ABSTRACT
The most basic levels of supervision involve planning and allocating the workload so that all the jobs get done efficiently and on time. In a survey of graduate trainees' experiences of on-the-job training carried out by Jones, certain characteristics of 'good supervision' and 'poor supervision' emerged as significant for those on the receiving end. The quality of day-to-day supervision, in the form of coaching, is important to trainees. They like to be given some guidelines on the standards of work expected, both quantity and quality, and apparently this is a vague area in many libraries. Good supervision will ensure that a task is completed efficiently and effectively, whilst leadership provides the vision that led to the task in the first place. Excellent interpersonal skills are essential when supervising staff, and as we have seen, being able to communicate, listen and motivate is crucial to successful management. Feedback on work performance was seen as very important to the motivation of staff.
