In sum, our ongoing research on middle management's role in strategy suggests that as organizations move away from hierarchical toward more horizontal business structures, the importance of middle managers in achieving competitive advantage is likely to increase rather than decrease. While often unrecognized, their contributions in interpreting, nurturing, developing, and promoting new capabilities take on new importance as organizations strive to achieve increased levels of adaptability and responsiveness.

Thus, the reengineered organization is likely to be delayered and certain to have fewer middle managers, but those remaining will be crucial to the firm's ongoing success. Senior managers interested in leveraging these human assets should reexamine middle management according to the following set of principles.