Supervisory Management articles from March 1993

Supervisory Management archives from March 1993

Positive peer pressure boosts productivity, morale.
March 1, 1993... If used properly, peer pressure can be a great way to increase employee productivity. Practically all workers desire the good opinion of their colleagues; in many cases, it is more important than praise from the boss. This desire to impress...

The supervisor's role in managing change.
March 1, 1993... Today's fast-paced business climate calls for managers who see change as an exciting part of the management process and who anticipate, implement, and manage the change process. Keeping Tabs on Trends Managers who understand that a key part...

A systematic approach to problem solving and decision making.
March 1, 1993... Solutions to problems and new ideas are created by combining old ideas in new ways, putting them in a new context of time or place, adding other ideas, taking something away, or changing the ideas' or solutions' purpose. We may do this...

Can we talk ... will they listen? (use of praises and criticisms in personnel management)
March 1, 1993... It all seems so simple, so elementary: Praise behavior you want to encourage; criticize what you don't like. But it doesn't always work that easily. Over the past several years as a first-line manager I've found that it takes more to get the...

Coping with a rumor mill.
March 1, 1993... Every office has its grapevine; it's something a manager has to get used to. But every now and then, rumors will start flying around the company at a far greater rate than usual. If your company is in trouble, or if certain departments or certain...

"How am I gonna tell him?" (telling employees that they need to improve their performance)
March 1, 1993... "How am I gonna tell him...?" Most of us get queasy just thinking about telling our staffers their work needs improvement. But there are ways to do it effectively and efficiently. One way is the supervisory interview. I use the acronym PEOPLE to...

Starving out the time gobblers. (time management)(includes a time diagnostic test)
March 1, 1993... George Smithers, a rising manager, asked his boss about his biggest time management problem--his staff. "I can do my work--or I could," said Smithers. "But I'm constantly interrupted by the people who work for me. It seems I am stopped every five...

Interim staffing: being "lean" without being "mean."
March 1, 1993... One of the greatest challenges for managers in today's "lean and mean" corporate environment is meeting increasingly ambitious business goals with decreasing resources. Which explains why alternative staffing strategies (such as interim...

Rebuilding after a merger: dealing with "survivor sickness."
March 1, 1993... The track record for mergers and acquisitions (M&As) has been a dismal one. Studies of the business reasons for failed deals abound. Organizational specialists argue that managing the "human side" is equally important to the outcome, and in the...