Many organizations and establishments have philosophies about how an organization should function and what positions are needed to execute the plan. One of the crucial positions that make the institute function is that of a Supervisor. The term supervisor is a word with Latin roots meaning "to look over", however, a supervisor is seen as a person who is an immediate supervisor of an employee in the workplace. The supervisor is the person to whom the employee reports directly for any work situation. A supervisor plays an essential role in the management team that gives the organization purpose and leadership by being responsible for the progress and productivity of employees (Bittel & Newstrom, 1992). Supervisors and managers share some similarities in that they supervise people, however they have clear differences that can distinguish one from the other. Managers are usually occupied in four areas which include: planning, organizing, leading and coordinating activities for the organization. Like supervisors, managers provide the organization with purpose and leadership, however their responsibilities are traditionally greater than that of a supervisor by executing responsibilities such as identifying goals, objectives, methods, resources needed to execute methods, responsibilities, and dates for completion of tasks (McNamara, 2010). Managers are considered the organizational group above supervisors and have supervisors carry out their mandates and make the goals reach the staff through supervisors. Supervisors perform many tasks in order to keep their part of the organization functioning. Supervisors are responsible for the progress and productivity of their direct reports in the organization. Sup... middle of paper... there is the possibility of skewed pay scales. A second use of the job description is to serve as a reference when the employee undergoes a performance evaluation (McNamara, 2010). An evaluator may refer to the job description if an employee feels that a certain task they were asked to do was not part of the job description. An employee should be familiar with the job description and performance evaluation procedures before being evaluated. A rater can always refer to the job description as the basis for a review and an employee can refer to the job description if they feel they are being rated unfairly (McNamara, 2010). Both are crucial as the job description allows the employee to understand what is expected of him or her and the performance evaluation indicates whether the worker has met the expectations that were asked of him or her..