IT Management Interview

[dennisme]

I am conducting and interview for a Fundamentals of Management class in college. I want to interview people that are in my field to gain better business experience in management, but to also understand a little better about how management applies in my field of study.

To keep the posts private please message me regarding the answers to the interview questions because for assignment purposes contact and personal information must be submitted.

**Please have at least 5 years of experience and 5 employees.

Thanks for you time in advance!

-Matt

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Name:
Title:
Company Name:
Address:
Phone:
Email:
Length of time with business:
How long in Business:
Education and Qualifications:
Number of people Supervised:

1. What is your definition of management?

2. Do you utilize the four functions of management( planning, organizing, leading, and controlling) and which do you feel is most important?

3. How do you deal with conflict between employees?

4. How is your company organized? Do you support a flexible or more formal organizational approach?

5. How do you utilize self managed teams?

6. How do you utilize empowerment?

7. What are the primary obstacles you face to be successful?

8. What is your management style? Do you follow Theory X or Theory Y? Do you find it productive if you aggressive or not so aggressive?

9. What are some techniques that you use to keep employees motivated?

10. How have you sought to use creativity to solve a problem or overcome a work related obstacle?

11. Do you involve others in decision making and how often do you do that?

12. Do you prefer to utilize positive or negative reinforcement?

13. If your business was failing what steps would you have in place to handle it?

14. What business strategy has you company adopted; e.g., low cost or differentiation based on quality?

15. Does your company have a specific policy regarding sexual harassment and have you ever been involved in such a case?

16. Does you company have a mission statement and how is it utilized? What are the future goals of the company and how do you plan on achieving them?

17. Does your company have a code of ethics and is it required reading for all employees?

18. Have you had to deal with an ethical issue and how have to dealt with it?

19. How difficult is it for an employee to break through the glass ceiling?

20. What percentage of your job involves making non-programmed decisions?

21. Have you ever had to terminate and employee? If yes, how did you do it?

22. What is the most important quality you look for in an employee?

23. Is your company involved in vertical integration?

24. How does your company gain a competitive advantage?

25. Does your company outsource?

26. What is the most difficult issue in managing people and what is the most significant management issue you've had to face?

27. How are functions and divisions coordinated?

28. How are you involved in the hiring process?

29. How do you encourage new ideas from your employees?

30. What competitive strategy has your company adopted?

31. When faced with a revenue shortage, how do you recommend solving that?

[Narue]

1. What is your definition of management?

The task of keeping team members focused and sufficiently insulated from external concerns to facilitate the doing of their jobs.

2. Do you utilize the four functions of management( planning, organizing, leading, and controlling) and which do you feel is most important?

While I'm sure I do use the four functions of management in some form or another, it's not really a conscious choice. Rather the "functions" of management consist of whatever it takes to keep things running smoothly.

3. How do you deal with conflict between employees?

It depends on the conflict. I've reorganized slightly when personalities conflict, offered as little as a minor scolding, and gone as far as terminating employees due to conflicts. It's all very specific to the situation.

4. How is your company organized? Do you support a flexible or more formal organizational approach?

Flexible. I've found that formalities are more of a hindrance than a help.

5. How do you utilize self managed teams?

I let them manage themselves and only step in when things begin to break down or require an outside perspective.

6. How do you utilize empowerment?

I've never utilized "empowerment", but I suspect it would work well as a buzz word in press releases. :icon_rolleyes:

7. What are the primary obstacles you face to be successful?

I manage developers, and it's a tricky process feeding egos just enough to keep everyone happy without it getting out of control. Divas are a nightmare, but broken wills are even worse.

8. What is your management style? Do you follow Theory X or Theory Y? Do you find it productive if you aggressive or not so aggressive?

My management style is to stay out of the way as much as possible.

9. What are some techniques that you use to keep employees motivated?

By far the most effective decision was letting them spent a rather large percentage of their time on personal projects. Another good decision was letting employees choose their own tasks and offering a lot of freedom in the completion of the tasks. Since I don't hire people who strike me as lazy, this often results in more productive employees than if I were the one to dole out tasks and restrict how they're accomplished.

10. How have you sought to use creativity to solve a problem or overcome a work related obstacle?

I rose to management from the position of a developer, creativity to solve problems is what I do. ;)

11. Do you involve others in decision making and how often do you do that?

Yes, I do it with all of the decisions that have any effect on employees.

12. Do you prefer to utilize positive or negative reinforcement?

It depends on the personality of the person who needs reinforcement. I use whatever feedback will have the best effect.

13. If your business was failing what steps would you have in place to handle it?

I'm not an entrepreneur, that's a somewhat different set of skills from my job. If the business was failing I would do my best to keep the employees motivated and try to come up with targeted strategies for recovery.

14. What business strategy has you company adopted; e.g., low cost or differentiation based on quality?

Quality and integrity.

15. Does your company have a specific policy regarding sexual harassment and have you ever been involved in such a case?

Aside from the usual boilerplate in the employee handbook, there's no specific policy, and I've had no issues with sexual harassment here or anywhere else.

16. Does you company have a mission statement and how is it utilized? What are the future goals of the company and how do you plan on achieving them?

We have a mission statement, but it's pretty much just for the website. The goals of the company are fairly obvious: provide the best possible products and services, expand within our means, and make lots of profit.

17. Does your company have a code of ethics and is it required reading for all employees?

Yes and yes. Basically it boils down to "if you lie, you're fired".

18. Have you had to deal with an ethical issue and how have to dealt with it?

Yes. I fired the employee because he lied to a client.

19. How difficult is it for an employee to break through the glass ceiling?

In a rather small department or company it's pretty much impossible.

20. What percentage of your job involves making non-programmed decisions?

Maybe 90%.

21. Have you ever had to terminate and employee? If yes, how did you do it?

Yes. Firing or laying off anyone leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth, but I try to stick to the facts, avoid making it personal, and make a clean cut.

22. What is the most important quality you look for in an employee?

At the risk of sounding cliche, I look for passion and compatibility with the existing team.

23. Is your company involved in vertical integration?

Given that my initial reaction was "WTF is vertical integration?", I'd have to say no. ;)

24. How does your company gain a competitive advantage?

Being really good at what we do goes a long way. Having excellent references from existing clients and word of mouth fills in the blanks.

25. Does your company outsource?

No. Every time we've outsourced, we ended up rewriting the result because it sucked. Wasted time and wasted money.

26. What is the most difficult issue in managing people and what is the most significant management issue you've had to face?

I believe I already answered that one with the comment on egos.

28. How are you involved in the hiring process?

I'm a primary interviewer. The whole team weighs in on the decision to hire someone after meeting with them, assuming the first interviews go well.

29. How do you encourage new ideas from your employees?

I don't discourage new ideas, that's all that's necessary in my field.

31. When faced with a revenue shortage, how do you recommend solving that?

That's a broad question, and once again, it depends on the situation.

[dennisme]

Thanks for your time. The questions were very broad but i have gained a better understanding of management in the IT field.