Using the organization chart, you can also see the various levels of management,
with authority and responsibility handed down from the top, level by level. Authority
can be defined as the right and power to make the necessary decisions and take the
necessary actions to get the job done. Responsibility refers to the obligation that a
person has to carry out certain duties and activities. First-line supervisors represent
the lowest level of authority and responsibility, and hourly workers report to them.
Many supervisors—station cooks, for example—also do some of the work of their
departments alongside the workers they supervise. Thus, they are typically in close
daily contact with the people they supervise and may even at times be working at
the same tasks. They are seldom isolated in a remote office but are right in the middle
of the action. They are known as working supervisors (but as we shall see later in
the text, these supervisors may not qualify as exempt employees).
Each supervisor’s job is probably described in terms of a job title and the scope
of the work required rather than in terms of the people to be supervised. An executive
chef, for example, is responsible for all kitchen production. An assistant executive
housekeeper in a hotel is responsible for getting the guests’ rooms made up. A food
and nutrition supervisor in a hospital may be responsible for overseeing the service
of patient meals. A restaurant manager or a unit manager in a food chain is responsible
for the entire operation. Thus the focus is placed on the work rather than
on the workers. But since the work is done by people, supervision is the major part of
the job.