Production supervisors in Britain, Germany and the United States: Back from the dead again?

The recent diffusion of 'lean production' work practices and various forms of team-working in manufacturing industry has revived old arguments about t he likely decline of production supervisors. These issues are here submitte d to empirical scrutiny through a detailed comparison of the skills and uti lisation of supervisors in the British, German and American engineering ind ustries. The threatened demise of supervisors is found to be exaggerated ye t again for three main reasons. Firstly, supervisors' jobs have generally b ecome more demanding and complex due to greater diversity in the product mi x and more stringent quality and delivery targets. Secondly, in Britain and the US (although not in Germany) the average span of responsibility of sup ervisors has remained stable in recent years. Thirdly, there is evidence in all three countries that, far from making supervisors 'redundant' in anywa y, the development of new new work practices such as team-working can actua lly help to restore the influence of supervisors in strategic decision-maki ng - by 'freeing' them from their traditional immersion in the day-to-day d etails of shop floor management.