Final answer:
Kim Radeback engaged in the management function of Leading, which involves motivating and inspiring employees. Leading is distinct from planning, controlling, and merely managing, as it focuses on the interpersonal influences on team performance.
Step-by-step explanation:
The management function Kim Radeback had to engage in is B.) Leading. Leading involves inspiring and motivating employees to achieve organizational goals, especially during challenging times like an economic downturn. The scenario describes Radeback's task to find inexpensive ways to reward high performing employees and improve morale, which falls under the realm of inspirational leadership and motivation, core components of the leading function. Compared to other management functions like planning, which involves setting future directives, or controlling, which involves regulating organizational activities to ensure they're on track, leading directly deals with interpersonal aspects and influencing team dynamics for better performance.In the context of functionalism's four main purposes of government, maintaining law and order, meeting social needs, and planning and directing society are included, whereas equally distributing resources is not mentioned as a main purpose. This relates to the formulation of policies aimed at social stability and development, not necessarily equal distribution of resources.Additionally, in the context of John D. Rockefeller's management strategies, horizontal integration, vertical integration, and the holding company model were indeed strategies he used, but social Darwinism is not recognized as a management strategy; it's more of an ideological stance that influenced many business practices in that era.