Given below are two statements:
Statement I: Supervision, as an element of directing, is performed by every manager in the organisation over his or her subordinates.
Statement II: Supervision, as a function, is performed by the supervisor, a managerial position at the middle level of the organisation hierarchy.
In the light of the above statements, choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Statement I is correct but Statement II is incorrect.
Statement I: Supervision, as an element of directing, is performed by every manager in the organisation over his or her subordinates. — Correct. As an element of directing, supervision means overseeing what subordinates do and giving them instructions. Every manager does this for his own subordinates.
Statement II: Supervision, as a function, is performed by the supervisor, a managerial position at the middle level of the organisation hierarchy. — Incorrect. The supervisor holds a position at the operative level, immediately above the worker. So he is in direct touch with the workers.
NCERT (2026-27 Edition): “Supervision The term supervision can be understood in two ways. Firstly, it can be understood as an element of directing and secondly, as a function performed by supervisors in the organisational hierarchy. Supervision being an element of directing, every manager in the organisation supervises his/her subordinates. In this sense, supervision can be understood as the process of guiding the efforts of employees and other resources to accomplish the desired objectives. It means overseeing what is being done by subordinates and giving instructions to ensure optimum utilisation of resources and achievement of work targets. Secondly, supervision can be understood as the function to be performed by supervisor, a managerial position in the organisation hierarchy at the operative level i.e., immediately above the worker. The functions and performance of the supervisor are vital to any organisation because he is directly related with workers whereas other mangers have no direct touch with bottom level workers.” |