If you consult a number of management books for advice on the nature of managerial work, most would say that manager spent their time engaged in PODSCORB (Planning, Organizing, Directing, Staffing, Coordinating, Reporting, Budgeting). The world in which most manager work is a “messy and hectic stream of ongoing activity”.

Managers are in constant action. Virtually every study of managers in action has found that they “switch frequently from task to task, changing their focus of attention to respond to issues as they , arise, and engaging in a large volume of task of short duration.

Harward Business School professor John Kotter studies a number of successful general managers over a five year period and found that they spend most of their time with others, including sub-ordinates, their bosses, and a numerous people from outside the organization. Kotter’s study found that the average manager spent just 25% of his or her time working alone, and that time was spent largely at home, on airplanes, or commuting. Few of them spend less than 70% of their time with other, and some spend up to 90% of their working time this way.

He found that the breadth of topics in their discussions with others was too wide, with unimportant issues taking time alongside important business matters. This study revealed that managers rarely make “big discussions” during these conversations and rarely give orders in traditional sense. They often react to others initiatives and spend substation amount of time in unplanned activities that aren’t on their calendars.

The interactive nature on management means that most management work is conversational. When managers are in action, they are talking and listening. Studies on the nature on managerial work indicate that managers spend about two-third to three-quarters of their time in verbal activity. These verbal conversation means by which managers gather information, stay on top of things, indentify problems, negotiate shared meanings, develop plans, put things in motion, give orders, assert authority, develop relationship, and spread gossip.