Book Reviews : The Supervision of Personnel. By JOHN M. PFIFFNER. (New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1951. Pp. 454. $6.00.)
| Published date | 01 December 1951 |
| Date | 01 December 1951 |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591295100400441 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
683
The
book
is
certainly
an
adequate
text
for
a
&dquo;problems&dquo;
course
in
labor.
It
will
probably
prove
well
suited
for
the
teaching
of
a
one-semester
course
because
of
its
reasonable
length,
its
regular
chapter
divisions,
and
its
luciditv.
_ _
- -
HOWARD
L.
BALSLEY.
Russell
Sage
College.
The
Supervision
of
Personnel.
By JOHN
M.
PFIFFNER.
(New
York:
Prentice-
Hall,
Inc.
1951.
Pp.
454.
$6.00.)
The
original
1935
edition
of
Pfiffner’s
Public
Administration
fails
to
mention
&dquo;supervision&dquo;
as
a
part
of
the
administrative
process.
It
is,
there-
fore,
a
sign
of
development
in
the
field
of
administration,
as
well
as
a
tribute
to
Dr.
Pfiffner’s
personal
development,
to
see
him
publish
an
exhaustive
study
on
supervision
as
a
factor
in
management.
Pfiffner
has
attempted
to
fill
what
he
considers
a
void
in
the
human
aspects
of
administration
by
writing
a
book
which
purports
to
present
the
&dquo;why&dquo;
instead
of
the
&dquo;how&dquo;
approach
to
the
problem
of
management
and
administration.
In
order
to
do
this,
Dr.
Pfiffner
has
felt
it
necessary
to
formulate
several
hypotheses
or
&dquo;assumptions&dquo;
stemming
from
&dquo;research
in
the
social
sciences,&dquo;
and
&dquo;pragmatic
experience&dquo;
as
written
in
the
management
field.
After
a
slow
introduction,
and
a
refreshingly
naive
chapter
on
super-
vision
and
human
nature,
the
author
settles
down
to
a
discussion
of
the
subject.
His
treatment
of
Part
II,
&dquo;Organization
and
Management,&dquo;
is
down
to
earth,
but
difficult
to
read,
and
the
presentation
could
have
been
improved
by
a
clear-cut
definition
of
the
term
&dquo;supervision.&dquo;
Nowhere
in
the
book
has
the
reviewer
found
a
satisfactory
statement
of
what
supervision
is.
The
book’s
value
lies
in
Parts
III
and
IV,
&dquo;Social
Aspects
of
Supervision&dquo;
and
&dquo;Motivation,&dquo;
in
which
are
chapters
on
the
informal
aspects
of
organization,
communications,
attitudes,
and
the
effect
of
co-
operation
and
conflict
on
morale.
He
has
also
presented
worth-while
dis-
cussions
of
leadership,
incentives
and
motivation,
and
employee
partic-
ipation.
This
reviewer
feels
that
what
might
have
been
several
good
chapters
have
been
expanded
to
book
length.
The
presentation
of
much
good
original
material,
and
the
synthesis
of
much
excellent
published
material
has
been
weakened
by
the
author’s
habit
of
attempting
to
lend
a
scientific
objectivity,
lacking
in
the
social
sciences,
to
his
conclusions
and
observa-
tions.
The
selected
readings
at
the
end
of
each
chapter
are
of
distinct
value,
but
much
of
the
book’s
documentation
is
not
completely
up
to
date.
Indiana
University.
W.
RICHARD
LOMAX.
To continue reading
Request your trial