Think about supervisors you have had (whether in summer jobs or perhaps on campus employment). Was your superior a male or female? What type of management style did he/she employ?
If you have had both a male and a female supervisor, explain which one you preferred and why you preferred that supervisor.
Your responses to Blog Post #4 are due by 5 pm Eastern Time on Monday, Feb. 22, 2010.
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I have had in my past job experiences both a male and a female supervisor. My male supervisor tended to be more direct in what he wanted and less willing to exchange small talk with me. This manager was very task orientated and less on the touchy feeling aspect of getting to know his workers. He was never mean and when I had done something above and beyond at work he always praised my work. My female supervisor on the other hand was defiantly more people orientated. She always wanted to know what was going on in everyone’s lives and even sometimes let the work at hand come second to our personal relationship. She was very supportive leader and was always there to help if anyone needed her. By the end of my summer working with her I felt like she was more of my friend then my boss.
ReplyDeleteI personally preferred my male supervisor’s style leading compared to my female supervisor. Although I did enjoy becoming close with the individual in charge, I feel like I work better with more directions. I am the kind of worker that likes to be told what to do and when it need s to be done because that just goes with my list making personality. However my ideal supervisor would be directive but also pose supportive qualities but always be able to give tasks to be completed in an effective manner.
In my past and current job experiences, I have had both male and female managers and supervisors. The way my male manager lead was more straightforward and task oriented. He is focused on what tasks at hand need to be done and expects them to be done in a timely manner. He just tells me what needs to get done, how it needs to get done, and when it needs to get done. He doesn't beat around the bush or give ambiguous answers and leaves all emotion out. My female supervisor however exhibits more people oriented traits but still is very task oriented. All the employees have to be constantly doing something productive and work related or else she will confront you about it. On the otherhand she is a very understanding and flexible manager. She is sympathetic to student issues, concerns, and suggestions and will really listen to you if you have a problem.
ReplyDeleteI prefer my female supervisor because she is more people oriented and I feel more comfortable going to her if I needed to talk to her about something work related or had a question on how to do something. I feel that with my male supervisor there isn't a relationship there and I would feel uncomfortable going to him if I had any problems. I like my female supervisor because even though she does have some task oriented qualities, she still has a humanistic approach to her employees.
Currently I am working two different jobs on campus, one through Aramark with Special Events (SPEV), and also at the Communication Center. For the purposes of this blog post I will focus primarily on the Communication Center since I only have one direct supervisor versus several different managers depending on the shift with SPEV. Michelle Moreau is the current speech coordinator for the speech consultants, like myself, and she has a very unique style of managing us for a few reasons. Because Michelle is also a professor as well as a part time grad student (I believe), she has a number of things going on in her life. Therefore her role for managing becomes fluid and mostly as a means for to go to her with issues or questions. Michelle understands that we are students first so in our time when we are not working with clients she allows to work on homework, but also provides small projects for us to work on that promote the center. In some respects I would categorize her by means of having a team management style, according to Blake and Moutons Managerial Grid. She is certainly concerned about us as workers and willing to help if we can’t make it into work if we are sick or otherwise, but also has a concern for our productivity with clients. There is really no conflict between these two things either.
ReplyDeleteHowever, at SPEV we have a mix of both male and female managers. For contrast, I will focus on one male supervisor, Parviz. In more ways he is considered about getting work done rather than who is getting it done, but will not hesitate to help us out and offer encouragement. He also understands that if we are sick and not feeling well enough to work, that we may go home to feel better, especially if the shift is not overly hectic. For these reasons I would place him as either a middle of the road manager, or perhaps also a team manager. He certainly care about our well being, but has an equal concern for getting the job done.
Because these two jobs are so different, it is difficult to discern which management style I prefer, and in reality they are very similar when placed with a definition of their type of management. It’s also true that Parviz is somewhat more commanding in his style versus Michelle whose commands sound more like requests, but have the same amount of necessity to complete them. In which case I would probably say that I prefer Michelle’s style over that of Parviz’s.
My favorite supervisor was a female at my summer job, Holiday Barn Pet Resort. She employed an accommodating management style. Although male supervisors are known to give more direct tasks, my female supervisor had much the same qualities; she would give direct tasks, limit the amount of small talk, yet still engage in conversation to build a friendly relationship with employees in between shifts. She did not waste any time on the clock, even when less dogs were staying at the pet resort. She made sure tasks were completed, yet still showed quality care for the dogs.
ReplyDeleteShe used a delegation style, yet allowed us to have limited control over the order of completing our tasks. She would give an employee, such as myself, a decision making power, such as when to walk the dogs in building A versus when to walk the dogs in building B. Ultimately, she would remain responsible for the decisions, especially if something went wrong. For example, every morning pet care shift, from 7-noon, would have the same responsibilities. We all would walk the dogs, feed them breakfast, then clean the rooms in which they would stay in. Once all of this was completed, the dogs would be walked again and given treats and attention until noon rolled around. The only difference among the pet care morning shift was the building in which we all worked. Our supervisor was the one who concocted this schedule. If a step was forgotten, a checklist was given to us in the morning as a reminder to have all duties completed.
Our supervisor would make rounds to make sure everything was going well. But ultimately, we had the ability to complete the tasks, as we wanted, just as long as they were done. My supervisor uses the team manager style, keeping in mind to care for the well being of the employees as well as the dogs, in addition to equal concern for getting tasks completed.
I prefer having a supervisor such as she. Though she limited her amount of conversation during shifts, she made sure to keep in contact with all the employees throughout the day, making sure all the dogs are safe and taken care of, making sure the employees are doing well and able to complete their tasks, and providing assistance when needed. Whenever there is a situation with a dog or uncompleted task, our supervisor would be right there within minutes to aid the employees as well as the dogs.
I currently work under a male supervisor at a hotel. He is very task-oriented and as he likes to say, “runs a tight ship.” When he talks to me it is always about work and never small talk about how I am or what is new in my life. He is very direct in what he asks of his employees and therefore there are few misunderstandings. The one thing that I dislike about his management style is that he never compliments anyone and instead he focuses on other work that still needs to be done. Although he doesn’t compliment his employees on their work he does thank us every day, when we are leaving, for the work that we did.
ReplyDeleteIn high school I worked at a fast food restaurant under a female supervisor. She was also task-oriented, but much more relaxed. She was people-oriented as well, which made most of her employees enjoy her presence. She kept a good relationship with all of her employees and made sure to check that everyone was doing ok. While she socialized with her employees, she also kept us focused on the task at hand. Since she was people-oriented, it helped to motivate many of the workers to work more efficiently.
Personally I prefer my female supervisor. I just felt like I had a better relationship with her and therefore performed better at work. My male supervisor is a little more intimidating and since he never compliments me I sometimes worry that I am doing something wrong, but I never want to approach him to ask him. Since I felt comfortable with my female supervisor I enjoyed going to work and would pick up extra shifts if she needed me to. I would also approach her and ask her if I was doing something wrong or if I didn’t know how to do a certain task I would ask. At least with these two specific supervisors, I prefer my female supervisor.
I currently work at a job where I report to a female supervisor, and she is definitely more people-oriented than the male supervisor I had. She always asks me how I am doing that day, how my weekend was, what my school work load looks like for the upcoming week, etc. She is very interested in my life, and I appreciate it. She’s almost more of a mom-like figure for me here at school. I have never gotten trouble in the 3+ years that I’ve worked at this job and we have never had an issue between us. She doesn’t hover over you and she lets you get the job done whichever way you prefer to do it. An example would be when we’re filling out order forms, she doesn’t tell you that you have to fill it out in a certain order; as long as you get all the information you need, she could care less about the order you get it from the customer in. The best quality about her is that she understands I’m a student first and foremost, and that my schoolwork comes first. She allows the box office girls to work on homework when we aren’t filling orders. You can also see that she understands that sometimes ‘life just happens’. You might leave your apartment 30 minutes before you have to be at work but a combination of hitting traffic and needing to get lunch (and the line is 30 people long) can make you late. She never gets angry when we are a few minutes late; but we always text her to let her know we’re on our way. I think it’s really important to have a supervisor who understands those types of situations. It makes me way more motivated to do a good job working for her.
ReplyDeleteWith the male boss I had, it was more of a task-oriented, maintenance communication relationship. We both didn’t really care to learn anything about the other, and we talked only about work. Our relationship was very task oriented. He would inform me of changes I needed to know about, but nothing more. He’d give me a list of things to do for the day and I would do them. We didn’t really click personality-wise. He talked to certain employees; he wasn’t completely antisocial. I just didn’t care to get to know him any better and I don’t think he minded that. As long as I showed up on time and did my job, that’s all he wanted from me. He was a new manager and I was only going to be there for another month (because this was a summer job). I didn’t ask many questions, I didn’t ask for overtime and I did the bare minimum because it wasn’t like he was going to give me any praise for going above and beyond.
I see the pros and cons for each supervisor’s management style. I think can both be effective in certain areas, but I would say that overall I much prefer my female supervisor. I do wish that she sometimes was more task-oriented, like my male supervisor was. But I don’t dread going to work with her like I sometimes did when I worked for my male supervisor. I enjoy talking to her and building our relationship. I didn’t enjoy talking to my male supervisor, and sometimes I was afraid to ask him questions because I didn’t want him to think I was stupid. My female supervisor never makes me feel like I can’t ask questions. I much prefer my female supervisor to my male supervisor.
Currently I work as a Student Speech Consultant in the Communication Center. I work with seven other students and my supervisor, Michelle Moreau. The management style of Michelle is very organized, interpersonal, and team orientated. The characteristics of Michelle and her management style make work very enjoyable yet professional. She places a lot of trust on her employees and has high expectations.
ReplyDeleteMichelle is very organized in that she holds weekly meetings to discuss issues, training sessions, update on how our jobs are going, and any other important information we need to know. She makes sure we are keeping up with our own presentational skills by giving us impromptu speech (which was terrifying! But so effective). She communicates with us through email, person, Wiggio (a scheduling site to let us know when we have upcoming presentations), and her assistant Emily is also involved in communicating with us.
Michelle’s management style is also interpersonal. Because it’s either Speech Consultants we establish close relationships. Michelle is always wanting to know how we are doing, how schools going, and issues we are having, etc. She’s easy to talk to which makes the job so enjoyable. Michelle is also very respectful in that she understands we are students have and work, other meetings and stress. What I like about Michelle is how involved she is in learning more about her clients. I see her as a friend but also as a boss.
Because I work in a small group, we are very team orientated. We all get along, spend a lot of time together, and hold trust/respect to everyone. We all have different personalities and communication training techniques, but they all come together and are very effective. In meetings, when issues come up, we usually talk about it with everyone and collaborate to establish a solution.
This job has giving me more experience to strengthen my presentation skills but I’m also learning a lot from Michelle and how she manages the communication center. I’ve learned to work in groups better, to get pasted my fear of impromptu speeches, and conducting effective communication with supervisor and coworkers. Michelle balances being a supervisor, professor, graduate student, and friend very well, making the job very enjoyable.
In my past job experiences I have had both male and female supervisors. I am currently employed at a retail store in Harrisonburg and my manager is a female. She is task oriented and always has goals in mind that we, the sales associates, have to try to meet each time we come in to work a shift. She is also people-oriented in which she tries to get to know each employee and establish a more personal relationship with each of us. She would ask about school and about our personal lives. I don’t think her communication skills were the greatest and she definitely has mood swings once in a while, but overall she is a good manager because she gives us direction. She does this by giving us instructions and goals to meet. She is more of a democratic leader because she listens to our opinions and concerns and encourages team effort and decision making.
ReplyDeleteThis past summer I interned at a private country club and I had a male supervisor, the clubhouse manager, who was a lot different from my current female, retail store manager. My male supervisor this summer had pretty good people and communication skills and actually was very detail oriented. However, he was the first manager I had that micro managed the employees. He was not mean, he just wanted things done his way and in a perfect manner and in a timely fashion. Occasionally he would ask about our personal lives and talked about things unrelated to the job, but most of the time he would just teach me things related to workplace.
I think both managers are concerned with the people and production. They each have goals to meet, but also take time to get to know their employees and what is going on in each of their lives. I think giving direction from a supervisor is important because you can reach for the goals they set for you, however, I think a manager should also be supportive and develop a more personal relationship with their employees in order for the supervisors and employees to reach those set goals. I preferred my male manager at the country club more because he gave me direction, but also took time out of his busy schedule to teach me the little things about the club and other things related to the job. Even though he didn’t get too detailed about my personal life, he reached out by teaching me things about the hospitality industry and that will go a long way as I graduate and establish a career in that field.
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ReplyDeleteIn high school I used to work at Baskin Robbins. My main supervisor, Wassim, was male, but I often worked with his wife, Magda, as well. All communication about scheduling, pay, and the overall process of how the place was run was discussed with Wassim. However, his wife often came in to help with shifts, and although she gave directions, her husband had the final say on decisions.
ReplyDeleteReferencing Blake & Mouton’s Managerial Grid, I would say that my supervisor leaned more towards a Team Management style of managing. He had high concern for both production and people. He always made sure that employees were following procedure exactly. During down time would encourage that we practice scooping and weighing the scoops to make sure they were the exact size they were supposed to be. He was concerned about losing money if the scoops were too big. And he was concerned about customer satisfaction if the scoops were too small or looked too sloppy. He also encouraged that I practice writing on cakes and creating cakes so that I could be a more well-rounded employee and help out with other tasks. He ensured that I was well trained in all aspects he felt important for me to become one of the two shift managers (including makings sure things were stalked properly, making sure I could handle difficult customer situations, making sure I knew that proper procedures to shut the store down on my own, etcetera). Wassim was also concerned about having a healthy and comfortable relationship with his employees. During down time, he enjoyed talking about life and getting to know his employees. He had high concern for our school work and liked to get to know our parents. He was easy to approach whenever we had any questions (about scheduling, how things worked, etc). He showed this same friendliness with his customers and pushed us to do the same. His wife was more of a country club style manager. She just liked to talk and hang out. She showed high concern for employees (and customers) and was not nearly as productive as her husband. I do feel that her differences in her managing style of due to differences in gender. Although, it is not all gender. Wassim is the actual owner of the store which would give him more incentive to be concerned with productivity. However, in general, girls do like to socialize more. And being a mother ( of kids that are around my age) she tended to bring that motherly aspect of her life into the workplace. She treated all of the employees like her own children.
While I enjoyed the fact that I did not have to work as hard with Magda, I know that Wassim was a better manager. It is important to be concerned with production, and he was careful to not let his concern for productivity get in the way of having a strong relationship with his employees. His well roundedness as a manager helped his employees to learn and perform in the same fashion.
From past job experiences, I have had both male and female supervisors who have differed in management styles. At the country club that I worked at for the past three summers, there are 2 males and 1 female managers for the restaurant. The female would manage the restaurant during the lunch shifts and the males would be there for the dinner shift. The lunch shifts always seemed to be less structured with who gets what table and who does what side work. The female supervisor was more people oriented and concerned with pleasing the members and making their meal enjoyable. Also, she was more understanding and easy going than the male managers. However, when things in the restaurant started to get chaotic she started to stress out real easily. The male managers were very task oriented and had a perfectionist side to them. Everything needed to be done in a certain way and it wasn’t as much as a relaxing environment as it was when the female manager was there. Each waitress/waiter had an assigned section and had assigned side work. The males were somewhat people oriented but their main focus was on getting the meals out in an efficient manner.
ReplyDeleteI can’t decide what supervisor that I prefer better. I like qualities from both management styles of my female and males supervisors. I like how my female supervisor was very people oriented and concerned with pleasing the members. However, sometimes having a less structured environment did not always work out smoothly. I like how the male supervisors were concerned with getting everything done efficiently and had a structured working environment. Personally, I would like a supervisor that is people oriented but very organized and kept a structured environment.
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ReplyDeleteMy current supervisor at my on-campus job is a female and we have a very trusting relationship. In my opinion, she ranks at a 9,9 in Blake and Mouton’s managerial grid. She has worked to develop a strong friendship with me but also has a desire to complete all tasks efficiently. She is definitely a team oriented supervisor and although she definitely works hard and is task-oriented to some extent, she really does focus more on the relationship she has with me. As my superior, she has worked hard to gain my trust and respect. I also believe we have a strong sense of immediacy in our superior-subordinate relationship. She values my input on the tasks I am doing at work and she also asks my opinion about personal matters of her own. She also expresses a lot of appreciation for me, and I do the same for her. I confide in her and am very willing to help her whenever she needs assistance. We work very well together and I really respect her and prefer her management style because I feel cared for as a subordinate. I like that she takes the time to learn more about me personally rather than just listing off tasks, because I feel cared for and that motivates me to work harder. In the textbook, Modaff discusses how female managers had a stronger ability to “put people at ease”. I would definitely agree with this statement because my current supervisor always does her best to support and encourage me. Whenever times get very busy and hectic at work, she constantly strives to keep me calm.
ReplyDeleteHowever, at my current internship, I have a male supervisor. He is extremely task oriented and is not really concerned with developing a relationship with me. Since he does not take initiative to facilitate personal conversations with me or get to know me better, I am less motivated to accomplish the tasks he asks me to. I have a much harder time working efficiently and fast-paced because I honestly do not feel appreciated. In that office I feel as though I don’t matter, therefore I do not perform to the best of my abilities. In my opinion, I would rate him as a 9,1 on Blake and Mouton’s managerial grid because he is extremely focused on tasks and could care less about developing a relationship with his subordinates. He is too consumed with his own job and tasks to spend time being a good supervisor. He does not provide any feedback either- he just asks me to move onto the next task.
I really prefer a supervisor who would like to get to know me personally. When I feel appreciated as an employee, then I strive to do my best. However, whenever there is a disconnect in friendship between me and my supervisor I notice how I do not enjoy the job as much.
While working at Bob Evans restaurant throughout high school and during college breaks, I have been through several different superiors-- both men and women. When I first entered the organization, the general manager was named Ms. Pat-- she was permissive in that she allowed the participation of subordinates in decision making; however, she was not a pushover. Ms. Pat knew the job very well, was very personable, outgoing, and decisive. She recognized hard work and always gave constructive feedback.
ReplyDeleteBrian, on the other hand, who replaced Ms. Pat, was autocratic in his decision making-- never involving his subordinates, even disregarding the other management staff on occasions. Brian was NOT personable; he would not interact with customers on the floor, and he was passive in how he handled conflict. For instance, if he noticed innapropriate behavior on the job, he would write a grammatically incorrect and largely misspelled statement and post multiple copies in the break room.
Clearly I preferred my experience with Ms. Pat, though it has nothing to do with gender, and everything to do with personality characteristics and management style. I have had both men and women superiors who I have liked and disliked; usually, I've noticed, I do not like a superior who tends to be more task-oriented rather than relationship oriented.
My experience last summer working for a department on JMU’s campus gave me the opportunity to work with both a female and male supervisor within the same office. It is interesting to compare their drastically different management styles.
ReplyDeleteMy female supervisor was rather eccentric. We started the summer off on a positive note with a successful superior-subordinate relationship, but as the summer progressed I began to loose trust in her and no longer fully respected her as a superior in the workplace. One of the positive aspects of her managing style is that she highly encouraged the staff to become close and build a team dynamic. This did help us to better fulfill our roles within the office and more easily accomplish necessary goals throughout the summer and from day-to-day. She also used humor and was friendly and positive when things were going the right way. However, if something went wrong within the office, she would become very tense and cause the rest of the staff to become overly stressed. There were times when staff members would hide issues that they were facing, just to avoid her overreactions. The main reason I did not like my female supervisor’s management style is that she completely lost my trust as I realized how much she liked to gossip about other staff members. She would act very unprofessional by telling certain staff member’s mistakes or personality flaws to other staff members. It was as if she wanted to get to know certain staff members on a more personal level, just to know the things that were going on when she was not present, even if they did not deal with task-oriented issues. Her emphasis on things that were going wrong in the office made it difficult to focus on the tasks that needed to be done, and her gossip made staff members unconfident and stressed that they were not properly doing their job. A better approach would have been for her to directly approach the staff member, and give them constructive feedback as to how to improve their work within the office.
My male supervisor was a much more calming presence within the office. He still encouraged staff members to work as a team, and used humor and side conversations to get to know everyone on a more personal level. He remained far more professional throughout the summer, and I never heard him say anything negative about any staff member. Halfway through the summer, he created perceptual congruence with all staff members by having everyone sign up for a private one-on-one conversation in his office. During this meeting, he asked what we thought was working within the nature of the office, what was not, how we thought processes could be approved, and how he could help more, in an effort to decrease any gaps in understanding. This was a very effective way to increase immediacy with him as a supervisor and gave a fair chance to all staff members to give and receive feedback about what was happening within the office.
For my past summer job, I definitely preferred my male supervisor to my female supervisor. While she tried to make connections with certain staff members to drum up dramatic gossip, he met with everyone to speak with them about the negative and positive things that were happening within the office. While she became stressed out very easily and caused other staff members to panic, he remained calm and focused on the task at hand to promote a positive office environment.
I have had experience with both male and female supervisors in my past jobs. I have never really thought about how they might differ in their reactions and direction to their superiors, but after reading the chapter, I envisioned them doing much of the same thing. Just as the book states, a lot of the downward or upward communication between the two levels depends on the personal relationship, as well as context and environment.
ReplyDeleteMy female supervisor was while I was working in a restaurant during the summer months. She was very strict and did not imply that she was there if you ever had a concern. I just did as I was instructed and tried to avoid her any other times I was working. She was not very pleasant to work for. There was no encouragement or motivation provided. I would say she used more of a directing/authoritative management style.
My male supervisor was this past summer while I worked at my internship. This setting was more professional and he acted like so. He also made the attempt to create a somewhat personal relationship and get to know me as a person. When I was given this respect, I responded with the same amount of respect back toward him. There was still somewhat downward communication in the supervisor-superior relationship, but there was also some upward communication available. I would say that my supervisor at this job employed a more participatory and teamwork management style.
Based on my experiences I would have to say I had a better work experience when I had a male supervisor. I did not feel more inferior because I was a female and he a male. He engaged in conversation with me, encouraged me, and praised my work as I completed it. At the end of chapter 10 this topic was briefly discussed. I was pleased to know that there were no real differences in reactions to males or females having either sex as their supervisors. I think it is more important that the management style is one that fostered creativity and teamwork and not focused on the sex of the individual providing the instruction.
In my past job experiences, I have had both male and female supervisors. My manager at O’Charley’s was a male and his management style was relationship oriented. He seemed to focus more on building relationships with my co-workers that he rarely did his job. Some relationships were even inappropriate. Often times, we would find him at the hostess station or sitting down in the back of the restaurant talking to some of the employees. Last year, I was an RA in Hanson Hall and my Hall Director was a female. At times she focused on getting the task complete. But, she also was about building relationships with the staff members. She even built relationships with residents in the dorm. Again, some were inappropriate because as a Hall Director you are not supposed to have any secondary relationships with your staff or residents because it is a conflict of interest. To be honest, I didn’t prefer either supervisor’s management style. Although, I am about building relationships, neither supervisor built relationships in the appropriate way. My manager at O’Charley’s ended up being fired because him lacking in his responsibilities. My Hall Director was disliked by her staff because of the secondary relationships she built with a few of the residents. I am a little in-between when it comes to being task or relationship oriented. I would prefer to build relationships with my employees yet also make sure they are motivated about completing the task and being ethical at the same time. Neither of my previous supervisors displayed this
ReplyDeleteOver the past several summers I have worked as a head counselor at the YWCA. My supervisor there was a male and he was a very good supervisor. His style of managing was a blend of both task oriented as well as people oriented. He knew all of us very well and stressed that we could always come see him or call him if we needed anything. He wanted to help us with anything we needed job related or not. Over the past summers I found myself coming to him when I couldn’t handle my group and was extremely stressed out and he wouldn’t just give me advice he would step in and help me. He was very organized in what he expected from us and how we should be doing our job, but he was flexible and open to new ideas. The camp was very structured and organized and I always knew what to expect on any given day especially from my supervisor. He didn’t let his emotions get in the way of doing his job and he was prepared for anything. Overall he was a great supervisor and I think this is because of his blend of caring about his people, but still expecting everyone to put 100% into their job.
ReplyDeleteMy current supervisor is a female and unlike my male supervisor she is only a year older than me. When I first started working at Cinnamon Bear my manager Donna was the same position as me and everyone else my age. It’s an extremely small company with less than 10 employees so we all know each other very well. Donna became manage after about 2 months of me working there. It has been very interesting watching her become the supervisor she is today. Due to the close age and how close everyone is it is extremely hard for her not to be people oriented. She cares about all of us and considers us her friends, saying that I know it is hard for her to step into the role of manager. She has a hard time communicating to us her expectations. When she is mad at someone she has a hard time confronting them and rather leaves notes or tells the boss and lets her deal with it. She will act extremely nice to us but at the same time texting our boss and telling her were not doing our job. Although Donna is extremely task oriented she has had a hard time stepping into her role as manager. Personally I think she is a good manager, I feel comfortable asking her for help and I know she would do anything for me. However I think she needs to work on becoming more authoritative. She does understand that this is a minimum waged job and most of us don’t take it seriously, but later in life it will be important for her to learn how to separate work from personal life.
I definitely preferred my male supervisor, I like when people are up front with me and I know when I’m doing something wrong so I can fix it. Later in life if I ever find myself in a supervisor position I believe I will find myself being a lot like my male supervisor, both people and task oriented.
I used to work at a country club in summer time as a waitress and manager at the pool. While working at this country club, my supervisor was a male. My manager was both task oriented and somewhat focused on keeping his employees happy. He made sure that all tasks and orders were accomplished on time and made sure we understood how to get things done. Not a lot of small talk would happen during the work day, but he made sure we were comfortable in our jobs and understood the significance of our presence at work. I also used to work at a tanning salon, and here I had a female supervisor. She was more people oriented and somewhat task oriented, making sure her employees were always happy, bringing us food and treats throughout the work day, and establishing a relationship through work and outside of work. She was less task oriented, but also made sure we accomplished what needed to be accomplished.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed both supervisors, but I really enjoyed my female supervisor. I accomplished my work because I enjoyed being there and did not want to ruin a friendship, and it was easy for me to express problems with work with someone I felt more comfortable with. I feel both styles are productive and successful, but I feel the people oriented style works best with my personality.
In my previous jobs I have had a number of both male and female supervisors. None of the supervisors managed very similarly to the other managers of the same sex. My first female supervisor was very direct, demanding, and authoritative. She demanded respect, and never tried to make interpersonal connections. My second female supervisor was very friendly and personable. She focused on making relationships and building rapport with employees. My third female supervisor was somewhat of a mix between the first two. She like to put up a "front" that she was so friednly, nice, and approachable, yet it all seemed very insincere. Her caring facade was more of a cover than anything else. I have also had numerous male supervisors. These supervisors seemed to have more in common with each other than the female supervisors. The older male supervisors (anyone over the age of about 40) were more strict, professional, and authoritative. They held a "my-way-or-the-highway" approach to management, and did not respond well to goofing off, laziness, tardiness, or any other unprofessionalism. The younger managers were quite different. These managers were more like a coworker or friend at many times than a supervisor. We could joke around, goof off, and even slack off to a certain degree without the younger supervisors caring.
ReplyDeleteOf all the supervisors I have had, I definitely prefer the younger male supervisor. The young male supervisors were all in restaurants, so perhaps in an office job I would feel differently, but they were, without question, the most enjoyable and stress-free supervisors to work under. My least preferred supervisor was the odler male. I had less freedom and always felt like I was being judged. Perhaps the female supervisors that I have worked for are a "happy medium" for an office job.
I have held a number of different jobs and have had both male and female supervisors. During my summer internship I had both male and female supervisors to report to. I really enjoyed the internship but I was always hesitant to report to my female supervisor because whenever I did, she would automatically accept my work without reviewing it. Feedback is very important in an internship. It is the only thing that will help an intern learn to complete tasks as effectively as possible. The problem with my female supervisor was nice and was very accommodating, which did not help me improve my work. Perhaps my press releases and benchmarking research reports were amazing, but I’m sure that they were not perfect and could’ve benefitted from a review. My male supervisor was usually very busy, but whenever I had tasks to hand in and saw his door open I would try to report to him. Although I was sent back to my desk a few times by my male supervisor, I felt that it helped me learn more than if he had just accepted my work for him to re-do it later.
ReplyDeleteI have also held other simple jobs since high school and around campus. I worked at PC Dukes my freshman year of college (I try to block the experience out of my memory, but the nightmares still haunt me). Again I found myself working with both male and female supervisors. This was a little different to my internship because we had to work with a great sense of urgency to get food out and then to clean up and close, so my supervisors were constantly behind me pushing me to work as fast as possible. The environment and the urgency really helped me show how hard I could work and I was soon promoted to student supervisor. At this point I started noticing a difference between the way my male supervisors pushed me and the way my female supervisors pushed me. It seemed like my female supervisors allowed me to set my own work pace and to manage the people who were working in my shop (the deli). I appreciated the fact that my female supervisors would come to me whenever someone I was supervising did something wrong. I would then be the one to warn them to stop otherwise they would be reprimanded. I liked this a lot because it showed that they trusted me to control my shop and subordinates, even though I was only making 60 cents more than they were. I really enjoyed the power of telling people what to do but I definitely noticed that my relationship with my fellow workers was beginning to change. On the other hand, my male supervisors had a completely different approach when dealing with me as a student supervisor. I was never notified by a male supervisor if something was wrong with one of my subordinate. They would deal with it themselves, which took pressure off what I needed to do, but I felt I was being undercut and not in charge. Also, my male supervisors were the only ones to keep pushing me to work faster, which I appreciated.
I also held a job at Massanutten resort as an activities coordinator. I had a male supervisor in this job. The thing is that I knew him fairly well from before, and he always seemed to be a mellow person. This was not the case when it came to work. The man was/is a ruthless supervisor who will push workers very hard to get tasks done. With that said, whenever he had time to help he was always expedient in getting things done. Watching him pull up his sleeves and do the jobs that the lower level employees had to do, in half the time, really motivated workers to work harder.
Through my work experiences I have to be able to build a strong relationship with all my supervisors, but I definitely am more productive when I am pushed to work fast and efficiently. So far male supervisors have been the ones who have motivated me the best, but this may just be a question of personality rather than gender. The supervisor that I prefer the most is the one who I worked for at Massanutten. I have seen supervisors do lower level employee tasks, but none of them have motivated me as much as he did.
I have worked at Jcrew for 2 years now, over Christmas breaks and Summers. Each day I have a different supervisor- male and female, depending on who works that day. I had great experiences with all of them, but if I were to choose, I would prefer to have a female supervisor.
ReplyDeleteFrom my experience, my female supervisors had a democratic management style in which they had authority, but I was able to have influence on decisions as well. For instance, when I talk with my female supervisor about which pieces of clothing to advertise in the window, she respects, appreciates, and values my input, as she constantly comments on my great fashion sense. I cannot have these discussions about my fashion sense with male supervisors because they cannot fully relate at the same level as females do when talking about feminine clothing. My female supervisors allow me to say what I think and even take what I say into serious consideration.
Also, from my experiences with male supervisors, they had more of an authoritarian management style. They were great people and knew a lot about fashion, but they told me what to do and how to do it all the time. They were nice about ordering me about what to do because they were at my level at some point, but I like to have some say and to have the opportunity to use my creativity and knowledge of fashion while at work.
I believe it is important to have some form of structure within management. For me, I am more productive and efficient if I have a plan to follow at work, but I do not like being told how to go about completing a task. I want to be able to show myself and my personality through my work instead of being part of an authoritarian management style. It is important for me to build strong relationships with my supervisors or else I would not be satisfied at work. I believe authoritarian management is not ideal for a company like JCrew, and instead I believe democratic management is perfect. Everyone has the opportunity to provide their own input and feedback, but in the end, the managers have final say with regards to making the best decisions for the company. Managers must be role models for lower levels of management within a company and it is important to include everyone within the decision-making process.
Last summer I worked as a waitress in a downtown restaurant and sports bar. My supervisor was a middle aged women named Sue with 30 years of service to the restaurant. She had a very authoritative management style and rarely made compromises to help employees. Her word was law regardless of if it was correct. However, she was never willing to help and learn herself. She would delegate tasks and then retreat to the bar next door to indulge herself.
ReplyDeleteI have had both male and female supervisors and Sue differed from typical female's I have worked under. She was much more confrontational and forceful. From my experiences I cannot say I have a preference for male or female supervisors. I have had positive and negative connections with both.
I have worked in a few jobs mostly with female supervisors. My current job at JMU is at Bourbon Street bartending. My supervisor is a female and depending on the day, her management style changes. If it gets really busy, she has more of an authoritative style because she gets stressed when there are tons of people at the bar. When it is slower, she is friendlier and talks to me alot asking how things are going with everything.
ReplyDeleteAt the internship I have had the past two summers, I have had both a male and female supervisor and they both used team-oriented styles of management. Because it was a nonprofit organization they were very focused on the relationship aspect as well as tasks to accomplish fundraisers, etc. I really liked the team-oriented style for my internship because it made me feel as though I was an important part of the organization. They both said thank you to me at least three times a day for completing the smallest of tasks. It felt really good to be appreciated like that. I think this style works the best for the organization because we are always getting things done while interacting with one another as well as the families we come in contact with. Because I have had both female and male supervisors, I don't really know which one I liked more. They were both really caring and grateful for everything I did for them.
In the fall of 2008 I worked for Madison Connection at James Madison University. This organization consists of a group of students who make phone calls for JMU in an effort to connect with alumni and parents of students to raise funds for the university. I personally hated this job after the first day of work and soon realized how related it was to Taylor’s theory of scientific management. Every part of this job was structured and designed for employees to make the most money. Training lasted an entire weekend and included practicing of the script, what to say if the individual on the phone becomes angry and how to obtain the highest amount of money. The “ask” starts at a donation at $1,000 which is a great deal of money and requires confidence and good training for employees to do well. Although we did not have a time limit for how long the phone calls should last, they encouraged us to finish the calls in a timely manner and jump to the next. Each employee stat at a cubicle, made phone call after phone call, during the entire shift. Breaks were very structured and standardized lasting approximately 10 minutes. If one minute late to work, an employee would get a strike and three strikes resulted in a necessary meeting with the boss. My top supervisor was a male and the managers below him were all female. In this situation, gender did not affect the job, rather the structure and systematic method used to train and perform our tasks each day was a grueling task that I would never like to do again. Scientific management and the systematic soldiering method is an extremely repetitious and challenging environment.
ReplyDeleteIn my past employment and internship experiences I have had both male and female supervisors. In high school, I worked at a fast-food chain called Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits. My manager there was a male who had years of experience in this type of service. He was very task-oriented. We always had to be doing something or at least appear to be doing something, even when business was slow. In his view, we were paid to be doing work, not to be relaxing on the job. He did try to develop relationships with the workers, but it appeared to be solely for the purposes of encouraging us to work. With that being said, I would classify him as having an authoritative management style.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, this past summer and fall I interned for a non profit agency in Harrisonburg. My supervisor was a female, and she supervised using a democratic management style. It was clear that she was in control and that I was accountable to her, but she also gave me the freedom to voice my opinion on different assignments I had to complete as well as ideas for projects that I would want to do. Her management style greatly motivated me to want to produce quality work for her organization. Because I was included in the decision making process, I wanted to make more of an impact for their organization.
With that being said, I enjoyed the management style of my internship coordinator the most. Her style of managing actually inspired me to think outside of the box, work diligently and it helped me to cultivate a loyalty for their organization.