The manager of a small company : determining his activities, characteristics and roles with the use of structured observation

We have accepted in the past, based on theoretical hypotheses, that managers plan, control and direct. Most management courses have been founded on this assumption. If it is wronp;, then have we not wasted enough time in the past? Is it not time to observe what managers do and build a theory of management which would be based on empirical research? Surely, as these writers postulate, our conception of management is perched on weak foundations