Reflection on the Guest Lecture by Kamm M. W.

Nowadays, the role of middle management is still debated. Whether a middle management can be considered as a “strategic asset” is a matter of discussion. Up to date, middle management is perceived as additional costs to the organizations, ones who slow down decisions and also as blockers of information by top down models of change. In addition, middle managers are described as resistant to change. Opposing to this, Balogun (2003) in his article “From Blaming the Middle to Harnessing its Potential: Creating Change Intermediaries”, state that middle managers play a great role in change implementation and also, are capable of contributing at strategic level. According to Balogun (2003) middle managers are change intermediaries rather than “implementers” or simply, “change recipients”. The author emphasizes on middle manager’s interpretation of change and affirms its importance for actual change outcome and organizational survival.

Mica Wulff Kamm, the Head of Global Product Management at TeliaSonera, after working 11 years as middle manager, believes that “in knowledge intensive industries middle managers are definitely needed”. From the lecture, we could see that she is very enthusiastic and proud of being middle manager for so long. She believes that middle managers are not just implementers of plans coming from senior management and she thinks that middle managers are able to “influence” senior managers in designing strategies and initiating a change in the company. She seems to be a good leader since she inspired us by using real examples from her work experience and tried to influence our perception of middle management. In theory, Balogun (2003) states that middle managers:
• Use their position within the organization and their contacts externally to gather and synthesize information for senior managers on threats and opportunities
• Encourage fledgling projects within their own department to help facilitate adaptability within the organization
• Use resources at their disposal to champion innovative ideas and business opportunities to senior managers.

In practice, Mica has provided us with the example of introducing a product line by TeliaSonera, which was initiated by middle management team and supports the above theory. According to Mica, middle management depicted the introduction of competitor product for specific market segment and saw it as threat and at the same time, as an opportunity. They developed the competing plan for overcoming competition and maintaining leadership in the whole market and “influenced” senior management to introduce suggested product. This example clearly shows that middle management is not in the middle of strategic and operational level, rather it plays great role in maintaining innovativeness and competitiveness of the company.

Referring to Westley’s article “Middle Managers and Strategy: Micro-Dynamics of Inclusion”, middle managers in large bureaucratic organizations are “viewed as suppliers of information and consumers of decisions made by top-level managers.” Consequently, top management is perceived as responsible for strategy sense-making, excluding the importance of middle manager’s involvement in “strategic conversations” (Westley, 1990). Even though inclusion of middle managers in strategic processes does not guarantee satisfaction, the author suggests that middle managers should not only be “feelers of rules” but also “framers of rules”. This in turn leads to empowerment of middle managers in the organization meaning they have dominant position as in strategic conversation as well in coalitions in the organization. Moreover, middle managers are more enthusiastic and energetic if they are not excluded from “hierarchy of coalitions” and they can negotiate rules with senior managers (Westley, 1990). Significantly, empowerment is under the groups of values shared in TeliaSonera. Mica emphasized the vitality of empowering middle managers in order to foster innovative thinking in the organization, which is another value within TeliaSonera. In addition, Mica believes that in order to be successful as middle managers we need to “choose our boss carefully” and “the organization, equally carefully.”

In addition, middle manager’s role in emotional balancing during the transition in the organization has granted high significance (Huy, 2002). While tension in the transition exists on the individual level, middle manager’s low emotional commitment to change might cause organizational inertia and high commitment but no attendance to employee emotions might lead to chaos. For that reason, middle manager’s plays a great role in emotional balancing and facilitating organizational adaptability, “developing new knowledge and skills”. (Huy, 2002)

Finally, my personal opinion regarding the role of middle management is that they are essential part of organizational success and innovativeness. As they are “bridge” between senior managers and low-level employees as well they might be “initiators” or “creators” of new products or strategies. I strongly agree with Mica in that “middles can influence seniors” in a way that being as middle manager stays ambitious and motivating position in the organization. In sum, I would like to share Mica’s suggestions derived from her real life experience to assist you in “stepping out” sometimes and “influencing” seniors:

• Be there when the ground shakes
• I’m good when my co-workers are visible
• If I do a good job I’m not needed in the end




REFERENCES:

Balogun, J. (2003). From Blaming the Middle to Harnessing its Potential: Creating Change Intermediaries, British Journal of Management, vol. 14, 69-83.

Huy, N. Q. (2002). Emotional Balancing of Organizational Continuity and Radical Change, Administrative Science Quarterly, 47(1), 31-69

Kamm, M.W. (2008). Guest Lecture 24th of November, Middle Management - Real Life, Retrieved 2008-11-25 from Jönköping International Business School’s website:
http://jibsnet.hj.se/documents/files/download/832478114/3385827292690149047/Microsoft%20PowerPoint%20-%20Middle%20Management%20JIBS%2020081124.pdf

Westley, F. T. (1990). Middle Managers and Strategy: Micro-Dynamics of Inclusion, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 11 (5), 337-351.