Supervision: substance and style.

Managers readily admit that their style has a bearing on their overall effectiveness. Many, however, are frankly mystified by the ballyhoo that has surrounded the topic for several years, and for good reason. The subject is a difficult one, since in reality the style a manager brings to his or her job is inextricably intertwined with the substance of that job--what it is to which the manager directs his attention. The manager should therefore look at substance and style together, and that is what the author did in analyzing the jobs of several first-line supervisors in the packaging plant of a major food processing company. As a result, the supervisors themselves were able to understand and improve the structure of their jobs, and the author was able to identify some general principles on how substance and style interact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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