05.08.04 The 2nd Managerial Flaw that Encourages Negative Gossip : Poor Supervision

Poor Supervision

Poor supervision can promote the dissemination of negative gossip, especially where the cadre lack personal responsibility and accountability as discussed in chapter four on what drives negative gossip at a personal level.

When we read Aaron’s story, what comes out clearly is that he was unable to effectively adhere to Moses’ ‘people management’ model when supervising the children of Israel during the time that Moses had travelled. In Exodus 18:21-26, we see Moses picking that model from Jethro, his father-in-law, and electing supervisors to boost the quality of his supervisory skills (NKJV): ²¹… you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. ²²And let them judge the people at all times. Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you. ²³If you do this thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people will also go to their place in peace.” ²⁴So Moses heeded the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. ²⁵And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people: rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. ²⁶So they judged the people at all times; the hard cases they brought to Moses, but they judged every small case themselves. This shows that Jethro’s ‘people supervision’ system was operational, by the time Moses left for Mount Sinai. I would therefore like to infer that had Aaron used it to supervise the people who had been delegated to him, the rumour that Moses will never return would not have circulated through the entire camp to the extent of pressuring Aaron to make a god for them. All he would have had to do was to convince and supervise the well-chosen leaders to counter the negative gossip that was brewing up among the crowds; and the golden calf idea would have sublimed before circulating throughout the entire camp.

At JuaLink, Eliya, the director, was running the department in ‘hands-off mode’, with next to zero supervision and hardly any monitoring of the work submitted by team members. As a result, Lulu and her cohorts took advantage of that loophole by loitering and gossiping at will, rather than churning out some valuable and substantial work.