The area of middle-level management has attracted the attention of many researchers. For example, Rezvani (2017) provides a critical review for the extant literature. Harding et.al (2014) explain that middle managers occupy a central role within the organizational hierarchies, and play a critical role in implementing the plans by senior management by
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ensuring that the junior staff effectively fulfil their designated roles in the organization.
Generally, researchers offer diverse understandings of who middle managers are, hence, lack of a consistent description of the term, middle managers. Despite the absence of consensus, all authors agreed that middle level management is that category of managers that form the intermediate group, which is between the lower and top levels of organizational administration (Huy, 2001 and Ikävalko, 2005). According to Rezvani (2017), three other criteria have been adopted towards the differentiation of middle level management from top tier and other categories of management: context, function as well as researcher tendency. In research, the focus on strategic roles of management and significant contributions of the middle level manager has formed the basis of research tendencies. Further, research reveals an overlap in middle level management roles, and that the degree of intertwining is dependent on organizational context, attitudes, and time.
While the use of the term “middle manager” is well established in the literature, it is not common to find employees with this title in organizations. It should be noted that this position has come to refer to an operational function (Mills, 1951). This has been responsible for various conceptualizations of the term. In this case, some studies have described middle managers in terms of assistant to authority. For instance, Mills (1951) describes middle managers as mediators between organizational strategy and its daily activities. Nonaka (1994) offers a different perspective of this term by describing it as management of a set of team leaders. Other studies have conceptualized middle managers in terms of the positions existing within an organizational. Huy (2001), for example, describes middle managers as any manager that is found below the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as well as a manager that is above line workers.
On the other hand, Ikävalko (2005) defines middle managers as the workers that play the role of both subordinates and superiors.
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Middle managers refer to those managers who are tasked with the role of providing and receiving direction within an organization. According to Huy (2001), these are managers who are closest to the day-to-day operations of an organization, while at the same time, they are far from the frontline, which enables them to focus on the big picture. Middle managers play a critical role in the development of organizations according to Kanter (1982, p. 96) who opines,
“middle managers have their fingers on the pulse of operations, they can also conceive, suggest, and set in motion new ideas that top managers may not have thought of.” This shows that middle managers are essential in the process of strategic development within organizations.
This is reiterated by Ahearne et.al (2014) who explicate, middle managers are implementers of the strategic goals defined by top management. This implies that middle managers fulfil the role of serving as relationship managers who are key participants in the process of strategic change management.
However, a considerable amount of research has asserted that middle managers do not add any value to their organizations. This is the notion held by Drucker (1986) who claims that middle managers are overstaffed employees. They thus form various layers of management that do not have any actual role to play in the decision-making process or cannot lead. The claim that middle managers do not add any value is further supported by the notion that technology plays a much better role facilitating the functions of middle managers than they do themselves. This supports the view of Gratton (2011) who postulates that technology can discharge the function.
However, Huy (2002) emphasizes the need to reevaluate the role that is played by middle managers in the organization to ensure that they are appreciated based on the role that they perform in the organization. Continuously underestimating the roles performed by middle managers in the organization is risky to the organization. Huy (2002) described the risk of,
“downsizing middle management as throwing the baby out with the bathwater: damaging the key levers of organizational renewal” (p.64). What could be drawn from this assertion is that
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the roles of middle managers need to be taken more seriously by organizations with the consideration of the key role that these managers play in the organization. It would be detrimental to overlook the central role that middle managers perform.
Further, the value of middle managers within the organizations has come under question due to the claim that these managers can have a negative influence on the motivation of employees.
This notion is brought forth by Hamel (2011) who finds that a considerable number of middle managers have distanced themselves from the reality of what takes place at the frontline. This indicates that the decisions that are made at the top management level end up being unworkable on the ground where they are to be implemented. This is something that can be overcome through a careful process of narrowing down the scope of authority of the manager. Another research has shown that mentors are better than having middle managers in the organizations.
This is something that applies to mostly generation Y workers as asserted by Gratton (2011) in the argument that the generation Y workers reject the notion that they must report to someone who is tasked with keeping track of their activities when they are fully capable of carrying them out by themselves. Instead, these workers place more value on being mentored and coached by a person that they respect.
Despite the above claims concerning the role of middle managers, other studies have been essential in illustrating the significance of this role to the development of the ever-evolving world of organizations. Al-Hakim and Hassan (2011) opine that one of the main roles of middle managers is to comprehend and interpret an organizational strategy. In this case, these managers are required not only to show their understanding of the strategy but also to speak in strategic terms. Thus, they must have accurate and clear knowledge concerning how the strategy contributes to the overall organizational success. Mair and Thurner (2008) reiterate this and postulate that this is possible through being aware of how the organizational
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environment is structured. Such knowledge for middle managers enables them to make informed choices.
The role of middle managers within an organization extends further to include being a change agent. According to Rouleau and Balogun (2011), middle managers have the responsibility of assisting staff to gain a better understanding of change and adapt to the new ways of doing things. This includes helping staff to adequately cope with any potential uncertainty (Rouleau
& Balogun, 2011; Hong-Da, 2014). In doing this, these managers are expected to have excellent leadership skills. This is essential because it enables them to lead by example and therefore remain proactive concerning change. Accordingly, middle managers play the role of talent coaches. In such a case, the role of creativity for these managers cannot be dismissed. It is at this point that the role of middle managers expands further to facilitating knowledge sharing. This is essential due to the responsibility of the managers towards ensuring that the front line delivers. Thus, middle managers fulfil the role of ensuring that knowledge is shared.
The role of middle managers has further been expanded in the literature as a provider of expertise. For instance, Al-Hakim and Hassan (2011) opine that in this case, most middle managers have several valuable skills as well as knowledge in certain areas. This thus transforms them into experts, an aspect that explains why in some organizations it becomes necessary to attract talent.
Further middle managers are expected to be proficient communicators as per the study by Mair and Thurner (2008). This is essential as it expands their role beyond being a means of conveying messages from upper management to the staff at the bottom of the organizational hierarchy. Therefore, it is expected that for middle managers to be able to fulfil the rest of the above roles, they must possess other communication responsibilities. This includes using their unique position in the middle of the organization to filter messages (Huy 2002). This transforms these managers into early warning systems for organizations. Thus, for middle managers, they
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will always wind-up positions where strong communication skills are necessary. This is discerned because most managers end up becoming obligated to play the role of facilitators, negotiators, and even conflict managers (Kissi, et al., 2012; Martin-Rios, 2015). From above, middle managers’ real contribution lies in their abilities to successfully apply the correct style of communication at the right time to attain the needed outcome leading to increased creativity.