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Journal of Education for Business
ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
A Review of “Dressler, Gary. Supervision and
Leadership in a Changing World”
James L. Morrison
To cite this article: James L. Morrison (2012) A Review of “Dressler, Gary. Supervision and Leadership in a Changing World”, Journal of Education for Business, 87:6, 363-364, DOI: 10.1080/08832323.2011.628346
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2011.628346
Published online: 30 Aug 2012.
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JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR BUSINESS, 87: 363–364, 2012 CopyrightC Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 0883-2323 print / 1940-3356 online DOI: 10.1080/08832323.2011.628346
Book Review
Dressler, Gary.Supervision and Leadership in a Changing World. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. (2012). 577 pp. ISBN: 10-0-13-505865-1.$126.96.
Intensive But Practical
Dressler merges the study of leadership and supervision into a comprehensive text for delivering a practical approach for enhancing a student’s capacity to excel in today’s team-based workforce. The target is the undergraduate business student who is taking this first course in supervisory management. The idea that effective supervision requires varying degrees of leadership as job responsibilities change constantly is the premises adopted by the author. A supervisor’s job is to not only influence but also motivate employees to achieve higher standards of performance, a notable challenge espe-cially since supervisors may not have the authority today to control workers as they once had in the past. The empower-ment of workers, whereby individuals are now having more freedom to make decisions directly impacting upon personal performance, has resulted in a new environment where lead-ership control is more limited.
Dressler, an expert in human resource management, de-scribes supervisors as having a responsibility to get their employees to follow a path of success that they have laid out for them. In this regard, supervising is defined as a pro-cess of building human capital as individuals are guided to work efficiently by using resources, time, and energy wisely. On the other hand, leadership is defined as the ability to set a direction or path for accomplishing a change in the way organizations carry out their mission.
Dressler develops three themes for gaining the trust of the reader. The first theme is that productive supervision requires an individual to also be an effective leader. Supervisors are therefore required to utilize new sets of both leadership and supervisory skills to motivate workers who are seeking inde-pendence from a command and control upper management in a traditional organization hierarchy. The second theme is that tomorrow’s supervisors will be coaching a more cultur-ally diverse workforce, and therefore must be in command of a skill set that minimizes the opportunity for prejudicial decision making. Finally, the third theme suggests that su-pervisors must have the capacity to engage a wide range of practical skills, such as conducting effective job interviews, reducing unsafe working conditions, and delegating tasks responsibly.
The text is divided into five parts. The first part consists of two chapters that focus on defining the supervisory functions of planning, organizing, and controlling work. Specifically, Chapter 1 describes how the supervisor’s role is changing as global markets have increased pressures to perform both effectively and efficiently for getting the most out of limited resources (people, facilities, and time). Also, the reader is provided the opportunity to identify the kinds of skill sets required to become an effective supervisor. Chapter 2 takes on the issue of supervising a diverse workforce. As part of this approach, specific guidelines are presented for assisting the supervisor in achieving inclusiveness at both the personal and organization level. Within the context of supervising a diverse workforce, Dressler attempts to assist the reader with the transition from leadership theory to practical application. A number of noteworthy leadership theories are introduced including Vroom-Jago-Yetton’s Integrative Theory, Hersey’s Situational Leadership Model, and Fiedler’s Least Preferred Co-worker theory. Also integrated at this point is a discus-sion of six styles of leadership based on Daniel Goleman’s emotional intelligence theory; those being, coercive, author-itative, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and coaching.
Part II consists of four chapters that are geared on assist-ing the reader to learn how to plan work assignments for the purpose of getting tasks done efficiently. Chapter 3 targets the process of how supervisors go about developing decision-making skills that create unity among the workforce. Chapter 4 discusses how business plans are developed and how fore-casting tools may assist supervisors in anticipating changes that are forthcoming. A number of scheduling and planning charts are introduced at this time. Chapter 5 brings the con-trol factor into play, an important aspect to effective super-vision. Aspects to a traditional control system are detailed extensively in the chapter. Employee self-control is also in-troduced as a complementary tool for getting others to take on more responsibility by holding oneself accountable. Chapter 6 relates methods for supervisors to use as they coordinate work by aligning individuals from varying functional unites throughout the hierarchy of an organization. Organizational charts, the chain of command, and span of control are also important factors analyzed here.
Part III consists of three chapters that focus on how supervisors guide newly hired employees through initial employment. Chapter 7 takes a serious look at discrimination in the workplace by pointing out the Equal Employment
364 BOOK REVIEW
Opportunity Commission enforcement process and other state laws that affect supervisors in this regard. An interesting component to this discussion is how effective affirmative ac-tion policies and practices are developed. Sexual harassment, worker disabilities, age discrimination, and civil rights legis-lation are all discussed in great detail. Chapter 8 is about how a supervisor goes about setting up a process for interviewing and selecting employees. Protecting the rights of candi-dates is paramount to the discussion in this chapter. Finally, Chapter 9 presents methods for designing effective career ad-vancement strategies that can educate and train employees to enhance their managerial capacity as they assume enhanced leadership roles when opportunities arise in the workplace. Topics include behavior modeling, computer-based training, mobile learning, and on-the-job experiential training.
Part IV is about how to motivate employees to achieve more using less resources. Chapter 10 presents a rather substantial number of theories for motivating employees. Maslow’s needs hierarchy begins the discussion followed by an analysis of equity theory, expectancy theory, and Herzberg’s two-factor theory, among others. Chapter 11 presents guidelines for supervisors to adopt for building high-performance teams. Topics discussed include quality circles, virtual teams, and project teams. The formation of self-directing teams is also an integral part of the discus-sion. Finally, Chapter 12 explores the use of coaching and mentoring to enhance the capacity of workers. Aspects of in-terpersonal communication, negotiating, and persuasion are discussed in great detail.
Part V guides supervisors in appraising employees as well as addressing serious issues that confront many leaders throughout their careers. Chapter 13 begins with an expla-nation of a variety of methods that may be used to appraise employees. Guidelines for conducting effective appraisals are provided. An interesting component to this chapter is a discussion of legal parameters already in place to protect individuals from unfair assessment procedures. The chapter concludes with a detailed analysis of how supervisors iden-tify goals and priorities, implement a monitoring system, and then measure goal attainment. Chapter 14 establishes a framework for assuring that ethical conduct is an integral part of becoming an effective supervisor. A discussion on how a supervisor can initiate a fair and just disciplinary process, including the dismissal of employees, adds to the essence of the chapter. Chapter 15 includes an explanation of roles of su-pervisors in regards to working with unions while also being a significant stakeholder in the collective bargaining process. Finally, Chapter 16 reflects an obligation on the part of a supervisor to assure that workplace safety is a high priority. Topics included here are how to keep on top of workplace health hazards, preventing of accidents, and avoiding vio-lence at work. A discussion of occupational safety laws is also included in this discussion.
A strength of the text is its practical treatment of some in-depth content. The approach used by Dressler can easily be
used by undergraduate students in business courses but also practicing supervisors. Many practical examples illustrate the partnering of supervisory and leadership principles for enhancing the individual capacity to excel in a diverse work-force. Another strength of this text is the enormous number of instructional aids that result in the opportunity to imple-ment a multidimensional instructional approach of study to the classroom. The instructor’s manual contains objective exam questions, outlines of chapters, answers to a variety of cases, and even thorough analysis of exercises that are in-tegrated throughout the text. Inin-tegrated into these additional resources is an online testing program that can assist the faculty member in generating exams. A PowerPoint lecture series of slides for each chapter assists faculty in explaining key points. A MYBIZSKILLSKIT can be purchased by stu-dents that provides links to special web exercises, a variety of business simulations where students are required to make a decision typical of a supervisor’s responsibilities, and a self-assessment library where students can get feedback as to personal strengths and weaknesses. Faculty can also reg-ister for an access code to the publisher’s homepage that enables the instructor to access additional online catalog of instructional resources.
A disadvantage to the text is the lack of information about how a supervisor can guide individuals during difficult peri-ods such as a merger, job layoffs, and formation of new al-liances with other organizations. Creating partnerships with other companies requires special strategies that utilize inge-nuity not to give away trade secrets while at the same time gaining a competitive advantage. With such activities becom-ing more frequent in occurrence, havbecom-ing at least one chapter dealing with the supervisor’s role during stressful situations would be a very practical addition to the content of the text.
In conclusion, this text consists of a wealth of informa-tion for the business student who needs practical knowledge of a supervisor’s role in today’s organizations. Each chap-ter concludes with a review of key concepts, a variety of discussion questions, a case study, and some practical expe-riential activities. Role playing is also part of the learning strategy. Because business graduates generally move into a supervisor’s role early in their career, the introduction to the skills, tasks, and responsibilities expected provides an ex-cellent framework for preparing them to lead. Dressler has put together a very thorough text that is quite direct yet in-sightful. The content reinforces key supervisory principles through examples, exercises, and simulations. If variety is what is desired, this textbook offers faculty a multitude of avenues for creating innovative approaches for discussing content. The text is certainly worth a look.
James L. Morrison
University of Delaware Newark, Delaware, USA
