Supervisory Training in Italy

Since the beginning of the 20th century the authority of supervisors has decreased due to larger size of firms and power of workers' unions. Now, the supervisors' status has increased again, through automation and the necessity of a more human approach to workers' problems. This article describes these changes, looks at the job profile of supervisory activities in eight areas, considers the problems and difficulties of the supervisors' position in relation to management and the workers, and provides examples of Italian Supervisory Training in FIAT the automobile firm and ALFA the state‐controlled firm. Recent surveys show that supervisory training exists in 71 per cent of the firms, done mainly in five‐day seminars, and trainers come both from inside and outside the firms. It concludes that there are still many problems but that they are slowly being overcome.