Importance of supervision in the workplace - Research Paper Example

Importance of supervision in the workplace Since time immemorial, individual behaviors in the workplace have been determined by many divergent factors. One of the most important factors that control employees’ behavior is supervision (Reece 9). It is important to posit that workers tend to behave in different ways based on the availability or absence of supervision. This paper describes my personal observation on the behaviors of restaurant workers in Small World Restaurant, located near Fordham University, New York. This paper further illustrates how standards of behavior changes in a restaurant setting when effective strategies geared towards supervision are implemented. This small restaurant is among the favorite restaurants frequented by students from Fordham University. The menu comprises of snacks, entrees and drinks. This restaurant is unique as a buffet is located near the entrance whereby workers are line up with the main objective of providing quality service to the restaurant’s daily customers. A burrito bar is adjacent to the buffet. This burrito bar has all the items needed to make a burrito or a sandwich. The room adjacent the burrito bar towards the interior holds a machine packed with fountain beverages .This room also contains the soup and salad bar. The restaurant also contains a dining room with a table put near the register that acts as a resting place for the workers during breaks. The dining room holds three television sets with one connected near this table. It is also important to assert that the observations were performed in this area. Observation My observation for this report took four days to complete. The first three days of the observation were done with the absence of the head supervisor, Kimberly. Observation on the fourth day was done in the presence of Kimberly. This is attributed to the fact that Kimberly was on vacation on the first three days of the observation. Kimberly is an African American female aged twenty nine. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Food Science, Nutrition, and Dietetics. The observation included taking notes on the different jobs as well as the special tasks that the employees were expected to carry out. The observation elucidated many jobs including cooks (four), entree servers (two), floor cleaners, pizza servers (one), salad bar runner (one), burrito makers and servers (two), cashier (one), dish washers (four), food runner (one), and student managers (eight). The work of the food runner involved transporting food from downstairs to upstairs. Gender roles As may be expected the jobs are distributed differently among the sexes. Serving and distributing food is for the females. For instance, only females serve entree and burritos. Their job involves cutting food in distinct ways that are catching to the eyes due to their improved appearance. Mary and Jane, both from African origins were the experts in serving entree and burritos. Mary is twenty seven years old and a Kenyan while Jane is a twenty nine lady from Ghana. Both Mary and Jane have finished three years courses in catering and have both worked in this restaurant for one year. It is therefore hard to find a man serving and distributing food. On the other hand, males are involved in jobs necessitating lifting. For instance beverage worker are males are they are capable of lifting bags of syrup that are used in fountain beverage machines. Other roles associated with men include food runners since the task calls for heavy lifting at times. The floor jobs are also usually for men as they involve a lot of sweeping, moping, and lifting heavy garbage bags. One of the most respected cleaner was George, a Mexican. George is forty years old, married, and a father of three. He is heralded as being one of the most behaved workers in the restaurant and has worked there for eight years. Therefore, gender roles seem to play an important aspect in deciding the duties of each and every employee. As asserted by Jeffrey and Streicher, “Social norms have long had an important impact on gender roles in employment, work, and family concerns” (288). Bureaucracy and Hierarchy The restaurant can be considered bureaucratic as it meets the standards of the definition. According to Styhre, a bureaucratic institution is characterized by division of labor, hierarchy of authority, and has written rules and regulations (108). As evidenced in almost every bureaucracy, there is a form of hierarchy. This means that each position is under the supervision of another position up to the management level. Hierarchy has the ability to control human behaviors as well as productivity as it allows or approves variations in the social organization such that higher levels of the hierarchy are more powerful (Roberson 139). In this restaurant, there is a supervisor, student managers, and the employees. When Kimberly the supervisor was on vacation, the hierarchy had only two levels i.e. the student managers and the employees. As is evident in a bureaucratic structure, there are also many rules governing employees in this restaurant. For instance, employees are not allowed to listening to iPods during working hours, receiving calls, texting, and sitting on the job regardless of whether there are customers present or not. According to my observation, most of the employees were relaxing at the table watching television at any given time with each individual sitting for around an hour. Almost every employee was spotted listening to his/her iPod or using a cellphone. The employees contravening the rules of the restaurant included floor cleaners, beverage worker, food runner, and the salad bar filler and cleaner. This employee behavior was because of the absence of the supervisor. . According to the results of the observation on the fourth day, all employees were back to their normal duties and none was spotted sitting around watching television, using a cellphone, or listening to his/her iPod. This was because Kimberly was all over the place supervision the employees. In my observation, I conducted an interview on James, the food runner. James is 26 years old White American and is a student of sign language. He has worked in this restaurant for four years. In the interview, I asked him to give a description of his job for the evening and posit whether he felt he did his job differently than when Kimberly was present. James elucidated the fact that he usually stands behind the entree bar to make sure the food does not run out. Since the warmers were full, he was watching television together with other workers. He said that no employee would be watching television and chatting loudly if Kimberly was present. When I asked him what makes things different when Kimberly is present, he said that Kimberly makes sure that no employee leaves his/her spot, makes sure breaks are limited and lasts fifteen minutes, and would get angry if she found James listening to his iPod and texting. I asked him whether if he would have such kind of freedom the following day when Kimberly would be present and he said no (Roza). This was supported by the other employees. John, a twenty seven years old Mexican and a beverage worker posited that Kimberley would sack all of them if she ever found them contravening the set rules and regulations. John has worked in this restaurant for three years and saves much of his money for his four years old daughter’s education back home. Theory X of motivation asserts that workers generally abhor working and therefore must be supervised for them to effectively finish their duties (Lussier 50). From my observation in Small World Restaurant, I concluded that norms or standards of behavior are lowered when the supervisor is absent. Have young student managers has its own disadvantages as they are not respected by the employees hence are not able to control them. Though the student managers were present when Kimberly was on vacation, the employees slept on their work and subsequently went against the rules and regulations of the restaurant. Varlejs and Walton elucidates the fact that young managers are ought to adapt some important skills including establishing teamwork, corporation, trust, and skills to empower others. If the student managers had acquired these skills, they would have been able to control the employees. In conclusion, individual behavior in the workplace is dependent on the kind of supervision available. Works cited Hirsch, Jeffrey, and Streicher Samuel. Compensation, Work Hours and Benefits: Proceedings of the New York University 57th Annual Conference on Labor. New York: Kluwer Law International, 2009. Print. 1 Dec. 2013. Roza. Personal Interview. 01 Dec 2013. Lussier, Robert. Leadership: Theory, Application & Skill Development. Mason: Cengage Learning, 2010. Print. 1 Dec. 2013. Reece, Barry. Human Relations: Principles and Practices. Mason: Cengage Learning, 2011. Print. 1 Dec. 2013. Robertson, Quinetta. The Oxford Handbook of Diversity and Work. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Print. 1 Dec. 2013. Styhre, Alexander. The Innovative Bureaucracy: Bureaucracy in an Age of Fluidity. New York: Routledge, 2007. Print. 1 Dec. 2013. Varlejs, Jana, and Walton Graham. Strategies for Regenerating the Library and Information Professions. Hague: Walter de Gruyter, 2009. Print. 1 Dec. 2013. . Read More