On supervision

I would like to congratulate Mr. Sam Suhaedi for his letter in The Jakarta Post of Nov. 12 entitled Ineffective supervision. I agree with him that ineffective supervision is a weak link in some Indonesian private, as well as government, enterprises. I don't know much about economics and even less about financial matters, such as banking. I do know a little about industrial and service related activities.

I have been watching some industrial activities in the country and there are definitely numerous well run companies. I have, however, noticed industries that could do much better if the level and quality of supervision were improved. An inadequacy of supervision seems to be the cause, not a lack of supervisors. I do see many "supervisors" in the places I observed. What then is the problem?

I think many supervisors do not perform their supervisory jobs adequately because: (a) they do not know how to supervise, (b) they do not know what to supervise, (c) they do not want to supervise and (d) they have insufficient knowledge of the jobs they have to supervise, or maybe (e) they just like to play boss without really being boss.

To supervise, in my view, means not only to make sure workers are doing things in the proper way, but also to guide and train employees, to provide an environment conducive to good work habits, to supply needed tools and material and a few more things. As Mr. Sam Suhaedi wrote, people are people. If not supervised, we all tend to get lazy, neglect some aspects of our jobs and be complacent. Most of us know this to be true, but only a few of us do something about it.

If we want to be competitive in industry, trade, finance and in other fields, let us do something, and do it now. If we wanted to, we could start in our own little area. If many of us started doing something, pretty soon good supervision would become a way of life. Our products would get better, our prices would go down and our customers would be happier. Our companies and our country would get better economically. Everybody would be happier.

I understand that things do not happen as easily as I have pictured above. Actually, I have been trying to help improve supervision in my area for the last three years. I tried by means of setting an example, persuasion, writing "how to" booklets, talking and more talking. There have been no results yet, but I will not give up.

DJOKO SOEJOTO

Bandung, West Java