I write a lot about the power of conversation.
So let’s talk about something that can get in the way of those courageous conversations . That is the power dynamic between a supervisor and supervisee. First off, there’s the power vested in the supervisor, purely because of their rank – and they can pull rank at any time, overriding decisions, having the last word. As supervisees, we can choose to stand up for what we believe in, but sometimes, we find ourselves choosing our battles. Either way, that power is getting in the way of partnership.
The supervisor holds a lot of cards. Cards such as reward, recognition, performance rating, which affects pay-rise, promotion, whether the person remains in post, the ability to make the person look good (or bad) in front of others, enabling the person to do things that are visible to senior management, which in turn gives them more development opportunities and likelihood of good ratings and promotion . This gives them a ton of power, that upsets the balance in the relationship, especially around the supervisee’s sense of worth. Because of this power, the supervisee sometimes holds themself back, not wanting to get a bad rating (for example). They don’t say what needs to be said, they don’t share bad news, they wait to be told what to do. Not all supervisees, and not all of the time. But it happens to all of us.
The supervisor also decides on what work to divy out to his/her people, and how much work. Also what kind of resources they give us to support us in that work. I’ve seen a few blog posts recently about us each taking the responsibility to stop work when we need to stop work, as no-one else is going to make us stop work. But the supervisor has a huge amount of influence over how we feel about pushing back, depending on their own work/life balance role modelling and their tone of voice in asking/telling us to get the work done.
Last, but not least, the supervisor has the power to look at our personnel files, and we don’t have the ability to see theirs. (Of course, we shouldn’t see theirs, but the fact is that this imbalances the power dynamic).
So we can see that the power is heavily weighted in favour of the supervisor. The supervisor therefore has a huge responsibility to be fair and ethical. The power dynamic can lead to anxiety on the part of the supervisee, and even fear. I have heard of stories recently of our people being fearful for their jobs (and not solely due to the economy)….this surprised me, but it’s how they feel, so it is their reality, their truth. And it’s due to the power that their bosses hold over them.
The trouble with power is that it leads both parties to play games. These games are not terribly helpful. Come back next time, for more on Games that Supervisor/Supervisees Play; and then we’ll talk about what to do about all of this power that’s floating around out there.
References: Bass (1990) talks about position power and personal power; Beer (1980) Expert power, Coalition power, Reputation power, Group support, Control of resources and knowledge, information power; J Boonstra and KM Bennebroek – Power Dynamics and Organizational Change; Bouwen and Gusavsen – Democratic Dialogue; Delano and Shah (2006) – Professionally Packing Your Power in the Supervisory Relationship
