Professional Supervision: Principles, Practices, and Challenges

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PROFESSIONAL SUPERVISION
PROFESSIONAL SUPERVISION
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Table of Contents
The Principles, Scope and Purpose of Professional Supervision (1.1)............................................3
Theoretical approaches to professional supervision (1.2)...............................................................4
Theory X......................................................................................................................................4
Theory Y......................................................................................................................................5
Theory Z......................................................................................................................................5
Impact of Legislation on Professional Supervision (1.2, 11, 1.3)...................................................5
Impact of Codes of Practice on Professional Supervision...........................................................6
Impact of Policies on Professional Supervision..........................................................................6
Impact of Procedures on Professional Supervision.....................................................................6
Key principles of effective professional supervision (2.1)..........................................................6
Importance of managing performance in relation to (2.2)...............................................................7
Governance..................................................................................................................................7
Safeguarding................................................................................................................................7
Key learning from critical reviews and inquiries........................................................................7
Concept of anti oppressive practice in professional supervision (3.1)............................................7
Explain methods that are available to assist individuals to deal with challenging situations (3.2). 8
Causes of conflict within professional supervision (3.3).................................................................9
Describe how conflict can be managed within professional supervision (3.4)...............................9
Explain the responsibility of the supervisor in setting clear targets and performance indicators
(4.1)................................................................................................................................................10
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Using performance indicators to measure practice (2.3)...............................................................11
Performance management cycle (4.2)...........................................................................................12
Describe the indicators of poor performance (4.4)........................................................................12
Compare the methods that can be used to measure performance (3.6).........................................12
Use of constructive feedback to improve performance (4.5)........................................................14
Evaluate the use of performance management towards the achievement of objectives (4.6).......14
Supporting performance and protection by professional supervision (1.5, 2.2)............................15
Factors causing power imbalance in professional supervision (3.1).............................................16
Ways to address power imbalance in own supervision practice (3.2)...........................................16
Examples from own practice to manage conflict situations with professional supervision (5.1). 17
Reflection on self practice in managing conflict situations in professional supervision process
(5.2)................................................................................................................................................18
References......................................................................................................................................20
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The Principles, Scope and Purpose of Professional Supervision (1.1)
Professional supervision is a formal and continuing process, which aids professional
competence, accountable and safe practice and help to continue professional development,
critical reflection and the wellbeing of the practitioner. This process gives the worker a scope to
review and evaluate their progress along with the chance to discuss, report and observe with their
colleagues (Rakovshik, et al. 2016).
Fischer, et al. (2018) says, professional supervision applies all kind of workers including social
care and childcare services and it is consistent with different development scheme and confirms
the particular requirements of workers. The scope of professional supervision is variable for
different workers such as a social worker has to be liable for the quality of his/her work and has
to take the responsibility of keeping up the level of the knowledge and skill provided and
improving it.
Main purpose of the Professional Supervision is to offer a safe and supportive opportunity for
individuals to indulge them in comparative reflection in order to raise new issues, discover
problems and newer ways to solve them. It also helps to improve communication between the
workers and develop the potentiality of the staffs (Mink, et al. 2018).
Theoretical approaches to professional supervision (1.2)
Entrepreneurs have the prime responsibility to supervise and manage employees and this
responsibility is based on three theories that have become popular: Theory X, Theory Y and
Theory Z. According to Karvinen-Niinikoski, (2016), though these three models have different
point of views on supervision, an entrepreneur who is skilled and experienced enough can merge
sections of each to apply different modes depending on the workplace situations.
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Theory X
It is told in the first theory that maximum number of people dislikes working, but they are forced
to do it because of the need of money, as money provides some sort of security and make them
feel safe. This theory says that employees should keep under continuous monitoring and the
higher authority should be encouraging their employees for more works. According to this
theory, employees should feel free while working and higher authority should keep them
motivated and productive as well as possible (Wrape, et al. 2017)
Theory Y
Theory Y says that not all workers are annoyed with workload, as some people like to work and
even enjoy doing it. They find satisfaction in a well-done job and supposedly set professional
achievements to motivate themselves. According to Theory Y (Pittenger, et al. 2016),
entrepreneurs do not have to spend much time in looking after these employees, all they have to
do is to provide a healthy and adjustable work environment and this will help the employees who
do a better job to be the best.
Theory Z
It is an apparently new theory formed from the inadequacies of the previously mentioned
theories. This theory says that provide an employee a career rather than just a job, this will make
the employee to stay with the company forever. This theory proposes that entrepreneurs and
business owners should share the general responsibilities with the employees and show some
concern about their basic needs (Taylor, et al. 2018).
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Impact of Legislation on Professional Supervision (1.2, 11, 1.3)
Government brings an act in support of the workers so that they can be provided with a better
and healthy life. It confirms the right of getting proper training, scope of professional
development, appraisal etc. and it says that workers are free to be enabled to receive more
qualifications to be appropriate to the work they perform from time to time (Procopiuck, 2018).
Impact of Codes of Practice on Professional Supervision
This code helps to keep economic, social and political unity of members in the work place and
supports the equity in the opportunities at all levels of employment (Meany‐Walen, et al. 2016).
This code practices with the basic professional values and behaviors of the most familiar ethical
considerations.
Impact of Policies on Professional Supervision
To keep up the processes and responsibilities for the supervision of all the employees is the main
purpose of the policies; this includes employees from partner organisations who are in lined with
work responsibilities to each other. This policy comes up with a framework for supervision and
responsibilities for the organisation (Jones, 2016).
Impact of Procedures on Professional Supervision
Procedures of Professional Supervision is of many kind, among them line management
supervision is an obvious for all the staff working in the organisation. The supervisor and the
supervisee make this kind of negotiated contractual relationship and joint responsibility to be
agreed for supervision (McCulloch, et al. 2016).
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Key principles of effective professional supervision (2.1)
The key principals of effective professional supervision are as follows; it needs to be clear about
the need for supervision and the person who has asked for it. Wang, (2016) says, a period should
be set for the supervision session, it should be ensured to be no interruptions and there must be
privacy in the workplace. One should be transparent about the content of the supervision and
crave for development of skills, as this can be negotiated during the session.
Importance of managing performance in relation to (2.2)
Governance
According to Van Grembergen, et al. (2018), corporate governance, generally known as a
practice to control a company, is system to design a company with good governance principals.
Well-maintained governance promotes transparency, responsibility and independence, enhancing
the value for employees is the main perspective of the incarnation of good corporate governance.
Safeguarding
It is indicating on raising a safer work environment by considering of stuff training and
supervision. Entrepreneurs may indulge the contents that shadow the professional identity, as it
does not provide specific training (Nullmeier, et al. 2016).
Key learning from critical reviews and inquiries
This indicates the relevance of the critical reviews and findings about professional supervision
about health and social care organisation (Reynolds, et al. 2017). It is found that there is a
requirement of identification of problems of an organisation that can be solved through some
research work.
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Concept of anti oppressive practice in professional supervision (3.1)
The anti oppressive practice is an interdisciplinary concept that aids to promote social activities
by removing the socio economic oppression. The power imbalance present within the
organisation among the service users and providers are identified and the socio cultural and
political conflicts arising in the organisation are removed to make the business environment free
from any sort of discrimination and racism. In case of many business organisations, the concept
of internal conflict may give rise to a larger one, which is curbed down by the concept of anti
oppression (Baines and Edwards, 2015). This concept emphasises on social justice and changes
thereby keeping intact the concept of professionalism. This concept aids to identify the
psychosocial issues and work on them. The employee and the supervisor differences in various
fields are looked after and they are addressed by means of building strategies so that any conflict
arising can be removed easily.
Explain methods that are available to assist individuals to deal with challenging situations
(3.2)
According to Verburg et al. (2016.), in a workplace, an individual is faced with a series of
different challenges. Some of them being common ones like cultural differences and
communication barriers, while others can be encountering unexpected personal conflicts and
incompatibility with the work culture. Few of the important methods that can be adopted by an
individual to face these challenges are:
 Adjustment: A new work environment could be uncomfortable for most of the people.
Some time must be given and minor adjustments must be made by every individual to
shape themselves into fitting within the organisation.
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 Avoidance of cultural clashes: Stallard (2019) suggested that in a diverse work
environment, cultural differences are bound to rise, but a more mature way of
maintaining the work culture would be to neglect any kind of differences that may give
rise to conflicts between people belonging to different cultural backgrounds.
 Identify the root cause of conflicts: In the unfortunate incident that a conflict may arise,
a person should not divulge into disagreement rather he should identify the root cause and
eliminate all misunderstandings.
Causes of conflict within professional supervision (3.3)
The varied expectations of the employees give rise to conflicts as not all of them are of the same
view and the expectation one individual may be different from the other. The problem in work
scheduling and understanding the work delegated to them may also cause conflict as they may
deliver faulty works on account of non understanding of such work. Each employee has their
flaws and it may happen that an employee is unable to give his best performance due to certain
issues. This is giving rise to conflict among the team members, and such issue must be identified
and it should be solved as soon as possible (Karvinen-Niinikoski, 2016). One employee may not
respect the other and even use humiliating words against each other, which may give rise to
conflicts; these should be solved ad soon as possible to maintain the decorum of professionalism.
Describe how conflict can be managed within professional supervision (3.4)
Conflicts are one of the worst drawbacks that any organisation could suffer. Conflict
management is a prime job of a supervisor. Vandewalle et al. (2016) argued that conflicts arising
in a organisation disrupts professional work environment and greatly reduces productivity, and
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negatively affect employee morale. Conflicts in an organisation can be managed by a supervisor
by undertaking a number of ways.
 Ensure Expectations: A supervisor, through trainings and employee policies like the
employee handbook and development conferences, should make every employee
understand what he or she expects from them, regarding their behaviour in the
organisation. Noe et al. (2017) opined that the employees must be educated with proper
professional behavioural norms and the way the organisation expects him to conduct with
his colleagues.
 Report system development: Due to diversity in the workplace, difference in opinions
and cultural beliefs occur. Because of this, conflicts may rise in all levels. To prevent
this, a system must be developed, where employees may get an option to report to their
respective supervisor their problems and difficulties faced in the organisation before they
engage in a conflict.
 Discipline Employees: In case of unethical behaviour from an employee who violates
the company behavioural policies intentionally, they must be treated in a way that serves
as an example to other employees and prevent further occurrence of these type of
incidents.
 Counselling: Employees that suffer from anxiety and social problems such as depression
must be provided with special care to ensure their complete involvement in the
organisation. Herbert and Caldwell (2015) mentioned that in case when a conflict arises,
the supervisor must listen to each ones side of the story and make an unbiased judgement
that would cool down the conflict as well as encourage them to work together with
cooperation.
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Explain the responsibility of the supervisor in setting clear targets and performance
indicators (4.1)
Supervisors play an important role in guiding an employee in his or her correct path to achieve
their personal goals and achievements along with satisfying organisational needs. According to
Chong (2016), a supervisor may help his or her fellow employee in the following ways.
 Developing individual goals: A supervisor must help to set personal goals and
achievements of an employee to help them acknowledge their goals in long-term career.
 Synchronizing individual goals with organisational requirements: the personal aims
and goals must be designed in a way such that the organisational needs and achievements
must be fulfilled to ensure productivity.
 Conducting performance evaluation: A supervisor must provide regular statistic
evaluations to provide feedback to the employee. This helps them to find out their
weaknesses and strengths.
 Provide Assistance: A supervisor must provide proper assistance to every employee to
strengthen their weaknesses to give them a platform to perform.
Using performance indicators to measure practice (2.3)
The performance indicators are used in order to measure any kind of performance, as it is
believed that no management can be done without proper measurement. To learn and improve,
to make reports externally and control and keep vigilance on the individuals performance
indicators are used. It is essential to learn how to measure and improve performance by making
the employees get well equipped with data so that they can take proper decisions. Such
measurements are used to give management information and promote learning and development.
The external stakeholders should be informed and compliance with external regulations is done
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by means of this measurement (Sinelnikov et al. 2015). Many reports are produced compulsorily
or even voluntarily. Measurements are also used to set goals and access the achievements and to
provide feedbacks if there are any flaws. This measurement removes variances and it is linked
with rewards and recognition. Such approach if not implemented well can be highly dangerous
and create an environment where people deliver measures and not performance.
Performance management cycle (4.2)
The cycle is based on the below 5 stages:
Planning- It involves getting together and analysing the present role and performance of an
individual to get idea about targets and areas of improvement.
Manage- Plan implementation and managing performance is done to support employees and
ensure use of correct systems and tools to maximise performance.
Review- The barriers if any can create a hindrance to the management cycle and therefore, a face
to face with an employee will help to pull their goals based on exterior factors (McDavid et al.
2018).
Reward- The objectives if fulfilled, the employees will be provided rewards based on that.
Renew- Renew is the final stage that involves examining pre-determined objectives and
discovering ways to improve them and make plan for the next management cycle.
Describe the indicators of poor performance (4.4)
Poor performance can be assumed by the lack of prominent performance expectations, which is
followed by stress. Quality of work also matter and it is important to achieve the deadlines.
Boredom is another reason, which leads to disengagement and loss of productivity. All these
factors affect the performance in a large scale (Rutkowski, et al. 2017).
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