A study of management functions, activities and abilities needed by middle management personnel in local governments /

Abstract

This descriptive research study was conducted to determine the importance of managerial functions, activities and abilities to middle management personnel in local government agencies. The identified managerial skill areas were: planning, organizing, directing, controlling, communicating, motivating, accounting/finance, data processing, government agency and personnel. The population for this study was comprised of middle managers in the six incorporated local government agencies in the Las Vegas SMSA. The total population was 232.

The analyses of the data in this study have resulted in the following findings: (1) The managerial functions and/or activities which included planning, organizing, directing, controlling, communicating and motivating were identified as important to middle management personnel in local government agencies. (2) The managerial abilities which included accounting/finance, government characteristics and personnel performance were identified as important to middle management personnel in local government agencies. (3) Data processing failed to be identified as important as a managerial ability for middle management personnel in local government agencies. (4) No significant differences of needed managerial functions, activities and abilities for middle management personnel in local government agencies were found by levels of management responsibility. (5) Neither government department nor government agency demonstrated differences in the importance of the managerial functions, activities and abilities needed by middle management personnel in local government agencies. (6) Neither tenure in current position nor span of control demonstrated differences in the importance of the managerial functions, activities and abilities needed by middle management personnel in local government agencies. (7) The training delivery systems of on-the-job training, formal education and in-house development programs were determined to be more important to middle management personnel in local government agencies than other training delivery systems for self-development and employee development. (8) Forces which affect local government performance were determined to be important to middle management personnel in local government agencies.