Средний менеджмент: роль, компетенции и вызовы современной организации

Intermediate management level of a hierarchy
Middle management is the intermediate management level of a hierarchical organization that is subordinate to the executive management and responsible for "team leading" line managers and/or "specialist" line managers. Middle management is indirectly (through line management) responsible for junior staff performance and productivity. Unlike line management, middle management is considered to be a senior (or semi executive) position as middle managers are authorised to speak and act on behalf of the organisation to line managers, junior staff and customers. Included in this level of management are division, plant and department managers. A 2023 study in the American Journal of Sociology found that middle management has increased over time and that the role of middle management increasingly revolves around the task of collaboration rather than supervision.

A number of competencies are critical to become an effective middle manager. Leadership. The most important competency that consists of many skills. As an inherent leader, middle managers have to possess sense making and persuading skills. They must be able to motivate, influence and guide their subordinates, become a role model for them, demonstrate the quality and the level of work contribution necessary for the organization and engage in continuous self development and learning. Decision making. Ability to quickly solve the problems, make decisions under pressure and take responsibility for the outcome. Creativity & Visioning. Managers should have a clear vision of the strategy implementation and be creative in overcoming the possible difficulties. Further, proximity to the boardroom makes it easy for the manager to promote their own interests, by "synthesizing" the information and presenting data from a certain strategic perspective. The same level of influence can be exploited by a middle manager towards the lower staff. Driven by the reasons of maintaining a reputation, strengthening the power and influence, middle manager may introduce company's major strategic decisions in a light beneficial way for their designs.

Middle managers' reluctance to lose control in their teams and satisfaction with a settled situation could lead to their resistance in any changes in the strategy or direction of an organization. Usually, the resistance does not take an aggressive form such as refusal to carry out tasks or unconcealed confrontation, but result in a lack of support and eagerness to convey only those tasks, impact of which is clearly visible to the top management. This creates barriers to a growth of a company and lags the overall working process.

The overall necessity of middle managers in an organization is questioned. They are said to be too costly, non effective and constantly under performing employees. It has been stated that middle managers do not carry out their main duties of linking the organization and reporting effectively, which leads to a block of communication between different levels of staff. Thus, as rapid growth of globalization put pressures on businesses in terms of cost effectiveness and speed of information flow within the organization, middle management make companies less flexible and competitive.

Development of information technology enabled an increase in the span of control and reduced the need for middle management. Moreover, an increasingly large number of modern organizations become flatter and downsized in the pursuit of flexibility, higher competitiveness and innovation. According to David Williams, flat organizations promote greater intercommunication and efficiency of the workers. As a result, many organizations are being restructured, middle management is being reduced and their roles are thought to be out dated and unnecessary. At the same time, there is still a need in a middle manager as an employee and they continue playing a significant role in organizations, specifically in setting an overall strategy and targets. Changes in the global market forced them to become more flexible, stress resistant, acquire new skills.