Supervision and supervisory techniques have been part of civilization since the first work or hunt detail was organized millennia ago. However, the theoretical practices of supervision and enlightened management style have only been in vogue during the last three or four decades. Indeed, since the future of any profession depends not only on its intrinsic ability to transmit its knowledge and values to new members, the role of supervision within the workplace has recently evolved into more of a scientific study of human behavior, psychology, and emotional gratification techniques. This paper will thus concentrate on the idea of supervision as the guidance, leadership, and control of the efforts of a group of individuals toward a common goal. It will analyze the planning stages of supervisory activity, the evaluation stage, the coordination stage, the encouragement stage, and will conclude with an assessment of decision making skills and their applicability upon various structures within the workplace.
Interestingly enough, schools of the 1980s and 1990s have been turning out droves of management "experts." Those who receive a degree in management or go even further for an MBA (Master's of Business Administration) are usually scooped up by corporations, placed in a supervisory capacity, and expected to maintain order, increase profits and productivity, and insist that corporate culture be placed on a growing continuum. Even such events as the recent conflict in the Persian Gulf caused many American managers to rethink their style, and the vogue of the military is "in" for the 1990s. One author noted that there are "lots of things executives could learn" from the General's (Norman Schwarzkopf) style of management and they won't lack for people telling them what they are. At the University of Texas at Austin, for example, management professor James Fredrickson makes his students view a tape of Schwarzkopf's victory briefing...