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Middle Management - ineffective


I have come across today a number of reports on the Hay Group's recent management report. Most of the headlines have been quite damming of middle management.

The following is an extract from Personnel Today's report of the report:

  • More than one-third of UK executives believe their organisations are being "paralysed" by ineffective middle management, cutting productivity by at least £220bn every year.
  • Research out this week also found four in 10 executives said their organisation's middle management was the single greatest barrier to achieving their firm's strategic objectives.
  • The study of 200 managers by management consultancy Hay Group found that this level of poor performance was creating a "corporate soufflé" effect, whereby the middle section of the organisation gives way as individual commitment and leadership ability falters.
  • A chief concern is the impact of these managers on the rest of the workforce. Half of senior executives complained that middle managers failed to address poor team performance.

Even allowing for the press to have jazzed this up a bit, this is a depressing report. It signals to me a significant disconnect within organisations today. A disconnect between the leaders and the managers of the organisation. My first thought on reading the words 'single greatest barrier to achieving their firm's strategic objectives' is whether or not these managers actually know what the strategic objective are? This disconnect is even more concerning when you think that the main communication channel to the majority of the employees in the organisation are the middle managers. They are the ones who pass the organisation message to the workforce and equip the people to meet the business challenges. At the same time, they are theoretically the conduit for feedback from the people to the executive. Yet if they are both disconnected and poorly viewed by the executive it is hardly likely that they can execute this critical function with much success.

It is further concerning when you think about the fact that in employee questionnaires (those things good companies do every year) confidence in ones immediate manager is much higher than confidence in the management layers above the immediate manager. Thus we feel the disconnect even more strongly. It is these middle managers that employers most trust.

From reading the various summaries of the report much emphasis is given to training and developing these managers. Clearly this can only be a good thing - but I do wonder if enough attention is being paid to the disconnect side of things?

And looking at the comments on failing to address poor performance I cannot help wondering if this is capability or if this a further symptom of a disconnected organisation and a consequent 'bunker mentality' where you protect your home team at all costs...



Published by: Lisette on 27/07/2009 - Add a comment

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