Assignment: Interview and Reflection Essay

For this assignment, you will write a reflection on what you learned about management in the course. As part of the assignment, you will conduct an interview with a manager of a local business to get a first-hand perspective on the challenges of management and the techniques others have found successful for effective leadership, motivation, and communication.

Select a manager of a local business to interview and contact the person to set up an appointment. You may conduct your interview in person or via phone.

Prepare a list of five to seven questions for your interview. Your questions should focus on how the manager executes the four functions of management functions as well as the challenges related to motivating and communicating with employees and clients in the business environment. In particular, try to discover how the demands of technology-mediated communication, such as communicating via social media channels, impact manager-employee relationships.

Remember that managers have many commitments so try to schedule your interview well in advance of the assignment's due date. You should present the attached consent letter to the person you intend to interview.

After you complete the interview, write a 1,000-1,250-word reflection on what you learned in the interview and this course. Address the following in your response:

1. What are the most valuable things you learned about the four functions of management, in a practical sense, as well as motivation and communication techniques?

2. Identify some of the significant challenges you believe you might face as a manager.

3. Discuss your own personal strengths and weaknesses as a manager. What do you think you need to work on to improve your own capabilities?

4. How might you apply what you learned in your interview and this course to be a more effective manager?

In an appendix at the end of the essay, provide an interview summary that includes the following information:

1. The name of the person you interviewed and number of years the person has been a manager.
2. The name of the company at which the person is currently employed.
3. How long the person has been a manager at the current company and what their managerial level is.
4. Date of the interview and whether it took place in person or via phone or other type of medium.
5. Contact information for the person you interviewed.
6. The list of your interview questions and responses provided.
7. Signed consent letter.

Cite two academic references in your essay. Academic references include the textbook, the additional readings in the course, or any article from the GCU Library. You may use information found online but online encyclopedias (e.g., Wikipedia) and blogs do not count as academic references.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the GCU Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

Sample Interview Questions

1) What communication strategies have you found most useful for communicating with your employees?

2) What barriers to effective communication have you experienced? What have you done to overcome them?

3) What strategies have you found effective for motivating your employees?

4) What leadership qualities do you think are most important for managers?

5) How do you manage difficult employees or employee conflict?

6) What do you think is most important for promoting and maintaining effective manager-employee relationships?

7) What advice would you offer a novice looking to get into the field of management?

8) What should students of management be doing in college to prepare themselves for the field?