Action Items

Review Chapter 7. Focus on the four management functions; planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.

Reflect on the job you have now or a previous one. List the managerial activities you have done or observed. If you have never had a paying job, you may refer to management skills in a volunteer position, needed to manage a home, run a baseball team, or lead a church group. Use the management functions template linked here.

List at least 20 but no more than 40 managerial activities. You must have activities listed in every column.

Classify each activity according to whether it involved planning, organizing, leading, or controlling.

Review your completed management functions document. Reflect on the following information from your textbook:

A top-level manager needs good conceptual skills and must be able to effectively communicate goals to the entire corporation and is responsible for instituting change. Middle-level managers typically develop strategies for goal attainment and tactics necessary to achieve stated goals. Middle managers require good analytical skills and the ability to communicate. First-line managers are responsible for execution of business plans and supervising and evaluating workers. Technical skills and good communications skills are essential for first-line managers. (Nickels, McHugh, & McHugh, 2010).

Ask yourself the following question: Based on the managerial activities I have listed, which level of manager was identified -- a top-level manager, a middle-level manager, or a first-line manager?

Write a one-page document that describes the manager you identified in your managerial activity document. Determine if the person is a top-level, a middle-level, or a first-line manager. Explain how you made that decision (what criteria did you use?). Use information from your textbook to support your answer.

Create one document. Your document must contain:

Written description (see previous action item)

Management Functions document (see previous action items).

Resource list. You must demonstrate that you applied information from the textbook as you wrote your document and include citations. You may, but you are not required to, use additional resources such as articles or books.

Footer is to include your name and page numbers.