Middle management traditionally has played a significant role
in government bureaucracies, large and middle sized organizations.
By definition technology, global competition and the resulting
nature of tasks in a knowledge based economy have shifted much
of the important decision-making to operations away from
executives and middle managers.
The role that middle managers play can be understood using
the framework of Charles Handy’s landmark study Understanding
Organizations. Within an organization there can be several
different cultures. He describes four major cultures.
In a Power Culture (e.g. entrepreneurial), power is
concentrated a few pairs of hands. Control radiates from the
center like a web. Power Cultures have few rules and little
bureaucracy; swift decisions can ensue. This culture does well
where reaction to circumstances are important. Size poses a
problem for power cultures because of breaks in communication.
Role of the Middle Manager – implement the
initiatives of the power center.
In a Role Culture (e.g. bureacracy), people have
clearly delegated authorities within a highly defined structure
with the resulting ability to create expertise. Typically,
these organizations form hierarchical bureaucracies. Power
derives from a person's position and little scope exists for
expert power.
Role of Middle Manager – monitor and
administor the initiatives of upper management using
and aligning to the existing role based structure.
In a Task Culture (e.g teams), teams are formed to
solve particular problems. Power derives from expertise so
long as a team requires expertise. These cultures often feature
the multiple reporting lines of a matrix structure. The
benefits of a task culture are that they are adaptable. The
weakness of this culture is that it is difficult to produce
economies of scale and build expertise.
Role of a Middle Manager – often named
project managers middle managers require decision-making
powers to achieve desired results.
A Person Culture (e.g. consultants & professional
organizations) exists where all individuals believe themselves
superior to the organization. Survival can become difficult for
such organizations, since the concept of an organization suggests
that a group of like-minded individuals pursue the organizational
goals. Some professional partnerships can operate as person
cultures, because each partner brings a peculiar expertise and
clientele to the firm. The benefits of a person culture is
specialization. The major weaknesses are that there is often a
lack of super-ordinate objective and a tendency towards
turnover leading to a lack of cohesiveness.
Strategic initiatives cannot be achieved successfully without
relevant capacity and capability. A middle manager in a bureacracy
that is being asked to adapt to major initiatives such as the
privatization of government without the necessary operational
tools and skills (and the culture that supports them). A team
without local decision making abilities cannot adapt if they
are required to clear decisions with a distant executive. A
person based organization cannot deliver team like results
without aligned team structure and processes.
Application of the iCapBiz Solution to Middle Manager
The Path-ligner™ software, the Path-lign
Process™ and iCapBiz provide the means for a middle
manager to design, coach and facilitate workers to create
team like results by voluntarily aligning to strategic
initiatives. Strategic initiative road maps can be easily
converted to management plans that can be used to coach and
align operational human resources.
- Alignment and accountability to directives
from leaders of a power-centered organization is extended
through highly contextualized communication.
- Alignment, transparency and accountability of
operational human resources in role based organizations is
dramatically increased. Seeming irreconcilable gap between
achieving accountability and adaptability is dramatically
lessened.
- Retention of expertise (in the form of
systems including documented maps, processes and practices)
and economies of scale, as well as improved adaptability
are optimized in a team based organization.
- The ability to harvest (retain) and
improve on expertise (collaboration) is dramatically
improved in an individual based organization. Increased
innovation is a direct benefit of providing a structure
for interaction. The ability for an individual-based
organization to evolve into a team based organization is
greatly enhanced by developing a system that makes what
is tacit more implicit and explicit.
I want to know more about how
iCapBiz can apply to my business!
