Discussing the Role of Middle Management
During the 1980s and 1990s, in our increasingly global marketplace, downsizing and re-engineering became a common practice in business, eliminating much of the need for middle managers, cutting costs, speeding up decisions, and flattening organizational hierarchies worldwide. Middle managers began to be seen as unnecessary costs, easily replaced by displacing responsibility downward to their subordinates, and uncooperative, even having a negative impact on change.
While middle managers still exist today, they must still deal with the general notion that their responsibilities could be displaced – even though they are often among the more experienced and knowledgeable employees in a department or company. This paper compares three articles on the topic of middle management, and applies these scenarios and opinions to real-life situations that I have experienced.
Creating Change Intermediaries
Recent studies have started to reveal the importance of the middle manager’s role when an organization is experiencing change. In Balogun’s article “From Blaming the Middle to Harnessing its Potential: Creating Change Intermediaries” the author states that middle managers make a strategic contribution as a “change intermediary,” referring to their role during implementing strategy, or change implementation.
Two opposing points of view observe the middle manager – one views the middle manager as adding little value and resisting change, and the other views the middle manager as a pivotal part of implementing change in an organization.
Balogun discusses a study that was done on middle managers during a transitional year in an organization, including structural, operational, and cultural changes. From this study, it was found that as “change intermediaries,” middle managers fulfill four roles: undertaking personal change, helping others through change, implementing necessary changes in their department, and keeping the business going.
A simple and perfect example of when I have experienced a co-worker performing as a change intermediary occurred last spring at a new restaurant where I had begun serving. The restaurant was only about 6 months old when the owners began to discuss the current lax dress code, and decided to implement a more strict and professional dress with more rules and more limitations as to what the servers could wear at work. Obviously, this was met with some resistance from servers who had been working at the restaurant since day one, and the change implementation was passed down from the owners through the general manager, to the assistant manager, who was most in charge of ensuring that the changes were adhered to.
Leading Change was named the top management book of the year by Management General. There are three major sections in this book. The first section is ¡§the change of problem and its solution¡¨ ; which discusses why firms fail. The second one is ¡§the eight-stage process¡¨ that deals with methods of performing changes. Lastly, ¡§implications for the twenty-first century¡¨ is discussed as the conclusion. The eight stages of process are as followed: (1) Establishing a sense of urgency. (2) Creating the guiding coalition. (3) Developing a vision and a strategy. (4) Communicating the change of vision. (5) Empowering employees for broad-based action. (6) Generating short-term wins. (7) Consolidating gains and producing more changes. (8) Anchoring new approaches in the culture.
Bridges, W. (2009). Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change. Philadelphia, PA: Da Capo Press.
Change usually comes with resistance in any workplace because change disrupts the employees’ sense of safety and control (Lewis, 2012). Kurt Lewin (1951) created a three step process for assisting employees with organizational Change (Lewis, 2012). The three stages are Unfreeze, Change and Refreeze. These are the steps to a smooth transition for change within organizations. Further, these steps are not possible without good communication from upper Management through line staff. Communication was consistently listed as an issue in surveys conducted by the department.
In today’s ever changing world people must adapt to change. If an organization wants to be successful or remain successful they must embrace change. This book helps us identify why people succeed and or fail at large scale change. A lot of companies have a problem with integrating change, The Heart of Change, outlines ways a company can integrate change. The text book Ivanceich’s Organizational Behavior and Kotter and Cohen’s The Heart of Change outlines how change can be a good thing within an organization. The Heart of Change introduces its readers to eight steps the authors feel are important in introducing a large scale organizational change. Today’s organizations have to deal with leadership change, change in the economy,
Palmer, I., Dunford, R., & Akin, G. (2009). Managing organizational change: A multiple perspectives approach (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill
Change is a fundamental element of individuals, groups and all sorts of organizations. As it is the case for individuals, groups and societies, where change is a continuous process, composed of an indefinite amount of smaller sub-changes that vary in effect and length, and is affected by all sorts of aspects and events, many of which cyclic are anticipated ones. It is also the case for organizations, where change occurs repeatedly during the life cycle of organizations. Yet change in organizations is not as anticipated nor as predictable, with unexpected internal and external variables and political forces that can further complicate the management of change (Andriopoulos, C. and P. Dawson, 2009), which is by itself, the focus of many scholars in their pursuit to shed light on and facilitate the change process (Kotter 1996; Levin 1947; et al).
The change agents of British Airways behaved like coaches. They deliberately shaped the BA’s capabilities, created the proper set of values and skills to reach the intended outcomes. During the implementation of change, John King and Colin Marshall acted like coaches as they assisted to “structure activities to help the organization members solve their own problems and learn to do that better” (French & Bell, 1995, p.4).
Changing situations throughout the world affect all organizations in business today. Therefore, most organizations acknowledge the need to experience change and transformation in order to survive. The key challenges companies face are due to the advancements in technology, the social environment caused by globalization, the pace of competition, and the demands regarding customer expectations. It is difficult to overcome the obstacles involved with change despite all the articles, books, and publications devoted to the topic. People are naturally resistant to fundamental changes and often intimidated by the process; the old traditional patterns and methods are no longer effective.
Faced with changing markets and higher competition, more and more firms are struggling to reestablish their dominance, keep market share, and in some cases, ensure their survival. Many have come to understand that the key to competitive success is to transform the way they function. They are reducing reliance on managerial authority, formal rules and procedures, and narrow divisions of work. In effect, companies are moving from the hierarchical and bureaucratic model of organization that has defined corporations since World War II to what can be called the task-driven organization where what has to be done governs who works with whom and who leads. But while senior managers understand the necessity of change to cope with new competitive realities, they often misunderstand what it takes to bring it about.
Kotter, J. P. (2007). ‘Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail’. Harvard Business Review, January: 96-103.
Rouleau, L. 2005, ‘Micro-practices of strategic sensemaking and sensegiving: How middle managers interpret and sell change every day’, Journal of Management Studies, vol. 42, pp. 1413-1441.
Middlebrook, B., Caruth, D., & Frank, R. (1984, Summer 85). Overcoming Resistance to Change. Management Journal, 50(3), pp. 23.
The change process within any organization can prove to be difficult and very stressful, not only for the employees but also for the management team. Hayes (2014), highlights seven core activities that must take place in order for change to be effective: recognizing the need for change, diagnosing the change and formulating a future state, planning the desired change, implementing the strategies, sustaining the implemented change, managing all those involved and learning from the change. Individually, these steps are comprised of key actions and decisions that must be properly addressed in order to move on to the next step. This paper is going to examine how change managers manage the implementation of change and strategies used
One of the first scholars to describe the process of organizational change was Lewin (1974). He described change as a three-stage process that consists of unfreezing, moving and freezing stage. During the unfreezing stage the organizations become motivated to change by some event or objective. The moving stage is like implementation when the organization actually makes the necessary change. Furthermore the freezing stage is reached when the change becomes permanent. Organizational change has also...
Transformational leaders and managers who have strong lines of open communication with their employees have been shown to lessen stress and resistance during organisational change (Nging & Yazdanifard, 2015). Heckelman (2017) outlines four tools that best equip managers for dealing with organisational change: