To present a detailed description of what school superintendents actually do, not what they perceive themselves doing or what they ought to do, this project utilized unstructured, nonparticipant observation of six superintendents on the job. Four trained observers recorded the administrators' activities throughout every minute of the workday for one week in the fall, winter, and spring. Different observers were assigned to each day in a week's observation to allow for analysis of interaction between observers and the observed subjects. The data were coded using Mintzberg's Managerial Work Activity Classification system, which organizes all managerial activity into five categories and assigns one of twelve purposes to each activity involving interpersonal interaction. In essence, the project sought answers to five questions: Where do superintendents work? How do they spend their time? With whom do they interact? Who initiates the contacts? What are the purposes of superintendent contacts? Comparison of results with other studies; discussions of interpersonal contacts, contextual factors, and managerial work; and the introduction of the concept of "managerial ecology" form a framework for the study's findings. Appended are the Mintzberg classification system, tables, and the data coding manual. (Author/WD)