Publications from ODSW Social Work Supervsion | Page 34

Day 2 Keynote 1: West Meets East: Sharing of Supervisory Strategies and Skills – Dialogue and Demonstration – Part 1

Stages of Supervision
Prof. Tsui illustrated the different stages of supervision with a video of a dog teaching a
puppy to use the stairs. He expressed that the first stage is stage 0, whereby there is no
supervision at all and the worker is lost. Then supervision comes in and the supervisor
demonstrates to the worker how certain things are done. This is stage 1. At stage 2, there
is administrative supervision on the part of the supervisor in that there is encouragement
by the supervisor for the supervisee to do the task. Stage 3 comes when the supervisee is
still unable to do it. The supervisor therefore gives a little practical support to aid the
supervisee. Stage 4 would be coaching, where the supervisor increases the support and
carries out the activity together with the supervisee. Stage 5 would be to add on even
more affirmation and support to the supervisee if he/ she is still unable to complete the
task. Through this video, Prof. Tsui also illustrated the roles of the three parties involved in
supervision: the head of the agency, the supervisor and the supervisee. He illustrated that
the role of the CEO or head of the agency is not to interfere with the supervisor’s role, or
even to give instructions. Instead, the role of the CEO is just to encourage and entrust the
role of supervision to the supervisor.
Conclusion
Prof. Tsui concluded his presentation with the aforementioned video, demonstrating not
only the roles of each of the parties involved in supervision, but also the outcome that can
be achieved when the process of supervision is handled appropriately.

32