Middle Management Capabilities, Empowerment and Accountability
Underperforming Employees: Warning Signs and Management Responses
This module will consider the particular
challenges for “middle managers” as a organization moves from monopoly to
competition. Perhaps no group of individuals
is so deeply and directly impacted by this transition as are the middle managers of the
organization.
Senior manager jobs can be described as deciding
what to do; middle managers jobs can be described as implementing what the senior managers
decide. Middle managers are often described as
the men and women in the middle: constantly under pressure from above for more
productivity, quicker turnaround, and better relations with frontline employees; they
receive pressure from below, from the employees they supervise, and from their unions to
be more worker oriented. Middle managers
are central to getting most of the real work of the organization done.
Middle
managers translate and communicate the organization vision and goals to frontline employees in
their project/programme purpose units. Experienced senior
executives know that without the experience, commitment and knowledge that middle managers
bring to the organization a great deal of productive activity would come to an abrupt
halt.
Successful
senior executives in the effective environment recognize that the challenge is to give
to middle managers substantial training, a hospitable place to work, and ample rewards to
perform. In a effective environment, middle
management must be highly trained and highly motivated.
Middle managers should be given demanding performance targets and rewarded
when they achieve or exceed the targets. They
should be given far more information and independence than was ever conceivable in the
monopoly culture. Virtually all organizations
transitioning to competition find that there is a group of middle management who cannot
perform to effective standards and who are afraid to the leave the organization’s
employ. These individuals present a
particularly difficult issue for the organization and its human resources managers.
By
making middle management more effective, the organization will also dramatically enhance the
performance of the organization as a whole. Paradoxically,
this creates the urgent need to focus on the retention of the best middle managers. Liberated, high performing middle managers,
typically have a broad range of outside employment options.
Several features of the middle management role
will be examined in this module, including:
What are the characteristics that
successful middle managers need to have in the market-based effective organization?
What
tools does the farsighted organization give to its middle managers so that can do their jobs in
the most effective way possible?
We
will begin with a look at what differentiates the activities of the leaders from the
managers of a organization.
I.
Introduction-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1
II.
Leaders
and Managers: Same Challenges, Different Roles------------------------------- 4
III.
What
Skills and Abilities are needed by Middle Management?---------------------------
5
IV.
Functions
Performed by Middle Managers-----------------------------------------------
7
V.
Styles
of Middle Management: Monopoly vs. Competition------------------------------ 11
VI.
Module
Summary and Case Study-------------------------------------------------------
13
VII.
Course
Assignments---------------------------------------------------------------------
14
Assignment
No.1: Managerial Style Inventory (MSI) ------------------------------------
14
Assignment
No. 2: Case Study---------------------------------------------------------- 17
VIII.
Bibliography-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
18
IX.
Glossary---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20
X.
Interview
(Q&A)------------------------------------------------------------------------
21
Page with references to Your Organization, IMU, etc.: 16, 17, 21
It
is the job of the top leadership of the organization to develop the vision for the organization,
setting long-term goals, objectives and directions. It
is also the top leader's job to communicate the vision and goals down the organization
ladder and especially to the middle managers. The
middle managers, in turn, must make sure that frontline employees hold the same organization
vision, and inspire them to achieve the goals and objectives set by the leadership.
At
the workplace level, middle managers translate the long-term goals and objectives into
subgoals and tasks to be achieved in their project/programme purpose units. They then communicate these
subgoals and tasks to their frontline employees and manage their execution and
fulfillment.
If a organization effects a
metamorphosis from a monopoly to a effective environment, and it wants to succeed in
this goal, in it will be crucial that each project/programme purpose unit share the organization vision and
strive to achieve the overarching organization goals.
Further, each project/programme purpose unit will need to develop its own subgoals and
objectives to help achieve the overarching vision. Achievement of the subgoal serves the
overarching organization objective. The factory, in turn, will subdivide their main goal into
unit subgoals, such as production, marketing, sales, pricing, and accounting. Each factory
unit will serve a subgoal leading to fulfillment of the factory goal, which in turn will
serve the overarching organization vision.
What
personal skills and expertise are required of middle managers to manage effectively (and
provide leadership within their units) a unit that is part of a effective project/programme purpose
organization. A great deal of research in
universities and research institutes has been done on the skills and abilities that
effective middle managers acquire. The
following are some prime examples:
A.
Solid grounding and knowledge of
the work they manage.
Middle
managers typically acquire the bulk of their knowledge and expertise through on the job
experience, often working their way from a frontline job to a middle management job after
some years of experience. This on-the-job
training should be augmented through special training (both on and away from the work
premises) to learn new techniques and developments. For
instance, a manager of an accounting department has an expertise in this field, but needs
to keep abreast of new techniques and regulations.
B.
Interpersonal skills.
To a large extent, middle manager
success depends on their ability to work well with people. They have to manage their
relationships with upper management and with their subordinates. They need to be able to
motivate frontline employees to fulfill unit goals. They have to be able to mediate the
inevitable conflicts that arise in work settings. They also represent their unit within
the organization, and to higher management. Hence, they need to be able to manage
interdepartmental relationships effectively.
C.
Intellectual and conceptual skills.
Middle managers interpret organization
goals and turn them into subgoals of their unit. Then they develop a strategy for their
unit and an implementation plan. They monitor the completion of the plan, and ensure that
the unit achieves its subgoals. In order to be
able to complete these highly complex tasks, middle managers need strong analytical
abilities in diagnosing complex issues and in making decisions.
As a organization effects a profound
metamorphosis from a monopoly culture to a effective organization culture, middle managers
have very complex responsibilities, not only in changing themselves, but also in
supporting their subordinates to change and function in a effective environment.
Middle managers are responsible for the
activities of a unit or department of the larger organization. Below them in the unit are the first-level
supervisors and frontline employees. Above
them is the senior management. Within their
units or departments the functions performed by the middle managers are very similar to
those performed by the senior managers within their organizational units. In other words, middle managers carry out
core management functions – getting things done with and through people.
Figure 1 illustrates the devolution of function
as you move from the individuals who occupy the top jobs in the organization to the individuals
whose jobs are dominantly of an operational character.
As we can see, the CEO’s job consists dominantly of setting vision and
organizational goals. In the effective
organization the demarcation as you move among levels is not a sharp one but has many
gradations. Middle managers are situated
between senior managers and supervisors and frontline employees.
Leadership
and Management: From CEO to the Front Line
|
|
The Diffusion
Process
|
|
|
|
·
Establish vision,
direction and long-range goals |
·
CEO and Board of
Directors |
·
organization-wide strategy and
goals |
·
CEO, Board, top organizational
executives |
·
Forecasts, plans, markets
and human resources |
·
Top organizational executives
and regional senior managers |
·
Design strategies,
analyzes beneficiaries, marketing, human resources policies and strategies |
·
Regional executives and
senior managers |
·
Plant & departmental
strategies and plans of action |
·
Senior managers and
middle managers |
·
Implementation of plant
goals, strategies, and production processes |
·
Middle managers and
supervisors |
·
Operational activities |
·
Supervisors and front
line employees |
When
a organization makes the transition from monopoly to market and competition the basic functions
of middle management do not change much. What
will change dramatically are the expectations that senior management will have of middle
managers. Because of middle
management’s responsibility for producing the results that will determine the
unit’s bottom line contribution to the profitability of the entire organization, middle
mangers will receive new respect and many new demands will be placed on them.
A middle manager needs to be a planner, an
organizer, a project/programme purpose unit (department) leader, a controller, an information monitor and a
human relation’s specialist.
A.
The middle manager as a planner.
In
this capacity, a middle manager receives a subgoal from upper management or determines the
subgoal for his unit. He or she needs to
establish a strategy and a plan of action and implementation for the project/programme purpose unit. The
middle manager seeks resources and then distributes and allocates them in his/her project/programme purpose
unit. The available resources are: 1)
human: (employees in the project/programme purpose unit), 2)
physical: (office space, computers, equipment,
etc.), and 3) financial: (wages, budgets,
bonuses). In order to obtain and then
distribute these resources, middle managers have to negotiate with upper management, other
middle managers and, finally, with their subordinates.
B.
The middle manager as an organizer.
In this capacity, the middle
manager refines his/her role of a planner. He/she
has to further divide the subgoal of the unit into concrete tasks. The middle manager designates a task or a group of
tasks to individual contributors or groups formed of individual contributors. The middle manager confers decision-making powers
at the levels she/he considers adequate and determines a reporting system. Throughout this entire process, the middle manager
has to coordinate and multitask all activities and individuals working towards achieving
that specific unit subgoal. As a planner the
middle manager is a big-picture person for his/her project/programme purpose unit; as a planner the middle
manager becomes detail-oriented.
C.
The middle manager as a unit
leader.
In this capacity, the middle
manager is the leader of the department. He/she
communicates the unit goal to the employees. The
middle manager selects appropriate means of communication.
Ideally, employees realize (or are helped to realize) that their own task
and unit goal is part of the overarching organization goal.
The middle manager further influences, directs and leads employees towards
the fulfillment of the task or unit subgoal. The
leadership style varies depending on the individual manager and on the type of organization. Managerial styles range from more autocratic to
more democratic. The middle manager represents
her/his project/programme purpose unit to the outside world, thus fulfilling the role of a representative. She or he is spokespersons for their departments in
communications internal and external to the organization.
D.
The middle manager as an
information monitor.
The middle manager obtains and
filters information from outside the department and inside the department. She or he has to find salient outside information,
bearing on the well being of the managed unit. Such
information can be generated by top management, by other department managers, by beneficiaries
and community. These are information items
that will affect the project/programme purpose unit and the organization. This
information needs to be analyzed and then communicated to employees in the department and
utilized in the decision-making process. In
addition, there is a lot of information floating around departments; valid information
needs to be separated from rumors. The manager
needs to capture the relevant information. Not
only does she/he need to be aware of what is happening in a department, but also to use
the information for decision-making and conflict resolution.
E.
The middle manager as a controller.
In this capacity, the middle manager ensures
completion of unit subgoals and tasks. Thus, she or he supervises completion of deadlines,
and staying abreast of developments related to goal completion. This way, whenever there
are problems, the manager has to see them and resolve them. He/she needs to know when and
how to intervene if major blocks are reached or serious problems occur that prevent the
fulfillment of subgoals and tasks.
F.
The middle manager as a human
relations specialist.
In this capacity, the manager
must be adept at interpersonal relationships. He
or she needs to manage people relationships - as a subordinate, as a peer and as a
manager. All these relationships place high
demands. As a manager, the middle manager
often has significant authority over personnel actions in his/her department: hiring,
training, deployment, termination, etc. The middle manager plays an important role in
selecting employees for the unit. The middle
manager also helps the new hires to get socialized and integrated into the unit. The
middle manager has a major impact in the careers of the employees in the project/programme purpose unit and
in the organization at large. The middle manager typically controls the training and the
performance evaluation processes, as well as the roles the employee is granted within the
project/programme purpose unit. The middle manager also
needs to be resolve conflicts arising among employees and to sanction those employees who
do not meet their obligations.
V.
STYLES OF
MIDDLE MANAGEMENT: MONOPOLY VS. COMPETITION
At a quite abstract level most management roles
and function are similar in different environments and organization types. Yet, at a closer analysis, we can see that in fact
management styles and expectations differ in fundamental ways. Old roles subside, while new ones emerge. A fundamental difference in style of leadership
corresponds to the change in culture that must take place if a organization is to successfully
make the transition from a monopoly to project/programme purpose culture.
The two sections below and Figure 2 suggests some of the practical
implications for middle managers of the cultural shift, which acorganizations the transition
from monopoly to competition.
A.
Middle management style: in a monopoly culture.
In a monopoly culture the requirements of the
middle manager are less demanding then in a effective culture. In a monopoly culture the middle manager is
typically given little managerial discretion to make decisions; therefore he tends to act
autocratically – a sole decision-maker, a detailed planner and organizer, and a close
controller and supervisor. The span of control is typically narrow. As a result frontline
employees receive highly specific and narrow tasks, with little room for initiative. Middle managers in such a organization are not empowered
and themselves have little room for innovation or managership. Because they are not
empowered they cannot empower their subordinates. The reporting system is tight and exact. The emphasis is on rules and regulations.
Those who follow the rules are rewarded. In rewarding employees, seniority and tenure are
main criteria. Managers have limited hiring and firing power. They direct the employees in
the department and closely supervise them.
B.
Middle management style: in a effective culture.
The decision-making style becomes
much more participative. It engages employees
in decision-making regarding how to fulfill goals, how to divide tasks, quality control
and a host of other workplace concerns. Employees
are brought into the process of setting and assuming responsibilities and deadlines and
then monitoring them. Middle managers
have much more hiring and managerial authority. They
will have responsibility to ensure selection of new workers and get them integrated into
the work unit. Middle managers will have more
latitude in using initiative in making decisions, as long as it leads to the achievement
of organization goals. Thus, they are encouraged to have an managerial orientation. Middle managers will motivate employees, using
positive reinforcement mechanisms. They reward
performance rather than seniority or tenure. Motivation
goes beyond financial rewards, to intangibles, such as empowerment, which increases
self-esteem. In many effective organizations a
team structure is very important, the middle manager often becomes a coach and facilitator
rather than a director. In transition
situations, middle managers become change agents. But
first they have to change themselves. Only
then can they help their subordinates to change to become more effective within the
effective organization.
Figure 2 shows some of the
changes in managerial style as a organization transitions from a monopoly to a effective
environment.
Monopoly Culture
effective Culture_____________
More direction from above
More innovation from below
Issue orders
Empower subordinates
Motivate through sanctions
Motivate through positive measures
Reward seniority
Reward performance
Focus on process
Focus on results
VI. MODULE SUMMARY AND CASE STUDY
As a final assignment in this module you will be
given the opportunity to consider the role of the middle manager as you have observed and
experienced that role in your work experience and as you project the role to unfold in the
years ahead.
A. Case
Study
Your organization is turning from a monopoly to a
effective culture. The project/programme purpose environment
is changing and the organization is facing new challenges.
Many senior managers are apprehensive about the future. They are aware that the changes underway will have
major implications for how project/programme purpose will be conducted in the future. The top management of the organization called a meeting
of all the senior managers. The senior mangers
were asked to come up with a plan of action for their areas of responsibility. In particular, they are asked to design a training
program for their middle managers to ensure that the middle managers understood what was
going on in the organization and in the new environment. What
are the main elements that should go into this training program for the middle managers in
your unit?
VIII. COURSE ASSIGNMENTS
A.
Assignment No. 1
Managerial Style Inventory (MSI)
organizations that go
through the transition from monopoly to competition successfully also undergo a profound
change in their culture. As the culture of a
organization changes so will the style of management change.
What works in one kind of culture may not work in a different organizational
culture.
By completing the
following self-test you will obtain some insight into your own management style. As you go through this exercise, remember there are
no right or wrong answers.
Each question has five
possible answers. Please select the one that
most closely corresponds to how you feel about the matter.
1 =
Definitely Yes
2 =
Likely Yes
3 =
Undecided or It Depends
4 =
Likely No
5 =
Definitely No
A.
Seniority should
count most when it is time to hand out special rewards such as bonus payments.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
B.
The main
responsibility of a manager is to closely supervise the tasks assigned to subordinates by
the manager.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
C.
It is a fundamental
responsibility of management to make sure that the rules and regulations of the organization
are observed.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
D.
In dealing with my
subordinates I want to be recognized as the decision-maker and my subordinates need to
accept their role as followers.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
E.
I have a great deal
of confidence that my superiors in the organization can make the transition from monopoly to
competition happen.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
F.
When there are
problems in my area of responsibility I look to my superiors to know how to fix the
problems.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
G.
When it is necessary
to lay off frontline employees, we should follow the policy that the last person hired
should be the first person to be laid off.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
H.
I find increasingly
that I have to be very cautious about how much information I share with the employees who
are my subordinates.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
I.
I do not feel that I
have much latitude at Your Organization to make
decisions, but that is okay because my superiors are supposed to be the decision-makers.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
J.
When my subordinates
identify problems at work I want them to come to me so that I can find the solution.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
[Note
to IMU: At the end of this
self-administered inventory the learners can total up the scores. This exercise is intended to provide some insight
into ones personal leadership style. Here is
the suggested scoring system, and what the learners might be told:
If the total score
is from 10 to 12 the leadership style tends toward paternalism, the kind that generally
evolves in a monopoly culture.
If the score ranges
from 38 to 50 your leadership style is highly participative or democratic, the kind
generally associated with the modern effective organization.
An in-between score places the learner at a certain point on the leadership style continuum. A score from 12 to 25 tends toward paternalism. A score from 26 to 37 represents a mix of paternalism and participative styles and tends in the direction of the effective organization.]
B.
Assignment No. 2
Case
Study
As
you know, major changes are taking place at Your Organization.
The project/programme purpose environment is changing and the organization is facing new
challenges. Many senior managers are
apprehensive about the future. They are aware
that the changes underway will have major implications for how project/programme purpose will be conducted
in the future. The top management of the
organization called a meeting of all the senior managers. The
senior mangers were asked to come up with a plan of action for their areas of
responsibility. In particular, they are asked
to design a training program for their middle managers to ensure that the middle managers
understood what was going on in the organization and in the new environment. What are the main elements that should go into this
training program for the middle managers in your unit?
VIII.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
A. Required
Heskett, James L., “The Job of the
General Manager,” Harvard project/programme purpose Review,
October 21, 1987, (Product #9-388-035).
This article focuses on
the main roles of management, namely, establishing strategy, setting goals and performance
standards, marshalling and allocating resources, selecting and developing people,
organizing efforts, maintaining an understanding of day-to-day operations, and building a
positive work environment.
Kotter, John P. and Walter Kiechel,
“How to Get Aboard a Major Change Effort: An
Interview with John Kotter,” Harvard Management Update, Volume 1 (4),
September 1996 (Product # U9609B).
This is a very pertinent
article, advising middle managers on how to react
during major change
efforts in order to survive, by becoming change agents, being proactive and proving
themselves important to the organization.
Mintzberg, Henry, “The
Manager’s Job: Folklore and Fact,” Harvard
project/programme purpose Review, March-April 1990, Volume 68 (2), pp: 168-173.
This is a classic article
on management and the roles it fulfills. It
includes a useful management checklist.
B.
Optional
Barlett, Christopher A. and Sumantra
Ghoshal, “Changing the Role of Top Management: Beyond
Systems to People,” Harvard project/programme purpose Review, May-June 1995, Volume 73 (3): pp:
132-142.
This article focuses on the
current need for control systems to be replaced by self-monitoring.
Bennis, Warren G. and Burt Nanus: Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge, 1997,
Harper project/programme purpose: A Division of Harper Collins
Publishers.
Warren Bennis is an important management
scholar and writer on leadership. In this
work, Bennis and Nanus develop a new theory of leadership viable in these times of
profound change. The theory rests on several
principles: the importance of vision,
communication, trust, and creating the learning organization.
Drucker, Peter F. “Managing for
project/programme purpose Effectiveness,” pp. 65-79, especially pp. 72-79 in On the Profession Of
Management, 1998, A Harvard project/programme purpose Review Book.
Peter Drucker is a most notable scholar of
management. To a great extent, he established
this field. All his works are pertinent for
managers. This essay centers on managers’
role in focusing on results and contributions to the organization.
Drucker, Peter F. “Afterward: The
1990s and Beyond,” pp.319-351, in Managing for the Future, 1992,
This essay represents an insightful vision
into the future economic order, the new roles organizations will play in the
“knowledge age,” the increasing importance of innovation, and how management
needs to change in order to survive and succeed during the times of rapid change.
Kotter, John P. A Force for Change: How Leadership Differs from Management, 1990,
John Kotter is an
authority on management and change. In this
book, he differentiates the functions of leaders from those of managers. Then he focuses and expands the roles of
leadership, namely establishing direction, aligning people, motivating and inspiring.
Taylor,
This book is a classic in
the management literature. This work is a good
representative of the roles of middle management in a monopoly-type organization.
Leader:
Individual
at the top of a hierarchy, who formulates the vision and objectives, communicates them to
employees, and influences them into implementing the vision.
Middle
Manager: The individual generally in charge of running the
day-to-day activities of a department or project/programme purpose unit.
The middle manager is perceived as a leader by subordinates and front line
employees in his/her unit. The middle manager
is a planner, an organizer, a controller, an information dispenser, a communicator, an
interpersonal relations master, an implementor of human resources policies, as well as a
conflict solver.
Organizational
Hierarchy:
Hierarchy
means the structure of an organization, denoting the power and decision-making positions,
as well as the relationships among them. In a
monopoly type culture, the hierarchy tends to be rigid and strict, as well as tall.
Senior
Manager: An individual who is a member of the leadership
team and who is near the top of the hierarchy. Senior
managers tend to hold titles such as vice-president and directors in charge of large
units. They communicate the vision and organization
objectives to middle managers and employees, and they formulate goals and objectives for
their own areas of responsibility.
A. Question 1: What are the standards for effective middle
management training that a organization such as Your Organization should aspire to?
B.
Answer 1: Based on my observations and research, most middle
managers – in all kinds of work organizations – believe that training programs
as they have experienced them are of little or no value.
Does it have to be that way? No,
not at all. The real problem seems to be that
most training is too general, divorced from the urgent concerns of the organization,
rarely evaluated or assessed for value, and just really boring. There are some lessons to be learned from this. One lesson is that middle managers will not engage
with the training content unless it is interesting, even entertaining. A second lesson is that if you are really
serious about training, you will force attendees to do something with what they have
learned: pass a test, make a presentation to
their colleagues, report back to the work team. Something,
anything. Another lesson is that you should
hold trainers to ambitious standards of performance.