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How a supervisor's attitude can affect employee performance
Many factors impact how well an employee performs on the job. However, many professionals believe that the most decisive factor in employee performance is the supervisory relationship.
Researchers in the field of organizational dynamics have discerned that many (if not most) problems with employees stem from the relationship between employee and supervisor. The most distressing aspect of this finding is that many supervisors have little awareness of the effects of the relationship on the success of a subordinate and consequently the camp in its entirety.
Understanding SupervisorEmployee Interactions
If the employee-supervisor relationship is so important to a camp's success, why do supervisors routinely unconsciously and unintentionally erode these most important involvements? A review of the research in psychology, biology, and organizational dynamics sheds insight into how the brain interprets certain staff traits and behaviors.
Supervisors see mainly what they expect to see
People are constantly bombarded with stimuli from the environment: auditory, tactile, visual, and the reactions and sensations emanating from their own bodies. There are literally hundreds of events occurring at every single moment. Yet the brain is only capable of giving its attention to approximately seven distinct stimuli. Out of the hundreds of stimuli occurring, humans are only consciously able to deal with seven. This conversely means that hundreds of events never even register in awareness.
A supervisor who doubts the performance of an employee quickly utilizes this selective attention to focus only on the poor indicators of ability. The supervisor remains unaware of better performance capabilities. If, for example, a head counselor witnesses a subordinate involved in a harsh disciplinary action with a camper, his or her brain is instantly and without conscious intent primed to focus upon other possible weak spots. Any error - no matter how trivial - is from this point on easily observed by the supervisor. This same selective attention prevents the supervisor from witnessing positive acts by the staff member. The reverse holds true for "good" staff members; supervisors are adept at seeing only the positive aspects of their performance.
The important point here is that the mind censors information perceived by the senses; attention is selective and an individual experiences only the stimuli that the brain believes...