Analysis: middle managers occupy a difficult place in organisations with a job that pulls them in so many different directions at once
A recent paper in The Economist detailed many of the challenges faced by middle managers, who are described as "overloaded and overlooked". The authors noted that middle managers are often awash in administrative work and buffeted by competing pressures in their organisations. In previous pieces, I have often been critical of managers and executives, but should we extend more understanding, and perhaps even pity, to middle managers?
They're a group who occupy a difficult place in organisations. Middle managers have substantial responsibilities, but they often have very little real power. This means that they are likely to be held responsible if things go wrong, but often lack the authority and control to make sure that things do not go wrong.
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They do not set policy, and their superiors often sharply curtail their range of activity and influence. They are neither fish nor fowl, being at the same time leaders to their subordinates and followers to senior management. Most important of all, executives and senior managers often manage processes, but middle managers manage people, and managing people is hard.
For a start, employees rarely want to be managed and they are often convinced that management does little other than get in the way. Some companies have gone as far as getting rid of middle management altogether, and experiment that does not always produce positive results.
Middle managers often have split responsibilities and conflicting goals that make managing subordinates very difficult. For example, middle managers are often responsible for evaluating the performance of their subordinates and at the same time also responsible for maximizing the performance and productivity of their work group.
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If you are responsible for making sure that your employees perform well and you give a particular employee a bad performance review, you are communicating to the organisation that both of you failed. It is no surprise that performance ratings are routinely inflated; in an organisation that uses a 5-point scale to measure performance, it is common for 80% of all employees to receive scores of 4 or 5.
Middle management is often a sink-or-swim job. They are often chosen because the performed very well in their previous jobs, not necessarily because they have the skills needed to succeed in management, and they can find the transition to management stressful.
Companies that employ numbers of scientists or engineers often find that promoting their best performers into middle management risks disaster because top scientists often lack the skills required or the interest in managing people. Middle managers rarely receive meaningful training, especially in the interpersonal skills (e.g., information sharing, delegation, managing conflict) that are critical to success and the failure rate for middle managers is likely to be substantial.
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There are numerous descriptions of the job of middle management, but the main job of a middle manager is to create conditions that maximize the likelihood that the employees who they supervise have the skills, information, resources and motivation to perform their jobs in ways that will advance the strategic goals of the organisation. Their job requires skills, but communication is probably the most critical. They must communicate to employees regarding their tasks and goals and the best means of accomplishing them - and to upper management regarding the success or barriers to success of their subordinates.
All in all, the job of middle manager can be a miserable one. Why, then, do people compete to become middle managers? Usually, they fight for middle management slots because they believe that successful performance as a middle manager can lead to promotion into the ranks of upper management, where the constraints and split roles that define a middle management job are less likely to be present. Becoming a middle manager in your 20s or 30s can be a big step in this regard, but attaining the role and never moving up to the next step on the ladder can put you in an increasingly embarrassing position as you approach retirement age and most of your colleagues are younger than your children.
The lot of a middle manager is often comparable to that of a junior officer in a military organisation
Can the lot of the middle manager be improved? The most common recommendation is to give middle managers real power to make and enforce decisions, but as the Economist notes, decentralising power can make conflicts between the goals of middle management (e.g., retaining their highest-performing employees) and those of senior management (e.g., identifying good candidates for promotion and transfer) more difficult to manage.
The lot of a middle manager is often comparable to that of a junior officer in a military organisation. The ultimate goal is often not to build a career as a star middle manager, but rather to get promoted as quickly as possible into higher ranks and more meaningful goals. My advice is to be kind to middle managers. They don't necessarily deserve a job that pulls them in so many different directions at once, and they are probably not going to get much kindness or warmth in the workplace.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
