PRACTICAL GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY AND ROLE PLAYING FOR THE INDUSTRIAL SUPERVISOR

Abstract

Those who are interested in the improvement of current industrial management practices are vitally concerned with the role of the first-line supervisor and how he affects employee morale, company loyalties and productivity. This interest is a direct result of many attempts to discover how to motivate workers so that they will be eager to perform in a manner approaching their potential capacities. Many of the methods which have been developed to improve employee motivation have recognized this critical importance of the first-line supervisor. In fact, one of the main stumbling blocks or limiting factors in the success of these methods has been the negative influences of many industrial supervisors. It is the effect of these negative attitudes which have prevented the successful attainment of some of the most farsighted employee-centered plans and, indeed, have sometimes produced entirely unexpected and detrimental results. These negative attitudes are an apparently unchangeable aspect of what must seem to be pathologic manifestations of the supervisor's personality. It is a fundamental problem, therefore, to determine how to change the basic negative attitudes of industrial supervisors.