Supervisor-Supervisee Relationship ESSAY

Supervisor-Supervisee Relationship

Introduction

A healthy relationship between a supervisor and a supervisee is critical for the success of any organization. Therefore, a supervisor needs to create a good rapport with the supervisee to build a beneficial working alliance. Nevertheless, the outcomes of this relationship are not entirely positive; instead, there exist negative concerns that impede the realization of a good relationship between the supervisor and the supervisee. It is of the essence to point out that various factors affect the relationship between a supervisor and a supervisee; among them, the significant issues are role conflict and role ambiguity. An illustration of a relationship affected by challenges discussed is described below.

Role Conflict and Ambiguity

Role conflict is an occurrence where employees feel that their job has contradicting demands. The conflict can arise from various perspectives such as personal beliefs, the definition of roles in the place of work, or contrasting duties. An example of role conflict resulting from the contrast in the individual’s views with the position in the place work is when Steve, an animal conservation activist, has a full-time job as a supervisor at a meat processing company. He is tasked with overseeing the slaughter of animals, which is against his personal beliefs. Occasionally he wonders if he is doing the right thing in his life, but he has to provide for his family. These feeling has interfered with his performance since he often conflicted on choosing his job or his beliefs. (Palomino and Frezatti, 2016)

The situation where the duties and responsibilities of an employee are unclear is referred to as role ambiguity. To illustrate its occurrence in an organization situation, the following example is useful for clear understanding. Tom, a mechanical engineer, is a new employee at an oil plant.

The duties assigned to tom include repair and maintenance of the machinery in the plant. On a Monday morning, there is a breakdown of power required to ensure the running of machines in the plant. However, tom is not sure if he should fix the power source to avoid ruining the devices, or he should wait for an electrician to fix the power. This is a situation of role conflict as arising from short clarification of roles. If tom tries to fix the electricity and ends up ruining the machines, he pays a huge cost of fines, whereas if he does not fix the power, the tools are ruined; thus, the plant suffers significant losses; this leaves him in a state of confusion (Bongga & Susanty, 2018).

Joyce is the secretary to the manager of a shoe company. She is responsible for organizing the manager’s schedules, keeping the record for the manager as well as collecting and passing information for the manager. On one occasion, the manager asked her to clean the office, and she was reluctant and unhappy about the instructions were given to her since they are not part of her duties as agreed with the company before employment. The use is an illustration of role conflict brought about by contrasting roles in the place of work. The relationship between Joyce and the manager is about to be ruined since Joyce feels mistreated. (Maden-Eyuista, 2019).

Challenges impeding good relationship with supervisee

In an attempt to establish a good rapport with subordinates, a supervisor finds themselves in an impossible situation; for example, he has to report some employees for poor performance. This is challenging, facing a lot of supervisors in organizations. They are responsible for motivating and providing counsel to the employees, yet there is pressure from the top officials who give them direction on how to perform their duties. In a company known as AUREM

limited that manufactures plastic, engineer Ronald is in charge of supervising the electrical department with a total of eight workers. He is tasked with the following duties; creating schedules, delegating duties and responsibilities, providing training to inexperienced workers, imparting motivation to the electricians, guaranteeing safe handling and storage of equipment, among others.

Additionally, Ronald is also actively involved in tasks such as repairing electrical systems and building electrical plans. Ronald is a warm man who is admired by his colleagues. This trait makes it easier to motivate the electricians; however, he has encountered problems of damaged relationships with some of his friends in the workplace when he had to report them for several mistakes. On one Monday some supplies came in and they needed to be stored and recorded. To speed up the operation, Bruce, an electrician, was instructed to help the storekeeper in doing the job, but he seemed reluctant and unhappy about it.

Results and solution

There are a lot of adverse outcomes that result from role conflicts. Employees are likely to doubt their ability to perform well in their jobs as a result of role conflict. The impact conflict on mental health is damaging hence explaining the poor performance of the workers. In case of a lack of satisfaction with one’s job, the employees can suffer from depression; thus, issues of failing to report to the place of work start developing, and in the long run of poor performance, they end up quitting or fired. To resolve these problems, primarily responsible management should be enrolled for training programs. Duties of the employees should be clearly defined using measures such as signing a contract showing the term and condition of the job (Kim, et al., 2019).

Conclusion

A good relationship between supervisors and supervisees translates into a successful organization. It is agreeable to conclude that the relationship between the two should be regulated by a set of policies and a code of behavior. The challenges discussed above causes serious health problems, and a lot of emphases should be put to avoid them at all costs. Training of supervisors and employee will help curb challenges of role conflict and ambiguity.

References

Bongga, W., & Susanty, A. I. (2018). The Influence of Role Conflict and Role Ambiguity on Employee Job Satisfaction of Transportation Companies in Indonesia. Int. J Sup. Chain. Mgt Vol, 7(2), 223.

Kim, T. K., Ji, J. H., & Shin, H. K. (2019). The Effects of Role Conflict and Role Ambiguity on Team Performance and the Mediating Effects of Relationship Conflict and Task Conflict among Hospital Employees. Journal of Health Informatics and Statistics, 44(2), 172-180.

Maden-Eyiusta, C. (2019). Role conflict, role ambiguity, and proactive behaviors: does flexible role orientation moderate the mediating impact of engagement?. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 1-27.

Palomino, M. N., & Frezatti, F. (2016). Role conflict, role ambiguity and job satisfaction: Perceptions of the Brazilian controllers. Revista de Administração (São Paulo), 51(2), 165-181.