Not always a demand: A look at between-supervisor differences as resources in rotational supervision

Abstract

In rotational supervision structures, multiple shift supervisors rotate responsibility for supervising a shared group of subordinates. That is, subordinates report to different supervisors each shift. A resulting idiosyncrasy of these structures is the requirement for subordinates to navigate between-supervisor differences while performing in the same role each shift. Based on work revealing that within-supervisor differences contribute to negative outcomes for subordinates (e.g., Duffy et al., 2002; Lian et al., 2012; Matta et al., 2017; Xu et al., 2015), we would assume this would also be the case for between-supervisor differences. However, it is possible that these differences can serve as resources for employees by broadening perspectives and increasing the pool of knowledge and skills on which they can capitalize, and decreasing monotony, for example. In this paper, I conduct a qualitative study of front-line employees in the restaurant industry to uncover the types of between-supervisor differences employees experience, and how these differences operate not only as job demands, but, also as job resources. My findings reveal that employees can capitalize on supervisor differences to experience increased job control, supervisor support, learning and development, and job variety, and decreased exposure to toxic supervisors. These findings have implications for the staffing, selection, and scheduling of rotational supervisors.