Supervisors’ and Subordinates’ Interactions Essay

Research Question

The following research question associated with the area of management and organizational dynamics needs to be answered in the paper: What factors can negatively influence the interactions of supervisors and subordinates in organizations?

Introduction

In organizations, particular aspects of the staff communication are often discussed as the organizational dynamics. In this context, the communication or interactions between supervisors and subordinates play a specific role because these relations can influence the subordinates’ job satisfaction, performance, productivity, and retention. From this point, leaders in organizations work to improve the quality of interactions between supervisors and subordinates in order to contribute to the further employee retention (Conway, 2015, para. 3).

However, the problem is in the fact that organizational dynamics and communication between supervisors and their subordinates can be negatively influenced by a range of factors. The question of negative factors that can have an impact on the supervisor-subordinate interactions is important to be researched in detail because failures in these specific interactions are often causes of the high turnover rate in the organization, the low performance, and the non-supportive working atmosphere in the company (Billikopf, 2006, para. 3).

The purpose of this paper is to explore the recent researches in the field of management and organizational dynamics and to determine factors that can negatively influence the communication and relations of supervisors and subordinates in organizations.

Literature Review

Supervisor-subordinate relations can significantly influence the specifics of organizational dynamics because of their dependence on the concept of hierarchy. The interactions of supervisors and subordinates can be more influenced by different negative factors than other types of relations in the company because a supervisor should demonstrate effective leadership qualities in order to address the principle of hierarchy in the organization (Rocereto, Mosca, Gupta, & Rosenberg, 2011).

In their research, Rafferty and Restubog also determine such negative factor influencing the supervisor-subordinate communication as the abusive supervision (Rafferty & Restubog, 2011, p. 270). This behavior is rather destructive in its nature because experiencing verbal as well as non-verbal tension and abuse, subordinates suffer from stress, demonstrate less interest in their work, and they can choose leaving the company (Rafferty & Restubog, 2011, p. 272).

This problem is also mentioned by Karimi, Gilbreath, Kim, and Grawitch (2014) in their work. The researchers state that those employees who are abused verbally while working with supervisors or can be oppressed often choose not to work for this organization (Karimi, Gilbreath, Kim, & Grawitch, 2014, p. 210).

Referring to the real-life experience, it is possible to state that the opposite situation is observed when supervisors demonstrate their positive attitude to subordinates and try to encourage employees without demonstrating their abusive power.

The factors that influence the supervisor-subordinate relations negatively are also connected with the supervisors’ lack of leadership skills. According to Karimi and other researchers, “leaders who utilize abrasive, laissez-faire, or negative feedback as ways to influence employees tend to be evaluated more poorly than those who use a more positive style” (Karimi et al., 2014, p. 212).

The feedback of a supervisor is often a key reason for developing a conflict because of using a poor leadership approach to presenting the feedback, especially when it is negative. Bisel, Messersmith, and Kelley state that “improving supervisors’ messaging to their subordinates is an important objective” to contribute to their relations (Bisel, Messersmith, & Kelley, 2012, p. 129).

On the other hand, a supervisor can avoid making the constructive feedback because of “the mum effect” and the fear to be associated with the negative feedback or message (Bisel et al., 2012, p. 129).

In a real life, supervisors often run to extremes and provide only negative feedbacks for their subordinates because of the inability to encourage them and assist in the work; or they provide only positive feedbacks because of focusing on their positive image. Both situations lead to negative outcomes and to making the supervisor-subordinate relations more complicated.

The subordinates’ specific behavior can also be discussed as a negative factor worsening the interactions of supervisors and employees. According to Krasman, subordinates can avoid accepting the authority of supervisors in organizations where the criteria of formalization and centralization are low (Krasman, 2014, p. 472).

As a result, the nature of the organizational culture in the company is also meaningful. In addition, subordinates can be less focused on creating their professional image, and they can ignore supervisor’s instructions (Karimi et al., 2014, p. 212). In this context, it is important to develop trustworthiness and respect in relation to the supervisor-subordinate relations.

Billikopf claims that in order to achieve positive results, a supervisor needs “to abstain from showing favoritism; make difficult, sometimes unpopular, decisions; show concern for subordinates without appearing to pry” (Billikopf, 2006, para. 2). From this point, it is possible to speak about positive and negative behaviors and practices that are typical for both supervisors and subordinates during their interactions.

These recommendations are important because there are often situations when subordinates cannot contribute to the development of the supervisor-subordinate relations because they are not motivated or the organizational culture of the company is not appropriate.

Summary and Conclusions

Having analyzed the researchers’ findings on the topic of the supervisor-subordinate interactions, it is possible to identify the factors that can be discussed as influencing the interactions of supervisors and subordinates negatively.

These factors include

1. the poor supervision approach based on the abusive supervision and demonstration of the supervisor’s power;
2. the lack of leadership skills in supervisors to organize the effective communication with subordinates;
3. the lack of communication skills to provide the fair and reasoned feedback on subordinates’ successes;
4. the lack of motivation in subordinates to work effectively with supervisors;
5. the weaknesses in the organizational culture that cannot promote the development of productive relations between supervisors and subordinates.

It is possible to state that these determined factors are important to be taken into account while discussing the quality of interactions between supervisors and subordinates because there are many situations when the inability of a supervisor to demonstrate the developed leadership and communication skills leads to stress in employees and to further conflicts. In addition, subordinates often ignore supervisors’ orders or prescribed rules in practice because of their little motivation and interest in the work.

The causes of such inappropriate behavior can be different, including the lack of the supervisor’s support, the abusive behavior, the inability to organize the work, and the inability to focus on the effective formal communication. In this context, having compared the results of the research with real-life situations, it is possible to note that the negative factors influencing the nature of the supervisor-subordinate interactions are determined appropriately.

References

Billikopf, G. (2006). Interacting with employees. Web.

Bisel, R., Messersmith, A., & Kelley, K. (2012). Supervisor-subordinate communication: Hierarchical mum effect meets organizational learning. Journal of Business Communication, 49(2) 128-147.

Conway, J. (2015). Effects of supervisor-employee relationship on job performance.

Karimi, L., Gilbreath, B., Kim, T., & Grawitch, M. (2014). Come rain or come shine: Supervisor behavior and employee job neglect. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 35(3), 210-225.

Krasman, J. (2014). Do my staff trust me? The influence of organizational structure on subordinate perceptions of supervisor trustworthiness. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 35(5), 470-488.

Rafferty, A., & Restubog, S. L. (2011). The influence of abusive supervisors on followers’ organizational citizenship behaviours: The hidden costs of abusive supervision. British Journal of Management, 22(1), 270-285.

Rocereto, J., Mosca, J., Gupta, S., & Rosenberg, S. (2011). The influence of coaching on employee perceptions of supervisor effectiveness and organizational policies. Journal of Business & Economics Research, 9(6), 15-23.