been changing at a differential rate in different firms.
Very little attempt has so far been made to distinguish the processes
influencing the behaviour
of
supervisors in different firms and the rates at
which existing behaviour patterns are changing
as
a
result
of
these
processes. One exception was
a
recent paper by Thurlcy,2 which set out
to ‘put forward
a
theoretical framework aimed at providing
a
set
of
guide-
lines to help management in choosing appropriate supervisory develop-
ment p~licies’.~ Thurley’s contingency-type approach put the emphasis
on diagnosis and the selection of appropriate action.
This present paper contains the results
of
empirical studies in
a
number
of
industries which were used
to
develop
a
method of identifying specific
processes of change rather than vague directions of change. This,
I
hope,
will provide
a
more realistic and pragmatic approach to the problem than
has been achieved previously.
Simpson4 has shown from his studies of textile operatives and managers
that the need for different types of communication varied with the degree
*
Throughout this paper the words ‘supervisor’ and ‘foreman’ have been used synonymously
to refer
to
the first-line manager.
t
Lecturer
in
Organizational Behaviour, Manchester Business
School
*
Ray Loveridge, ‘Occupational Change and the Development
of
Interest
Grou
s
among
White-collar
Workers
in the
U.K.:
a
Long-Term Model’,
British
30wd
oJlndushi~Rr[otions,
Vol.
X, No.
3,
November
1972
a
Keith Thurley, ‘Change and the Role
of
the
Supervisor’,
Personnel
Management,
October
1972
Ibid.,
introduction
‘
R.
L.
Simpson, ‘Vertical
and
Horizontal
Communications
in
Formal Organizations’,
Administrative
Science
Quarterly,
Vol.
IV,
1959,
p.
188
393
394
BRlTISII JOURNAL
OF
INDUSTRIAL
RELATIONS
of
automation. Burns
&
Stalker5 showed that the most appropriate styles
of
management in ail organization varied with the degree
of
stability of its
industrial/commercial environment. And Woodwarde showed that the
appropriateness of various types of organizational structure varied with
the type of manufacturing processes employed, There is
a
strong case for
suggesting that the most appropriate
tasks
and status for a supervisor
depend upon certain characteristics
of
the organization in which he
is
employed.
The material used in this paper which is presented below is drawn
from intensive interview programmes of supervisory staff which were con-
ducted in five factories in the period October,
1969
to January,
1972.
Three of these factories were highly automated processing plants in
industries such
as
chemicals and food processing. The other two were large-
scale bakeries, one baking bread and the other cakes. In each case these
interview programmes were conducted as part of an investigation into
the
state
of
the industrial relations within the factory conducted on behalf of
the management.'
From this information
a
number of processes have been identified
which may lead to changes in supervisory behaviour and in the appro-
priateness of different types of supervisor tasks and responsibilities in an
organization. The different impacts which these processes may have on
different types
of
organization are outlined and a check-list
or
profiling
grid is suggested which may be used to determine the kind
of
supervisory
role which is most appropriate to
a
particular organization.
The first case study is presented in detail, but space does not permit
the
same treatment for the other four factories. These are presented
in
summary form only.
FACTORY
ONE
Factory One was
a
highly automated continuous processing factory
employing about
500
men. It was structured into divisions, each forming
a
fairly self-contained production unit in
a
chain
of
interdependent units.
Until recently the workers and their shop stewards had been non-
militant and co-operative, but there had been signs of growing unrest and
increasing militancy. For example, the maintenance workers had refused
to work unscheduled weekend overtime, and
as
a
result one
of
thc
T.
Burns and
C;.
M.
Stalker,
The
Managetnerzt
of
Innooation,
Tavistock Publicationb
Ltd.,
London,
1965.
Joan Woodward,
Inditstrial
Organisation
:
?&my
and
Practice,
Oxford University Press,
London,
1965.
Two of these studies
(the
second and third) were conducted by a team led by Torn Lupton
which included
Dan
Gowler, Karen Legge, Alan Gillespie and myself. The interviews reported
here are
thosc
which
I
myself
conducted, but
as
with
all
teamwork, the analysis has benefited
from discussion of the material with these colleagues. Many
stages
of the studies
also
irivolved
joint investigations and meetings and
I
am grateful to my colleagues for permission
to
use
material from these studies. The other three studies were supervised Ly Tom Lupton and
I
am
grateful to him for advice and
for
support at many joint meetings with groups of employres.
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