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Thinking about Management issues

1. Yes, as she has people (students) reporting to her.

In terms of managerial functions, even though goals are already settled from the very first moment (knowledge which students are supposed to acquire by the end of the course) she must establish strategies in order to achieve them (certain way of teaching, practical classes, tests along the semester…) and develop plans to coordinate those activities. By the same way she should organize all the work to be done and deal well with students, lead them so that she accomplish her goals (as many people as possible passing the subject) through them. Of course, during the whole process she must also control, compare and correct the work (correct exams, check assistance, compare results from different ways of teaching…).

About managerial roles, in my opinion she plays mainly an interpersonal role, acting as a leader when it comes to train students and associate duties, as a figurehead by being the symbolic head of her classes and as a liaison which maintains communication with her department. But she also plays some informational and decisional roles, such as disseminator and spokesperson, as she transmits information received from outsiders to the class as well as informs subordinates about class issues. She also acts as class’s negotiator and disturbance handler, being responsible for corrective action when the students face disturbances.

Finally, I will point out the fact that she must have managerial skills; technical skills about the subject she teaches, ability to work well with other people, human skills, and ability to conceptualize quite abstract situations concerning the organization of the course, conceptual skills.

2. My interpretation of this statement is that managers’ most basic responsibility is to guide people at the work they have to do so that they do it properly and goals can be achieved.

I agree with this sentence up to a point. I think it used to...