Supervision: When to Use Directive Control Behaviors

This paper is about many different aspects of effective supervision, training and evaluation, but the main concern here is control. It can be assumed that the supervisor has control over the supervisory situation, but this would be an oversimplification of the relationship between a line employee and their direct boss. Control is a shared entity because though the supervisor may determine the course an employee must take, the employee decides whether they will follow that direction or not. Thus, the supervisor must prove to the employee that they are competent in the job before they can expect the employee to follow direction.

This is the stance taken by directive control behaviors. A supervisor who uses directive control behaviors has to be a subject matter expert. If they cannot claim an expertise in the elements that the job entails then they are less likely...
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