590
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
vided loyalty" concern is somewhat less urgent for this class of workers. The Board has therefore determined that the exercise of professional judgment "to assign and direct other employees in the interest of providing high quality and efficient service" does not, by itself, "confer supervisory status." Id., at 494.
The NLRB has essayed this exposition of its inquiry:
"In determining the existence of supervisory status, the Board must first determine whether the individual possesses any of the 12 indicia of supervisory authority and, if so, whether the exercise of that authority entails 'independent judgment' or is 'merely routine.' If the individual independently exercises supervisory authority, the Board must then determine if that authority is exercised 'in the interest of the employer.' " Id., at 493.
As applied to the health-care field, the Board has reasoned that to fit the formulation "in the interest of the employer," the nurse's superintendence of others must reflect key managerial authority, and not simply control attributable to the nurse's "professional or technical status," direction incidental to "sound patient care." Id., at 493, 496. Cf. Children's Habilitation Center, Inc. v. NLRB, 887 F. 2d 130, 134 (CA7 1989) (Posner, J.) (authority does not fit within the "interest of the employer" category if it is "exercised in accordance with professional rather than business norms," i. e., in accordance with "professional standards rather than . . . the company's profit-maximizing objectives").
B
The NLRB's "patient care analysis" is not a rudderless rule for nurses, but an application of the approach the Board has pursued in other contexts. The Board has employed the distinction between authority arising from professional knowledge, on one hand, and authority en-
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