SUPERVISION

Supervision: Personal Philosophy and Models

Supervision: Personal Philosophy and Models

Introduction

A supervisor is an employee (and member of the group called managers) who is responsible for the welfare, behaviors, and performances of non-management employees—called workers. (Throughout this text, the terms worker, team member, subordinate, and associate will be used interchangeably with the term employee.) The supervisor is a person in the middle, positioned between the workers and higher-level managers. Supervisors' managers and employees differ in attitudes, values, priorities, and in the demands they make on supervisors. Workers and managers often make conflicting demands. The supervisor must cope with conflicts while gaining a sense of job satisfaction and identity in the process. (Bradley 2001)

Unlike academic coursework, in which the primary focus is on mastery of an established body of knowledge or skills, supervision involves ongoing work as it takes place in real time in a real-world setting. That is why supervision is so important and so valuable. This paper discusses my philosophy and model of supervision and describe how it informs my role as a counsellor supervisor.

Discussion

Supervision is an integral part of training helping professionals and is one of the ways in which trainees can acquire the competence needed to fulfill their professional responsibilities. Supervision is a process that involves a supervisor overseeing the professional work of a trainee with four major goals: (1) to promote supervisee growth and development, (2) to protect the welfare of the client, (3) to monitor supervisee performance and to serve as a gatekeeper for the profession, and (4) to empower the supervisee to self-supervise and carry out these goals as an independent professional. (Bernard 2004)

I as a counsellor supervisor, think that supervision is a professional specialization that can be carried out with individuals and in small groups with diverse client populations in various work settings. Counsellor supervisors help human-service workers deliver services to their clients more effectively, but they are not legally responsible for their consultees' clients. Counsellor supervisors focus on work-related concerns. Ethical and professional issues pertaining to consultation include values, multiculturalism, competence and training, the consulting relationship, the rights of consultees, and consulting in groups.

Supervision Models

The conceptual model depicted in Figure A, an adaptation of the competencies cube developed by Rodolfa and colleagues (2005), is the framework that guides our thinking about supervision. It also has influenced our organization of this book. This is a three-dimensional model in which the three dimensions are what we have labeled Supervisor Tasks, Parameters of Supervision, and Supervisee Developmental Level.

[Figure A: Conceptual Model of Supervision]

Parameters of Supervision

These are the features of supervision that undergird all that occurs in supervision, regardless of the particular supervisory function or the level of the supervisee. For example, the supervisor's model or theory is a factor at all times. So, too, is the supervisory relationship and each of the other of the parameters listed in the figure. (Falender 2004)

Supervisee Developmental Level

I understand that supervisees need different supervisory environments as they develop professionally. The manner in which supervisors intervene differs according to supervisee ...