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CHAPTER 3
MANAGEMENT
Until now, you have probably been a specialist
in the ship’s store or in one of the service activities.
But as you advance, your duties will take you
into the broader fields of management. By the
time you make chief, you should be qualified to
manage an entire resale activity. You may find
yourself serving afloat on a large ship with two
or more retail stores and a complete range of
service activities to manage, or you may be
assigned to a small ship with only one retail store
and one or two service activities. You may also
be assigned to shore duty in a Navy exchange or
in a commissary store.
If you are serving aboard ship, you will most
likely supervise all the ship’s store operations. This
chapter is primarily applicable to the afloat situa-
tion. However, many of the principles discussed
in this chapter will be valuable to you even if you
are assigned to shore duty where you may manage
only one or two phases of an operation. For ex-
ample, you may be assigned to manage the sales
floor or supervise certain office operations of a
Navy exchange. You may also be placed in charge
of a warehouse or one of the service activities.
Shore duty billets are similar in many respects to
those performed afloat, but you will find certain
differences. You will read about some of the
management responsibility differences in chapter
8 of this manual.
The role of a retail store and/or service
activity manager involves many important duties
and responsibilities for the senior Ship’s
Serviceman. You will be expected to assist the
ship’s store (sales) officer in making certain your
retail store or service activity provides the best
possible level of customer service with the
resources available to you. To provide the best
possible service in any organization, you must be
an effective manager.
Effective management involves organization
planning. You should have a clear understanding
of the functions that must be performed, and you
must analyze these functions to see what tasks
they require. Then, you must assign the tasks to
the personnel you have available to perform them.
You must also be able to plan a physical layout
that will meet the needs of your activity and that
will allow your personnel to carry on their work
efficiently. You should be able to establish orderly
methods for your personnel to perform their
tasks. Also, you should try to arrange the tasks
in a logical sequence so that there is an efficient
flow of work. In your ship’s store and service
activities, you should be able to analyze various
work situation factors and to prepare an effec-
tive work schedule. In addition, you must under-
stand certain principles of personnel management.
These principles will help you to obtain the max-
imum use of manpower in the assignment of work
to your personnel. They will also provide you with
guidelines for delegating authority effectively,
determining training program requirements, and
supervising the work of your subordinates.
As a senior Ship’s Serviceman, you may be
expected to coordinate various administrative
functions. Administrative responsibilities involve
the initiating of correspondence and supervising
the maintenance of files, records, and official
publications and directives. You may even be
called upon to assist in the preparation of various
procedural instructions for the Supply Depart-
ment Organization Manual. Finally, you must be
able to observe and analyze the retail and service
operations in detail so that you can spot problem
areas that need your attention. Good management
will help you to make certain your ship’s store
and service activities are providing the best
possible service to your ship.
SHIP’S SERVICE ORGANIZATION
The basic organization and functions of a
ship’s service (sales) division are generally fairly
standard. However, creating an effective organi-
zation does not stop here. You may have to take
steps to adjust an existing organizational struc-
ture so that it will better serve the operational
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