MGMT 3123 PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT MANAGER INTERVIEW PROJECT (ONLINE) Project Goals The goals of this project are to help you: 1. Gain a better understanding of how management is practiced in an actual business organization 2. Develop skills in interviewing, gathering, synthesizing and organizing information. 3. Improve your skills in preparing professional business presentations using Microsoft Power Point 4. Gain a practical understanding of the four functions of management and how they are applied in a real-world business environment (plan, organize, lead, and control) 5. Identify changes that could be made in an organization to improve management effectiveness and business results. 6. Understand the important skills that a manager needs to be successful (technical, human, conceptual, and motivation to manage) 7. Gain a better understanding of the day-to-day problems that a manger faces and how he solves them. Project Scope This project involves interviewing a manager of a company (for-profit businesses only and not family members or your family business), as well as gathering additional information from other sources on the business, and prepare a Power Point Presentation of the results. Manager Selection and Confidentiality Selection of Manager: Select a company and manager to interview early in the semester, and submit to the Instructor for approval before the project is started. Confidentiality: You must maintain confidentially of the information provided by the manager and other members of the company. You are not to share any personal information with anyone regarding the individual manager or any information that might be considered by the manger as 'company confidential'. You must advise the manager what you are doing the interview for (an ASU course assignment to learn about management). Let the manager know that you will maintain the confidentiality of the information provided. Interviews- There may be a need for an initial interview and a follow-up interview with the manager to complete the project, so begin the interviewing process early in the semester. In order to be most effective with the interview, you should prepare a 1 | Pag e list of questions prior to the interview to assure that all points are covered adequately. All interviews must be face-to-face to assure complete understanding, and to provide an opportunity to ask clarifying and follow-up questions, and to observe the actual environment that the manager operates in. Much more can be learned with a face-to-face interview compared to a questionnaire or survey. Project Presentation The final project report is to be submitted as a Microsoft Power Point presentation. It is to be developed using the interview information, other supporting material on the company, and materials from our textbook. Each slide in the presentation should include the key points under each heading. Use the 7x7 rule (maximum of 7 lines per slide and 7 words per line). The presentation should be organized in the following sections with one or two Power Point slides per section: 1. Project Overviewpurpose of presentation, manager interviewed, and purpose of the presentation. 2. Outline Of Presentation-key issues you will cover in the presentation. 3. Summary of the Companyname, markets served, products and services, size- sales, number of employees, etc., structure of company (division of larger company, etc.), ownership, competitive position, and any other significant facts about the company. 4. Manager Interviewedsummary data on manager interviewed: name, position and title, education, years with company, years as manager, training received from company, and other relevant information. 5. Major Management Responsibilities-list the major responsibilities and duties of the manager 6. Major Goals of the Organization-list the major goals that the manager is trying to accomplish (e.g. increase sales, improve customer service, better train employees, reduce costs, etc.) 7. The Four Management Functions-list the four management functions (Plan, Organize, Lead, and Control) and show how the manager performs each one in his/her day-to-day job, and about how much time (percentage of working day/week/month) he/she spends in each one. One or two slides per management function. Give examples of how each function is performed by the manager. Which ones are most important and why? 8. Management Skills-what skills were identified as most important by the manager and why (technical, human, conceptual, and motivation to manage). 9. Culture/Values-describe the culture and values of the organization from the managers viewpoint. Give examples to support statements. (E.g. autocratic, participative, competitive, entrepreneurial, fast-paced, bureaucratic, etc.) 2 | Pag e 10. Decision Making-describe the decision making process and types of decisions that the manager makes and how are they made. (E.g. participative, top-down, etc.). 11. Motivation/Rewards-describe the motivation and reward system used by the company. What does the manager do to motivate and reward employees? What does the company's upper management do? 12. Leadership-describe the type of leadership that the manager demonstrates and give examples of how this leadership style is used. 13. What does the manager look for when hiring new employees? Why does he see these as important? 14. Major Problems and Challenges-what does the manager see as his biggest problems and the biggest challenges in his job? Explain. 15. What does the manger enjoy about his job? What does the manager dislike about his job? 16. Recommendations-what are the manager's recommendations to improve the management of the organization, and what results would he expect? 17. What are your recommendations? Based on what you learned and observed in the company, what recommendations would you have to improve the company and why? 18. Summary of Findings-summarize your findings from the interview and other supporting sources into one or two slides of key points. 19. Would you work for this company? Why or why not? 20.What did you learned about Management that you did not know before you did this interview project. 21. References-one final slide listing all the references used for the project including textbook, interview, and any other outside materials used. 22. Power Point slides are to include the highlights of the information that you will present (key points) as if you were giving a formal group presentation. Use the Notes section of Power Point to record the detail of your presentation, as they will be part of the final project grade. One to two slides should be adequate for each of the above topics. 23. Notes-notes for each slide are to be included in the 'notes section' of each slide and are to reflect what you will tell the audience specifically if you were making the presentation to an audience. Grading- The project is worth a total of 150 points. The allocation of the points will be: Content-130 points (completeness, consistency, accuracy, and notes) Power Points-20 points (clarity, consistency, style, use of appropriate theme, and graphics, format, and grammar) updated12/10/16 3 | Pag e 4 | Pag e