SUPERVISOR JOE

As Supervisor Joe, you are the key personality in most case studies and mini-games. You consider yourself a hard-working, conscientious supervisor, but sometimes you feel insecure in your job. For about two years, you were an employee in the department you now supervise. You know all the skills and techniques to teach others, but so far you have not been able to raise productivity as high as Mr. Big expects—and consequently, you feel uneasy around Mr. Big. You are learning to delegate, manage your time, and build good relationships with your people, but you realize you are still in a transition stage.

You are twenty-four years old, and your wife works as a secretary. You have no children. You earned a degree from a two-year community college, where you concentrated on business courses. You are a car buff who likes to restore antique automobiles.

People seem to react quickly and favorably to your warm personality and friendly attitude. As far as you can tell, all five of your employees like and respect you. You feel they come to you without fear to discuss problems of all kinds. You strive for a department that is happy and free of conflict. Mr. Big has recently told you to exercise stronger leadership and to distance yourself from your employees so that they will learn to respect you more. Mr. X seems to resent your personal progress and frequently interferes in the operation of your department. Ms. Y also seems highly critical of you at times.

You look upon your job as a stepping stone to middle management. In fact, you have already started to study Mr. Big and his job because you feel his position is the next one up the ladder for which you must qualify. You recognize that you would be in a better position if you had graduated from a four-year college instead of a two-year institution, but you feel you can make up the difference with extra performance. You are thinking about taking some night courses that will lead to a four-year degree. You consider yourself to be a scrambler and would not hesitate to move to another firm if the salary and benefit package were right.