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The Misunderstood Middle Manager

The withering away of middle management’s operating responsibilities undeniably suggests reductions in the number of middle managers. But, our research shows that performance of middle managers’ strategic roles remains as a crucial factor in organizational success. In a study of twenty companies, for example, we found that middle manager involvement in the formulation of strategic decisions, rather than their implementation, was associated with higher financial performance. [i] This is not to say that implementation is unimportant, and strategies that lack middle management commitment suffer serious implementation problems. [ii] What differentiated higher performing organizations in this study, however, was an arrangement where middle managers actively participated in the "thinking" as well as the "doing" of strategy. Being involved in implementation is an important stimulus to strategic thinking, so that strategies formulated with middle management input are likely to be superior to those designed solely by top managers.

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