By Dr. Paul L. Gerhardt, PhD
Should a supervisor be “friends” with his employees? This is a question that has been asked for the last few decades. The fact of the matter is that the relationship between a supervisor and supervisee can be very tricky. Often, the supervisee is at the receiving end because of the hierarchy. Therefore, to protect the interests of the supervisee, there are certain ethical standards that a supervisor needs to adhere to. Exhibiting ethical behavior indicates professional approach of a supervisor. Being friendly and a supervisory, while practicing ethical workplace actions is key.
It is the duty of a supervisor to provide a positive and supportive atmosphere that boosts personal and professional growth of the supervisee. It includes doing training, helping employees learn the nuances of their job, and supporting the supervisee in whatever way possible. Ultimately it is all about seeing that the client is well served by the supervisee. This is best done by treating the employee well and in a manner that the supervisor would like to see the client to be treated. This of course sounds like the Workplace Golden Rule.
Although it is believed that most supervisors adhere to ethical practices like updating the supervisee of expectations regularly, the less obvious fact may be that “busy-ness” of running a business sometimes inhibits meeting employees regularly enough. Therefore there may be a significant gap in the necessary imparting of workplace knowledge about the expected practices, cultural nuances, legal and ethical responsibilities, and so forth. However, some scholarly research suggests that most supervisors do not adhere to a significant level of ethical guidelines. One example of this may be, maintaining transparency within the department. Research indicates that as many as 50% supervisors do not adhere to ethical behavior guidelines. This may be due to supervisors wanting to maintain a sense of being “cool” or being a friend to those he supervises.
It is observed that when supervisors don’t comply with the ethical guidelines that it reflects as a weak workplace alliance by the supervisor.
Consider these three important supervisory alliance dynamics:
a) Relationship between the supervisor and the supervisee
b) Understanding of the purview of supervision
c) An understanding of the tasks that will be supervised
When there is a strong work relationship between the supervisor and supervisee, studies show that it will usually result in improved efficiency, role clarity and transparency. Likewise, it predominantly results in greater job satisfaction for the supervisee.
Knowing this gives supervisors great responsibility and a fine line to walk. Human Resource professionals will tell you that many a times, supervisors adhere to unethical practices, such as sexual overtures, discrimination between the supervisees, lack of transparency due to relationship dynamics. Often, a supervisor who is not confident about himself may resort to dirty tactics such as non-communication of the workplace expectations or guidelines. He may fail to delegate important work, and other poor practices out of favoritism or fear of some relationship dynamic. Of course, this will have a negative impact on productivity of the supervisee and will also result in workplace dissatisfaction. In circumstances like these, the employee may suffer from anxiety. Supervisee anxiety is a condition where the supervisee is in a constant state of apprehension, stress, uneasiness and fear whenever the supervisee has to interact with the supervisor. In many cases, the supervisee will carry the grudge home, and it will affect her family life as well.
Supervisors must realize that it is very common for employees to feel slightly anxious while dealing with a supervisor, because of the nature of ‘boss-subordinate’ relationship. However, if the employee feels overly anxious, then it should be a cause for concern. Over anxiety will adversely affect employee performance. She will start showing a lack of interest, and will show negative response to the supervision. For example, if a supervisee feels that the supervisor favors another employee in the department, and divulges confidential information to that employee, then, she will ultimately and understandably lose trust in the supervisor. This will have a great impact on her work. Her self-esteem be deteriorate and consequentially, the response to supervision and workplace responsibility/effectiveness. Worst of all, the supervisee too may resort to doing unethical activities which sabotages the complete success of the department. One of the most common unethical supervisee behaviors is to bypass the authority. This may be a good thing if it gets the team working on the correct path to success. It may also result in termination to individual team members, including the supervisor.
Supervisors must be friendly to all employees ALL OF THE TIME. They must never compromise ethical practices. Supervisees may resort to unethical behavior if they feel they are being treated poorly or unethically. Therefore, the Golden Rule of the Workplace is about being kind, making time to share information regularly, not showing favoritism, and fix what needs to be fixed. Little things can lead to big things before you know it.
For more information, contact Dr. Paul L. Gerhardt, PhD at: www.paulgerhardt.com
