The purpose of managing by walking around is

to learn more about company operations and see how activities are really being done
to gather information and opinions about what is happening, learn what is on people’s minds, and see firsthand how well the strategy execution process is proceeding
to improve employee relations by communicating information about organizational activities as quickly as possible
to gather information about what strategy to follow and to learn what competitors are doing
to try to be visible and accessible and to stay in tune with what is on employees’ minds