The Roles of Supervisors within the Organization : Evidence on Supervisor Responsibilities and Effectiveness from a Management Control Perspective

This paper investigates the role of the supervisor from a performance management and control perspective. This investigation has two parts: (1) who to select as supervisor and (2) does the supervisor actually have an impact on subordinate performance. As many organizations have a structured supervision program in place that aims at developing employees, it is important to understand the determinants of the eligibility to act as supervisor. Therefore, I examine which competencies influence the likelihood of receiving the responsibilities and tasks that come with the supervisory role. I hypothesize that soft skills increase the employee's likelihood of becoming a supervisor as these are necessary to effectively communicate and transfer knowledge to subordinates. Next, I investigate if and to what extent the expected benefits from supervision are actually realized by the subordinates. The effectiveness of such supervision programs are especially important as knowledge and skills have to be passed on to the next generation of employees. Hence, I predict that the supervisors' ability and effort is a crucial factor that positively influences the performance of their subordinates. In addition, I identify a measure specifically capturing supervisor counselling ability, which enhance the transfer of the supervisor's general knowledge and skills. Using proprietary data from an international professional service provider, I find evidence confirming my predictions