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Management Time:
Who’s Got the
Monkey?
by William Oncken, Jr., and Donald L. Wass
W
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the November–
December 1974 issue of HBR and has been one of the publication’s
best-selling reprints. For its reissue, Harvard Business Review asked
Stephen R. Covey to provide a commentary.
WHY IS IT THAT MANAGERS are typically running out of time while
their subordinates are typically running out of work? Here we shall
explore the meaning of management time as it relates to the inter-
action between managers and their bosses, their peers, and their
subordinates.
Specifically, we shall deal with three kinds of management time:
Boss-imposed time—used to accomplish those activities that
the boss requires and that the manager cannot disregard
without direct and swift penalty.
System-imposed time—used to accommodate requests from
peers for active support. Neglecting these requests will also
result in penalties, though not always as direct or swift.
Self-imposed time—used to do those things that the manager
originates or agrees to do. A certain portion of this kind of
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