04 Sep The Role of Functional Specialty Departments

Historical Perspective

If we look back at the evolution of industry and leadership, it is apparent that the role of the Front Line Supervisor and for that matter the entire Operations Group in heavy industry is quite different today than it has been in the past. If we look back far enough, (say 100 years or so) we see that at one time the Front Line Supervisor ran their crew pretty much the way they wanted. In those days the Front Line Supervisor was able to operate as they saw fit, including how they hired or fired people. They were also responsible for holding people accountable to the production goals, setting safety standards as they saw fit, and environmental standards were not really much of a consideration.