Influence and Responsibilities of First Line Supervisors

The poor economic performance of British industry has attracted considerable public attention. Part, at least of this poor performance can be attributed to the low status of production management and the production function. Industry may well have been unsuccessful in attracting qualified people and some employers have reportedly become disillusioned with graduate recruitment. Production management is arguably not only the most difficult type of work in industry, requiring considerable ability, but it also imposes considerable strains in its combination of less pleasant working conditions, a front‐line role in industrial relations, less influence in strategic decision‐making, and poor career prospects. Salaries in production tend also to be lower than in other areas of management, while the public image of production management is one of no intellectual challenge, poor working conditions and bad industrial relations. For these reasons production has been called the “Cinderella of Management”.