Management by Walking Around basically refers to managers spending some part of their time listening to problems and ideas of their staff, while wandering around an office or plant.

Definition: It is Management by Walking Around. MBWA basically refers to managers spending some part of their time listening to problems and ideas of their staff, while wandering around an office or plant.

Description: Management by Walking Around is a term coined by management guru Tom Peters. Apparently, from his study of successful companies and their practices, Tom Peters noticed that good managers tend to communicate a lot better with their team. And they do that in informal ways, like just hanging around in the office and chatting with them, rather than having formal interaction sessions in their cabins or boardrooms. Sam Walton, the founder of the largest company in the world, Walmart, was a great exponent of this practice. He believed in visiting as many of his stores as many times as possible and talking to frontline staff.

The idea of this practice is to listen. You must also respond to ideas or problems voiced and take effective action about them.