| Course | MT140 Introduction to Management |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 1 |
| Paper type | Discussion board post |
| Length | About 380 words, 2 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 discussion post |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MT140 Unit 1
Picture Day Starts at 6:15: A Unit 1 Discussion Board Post on the Four Functions
MT140 · Unit 1 Discussion Board Post
Posted by [Student Name]
Larkspur School Portraits, the school, the supervisor's morning and the classmate are composite and illustrative; the sources cited are real.
Initial Post
I am a field operations supervisor at Larkspur School Portraits, a regional company that photographs about 210 schools each fall. Here is last Tuesday morning.
At 6:15 a photographer texted that she had a fever, and our 7:30 job was an elementary school with 640 students. I spent twenty minutes rearranging the day, moving a photographer from a smaller school and pushing that job to the afternoon (organizing). At 6:50 I called the second photographer and talked him into the change, promising him the next Saturday off (leading). At 7:40 I checked the first fifty images from the elementary school on my tablet and found the backdrop light set too hot, so I called the photographer to fix it (controlling). At 8:30 I answered a principal's email about the retake date (organizing). At 9:10 I spent five minutes looking at next month's high school senior schedule (planning).
Fayol (1949) described management through functions such as planning, organizing, command, coordination and control, and modern texts compress these into four. My morning had all four, but planning got five minutes out of three hours, and it came last.
Mintzberg (1973) found that managers' work is brief, varied and fragmented, with constant interruptions, and my log looks exactly like that. The trouble is that the fever was not unpredictable. Every fall, photographers get sick in September. If I had planned a standby photographer for each week, the 6:15 call would have taken two minutes instead of twenty.
The sick call was a surprise; a sick call in September was not.
Does your own work leave planning only the minutes nobody else wanted?
Reply to Andre
Andre, your log from the hardware store had controlling at almost half the shift, counting registers and checking deliveries. I wonder whether that is a choice or a symptom. Mintzberg (1973) describes managers as pulled toward the immediate and concrete. Would a delivery checklist that a stocker could run free up time for the planning your log barely showed?
References
Fayol, H. (1949). General and industrial management (C. Storrs, Trans.). Pitman. (Original work published 1916)
Mintzberg, H. (1973). The nature of managerial work. Harper & Row.
The Purdue Global MT140 Unit 1 instructions
The opening discussion of MT 140 asks you to explain what management is and show the functions at work in a real setting, usually your own job or one you have watched closely. Most prompts name the four functions of planning, organizing, leading and controlling and want each one tied to something a supervisor did. A cited definition from the course text or a classic source is expected, and many sections also ask you to say which function took the most time and why. The initial post should state a point of view, not only a list of examples. Plan on roughly three hundred to four hundred words for the first post. After that, one or two replies to classmates are required by the deadline your section sets, and each reply should add something rather than only agree. Check the board's own rubric for the exact counts.
Inside the MT140 Unit 1 example
The post begins at 6:15 with a sick photographer and an elementary school of 640 students due at 7:30, so the reader meets the problem before any theory. Each entry carries a clock time and the function it shows: moving a photographer is organizing, talking a second one into the change is leading, checking fifty images on a tablet is controlling. Planning appears only once, at 9:10, as a short look at next month's senior schedule. Fayol arrives after the log, and the post then counts the minutes to show that planning lost. Mintzberg's finding about brief, interrupted managerial work explains why. The highlighted line makes the real argument: a sick call in September is predictable, so a standby photographer could have saved most of those twenty minutes. The reply to Andre asks whether his heavy controlling time was a choice or a symptom.
Where the points sit in the MT140 Unit 1 rubric
Discussion grading in this course usually rests on three things: whether the functions are applied correctly, whether the post reaches a conclusion, and whether replies move the conversation. A log that labels each task correctly shows understanding, but the higher range goes to posts that use the labels to argue something, as this one does when it names planning as the squeezed function. Citations should support claims in the post, so Fayol defines the functions and Mintzberg explains the interruptions instead of both being listed at the end. Writing quality counts as well, meaning short paragraphs, plain sentences and APA 7 in text and in the reference list. Replies earn credit when they name the classmate, respond to a detail from that classmate's post and ask a question that could be answered. Timeliness is graded too, since a reply posted after the window closes rarely counts.
Common MT140 Unit 1 mistakes, and how to avoid them
A frequent weakness in this first post is defining all four functions in order and then attaching one vague example to each, which shows memory rather than understanding. Another is using an example with no time or detail, such as saying a manager plans the schedule, when the grader wants to see a real moment. Some posts never say which function dominated, so they end without a claim. Others cite the textbook but never connect the quote to the log. Watch the reply as well, because a line that only says great post earns little. If you have no supervisory job, a shift you observed works, provided you describe what the supervisor did and keep names out. Our writers can help turn a workday you describe into a labeled log with a clear point, the cited definition and a reply that asks a question your classmate can answer.
Get an MT140 Unit 1 example written to your instructions
Describe a shift you have worked or watched, in any industry, and paste in the Unit 1 discussion prompt with its rubric. The timed log, the function labels and the reply are then drafted around that shift rather than the portrait company above. A first custom sample is free and generally lands within 24-48h. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
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MT140 Unit 1 questions, answered
Can the log come from a job where I was not the supervisor?
Yes, and many strong posts do exactly that. Watching a supervisor from the register or the stockroom gives you a clear view of what they handled and when. Label the entries by what the supervisor did rather than by what you did, and say in one line that you observed the shift instead of running it. Keep every name out.
Do I have to use Mintzberg's roles?
Only if your section's readings include them or the prompt names them. The four functions alone satisfy most Unit 1 prompts. Adding one role from a second framework can sharpen the analysis, but it has to explain something in your log, such as why an interruption took priority, or it reads as padding added to look thorough.
How long should the reply to a classmate be?
Check the discussion rubric first, since reply lengths vary by section and some set a minimum. Around a hundred words usually does the job: name the classmate's point, ask one question about it, and add a detail from your own shift that either supports it or complicates it. Two thin replies rarely beat one that moves the thread forward.
Where can I find a free MT140 Unit 1 sample paper?
A complete MT140 Unit 1 discussion board post is printed on this page. It logs a portrait company supervisor's fall morning by function, cites Fayol and Mintzberg, and includes a reply to a classmate with margin notes.
Why does planning get only five minutes in the sample post?
Because that is what the log showed, and the post uses the gap as its argument. The sick photographer forced twenty minutes of reshuffling that a September standby plan would have avoided, so the short planning entry becomes the evidence.