Management activities in community dietetics practice

Information on the management activities of community dietitians was obtained through a mail survey of 350 randomly selected community dietitians. Subjects provided information on their management level, the importance to their job performance of 83 management activity statements, and the percent of time they spent performing management activities in each of nine categories. Twenty-nine percent of the respondents indicated job responsibilities in lower-level management; 45% had mid-level and 26% had upper-level management responsibilities. Numbers of activities rated essential or very important increased as management levels increased. Kinds of activities changed from technical to human to conceptual as management levels increased. Mid-level management subjects, while still spending time working with clients, reported spending considerable time on coordinating, investigating, and evaluating, often reporting as much time spent on those activities as did upper-level management subjects. Definitions provided by respondents indicated great diversity in job requirements and settings.