What the research says

How does change affect middle managers themselves?

The short answer

It loads them up. In five UK organizations that restructured, middle managers reported longer and more intense hours, closer monitoring and fewer promotion prospects, even with more autonomy. Where large firms downsized and delayered, HR managers described middle managers as generally resentful. They also carry contradictions between roles, and heavy work-family conflict can weaken the link between good HR systems and middle managers' innovation.

Based on 8 studies from the Atlas of the Middle: 0 rated high strength, 7 medium, 1 low. Designs: qualitative interviews (3), qualitative case (2), survey (1), experiment (1), mixed (1).

More work, fewer prospects

Studies of delayering and downsizing describe what restructuring does to the middle.

McCann et al. (2008) · qualitative interviews · MediumNormalized Intensity: The New Labour Process of Middle ManagementIn 64 interviews across five UK organizations that delayered and downsized, middle managers reported more autonomy but longer, more intense hours, closer monitoring and fewer promotion prospects.Hassard et al. (2012) · qualitative interviews · Medium‘My Brilliant Career’? New Organizational Forms and Changing Managerial Careers in Japan, the UK, and USAInterviews with HR managers in large firms in Japan, the UK and the USA found most had downsized and delayered, promotions were scarcer and sideways moves more common, and middle managers were generally resentful.Jones et al. (2008) · qualitative interviews · LowEmployee perceptions of organizational change: impact of hierarchical levelIn a hospital facing downsizing and a move, executives talked about participation and communication while supervisors talked about conflict and division.

Caught between roles

Middle managers shift between acting and being acted on, and struggle for meaning when they carry out changes others designed.

Azambuja & Islam (2019) · qualitative case · MediumWorking at the boundaries: Middle managerial work as a source of emancipation and alienationMiddle managers at a Brazilian accounting firm saw themselves as proactive, reflective agents yet also as lacking autonomy and belonging, and routinely shifted between active mediators and mere coordination devices.Lüscher & Lewis (2008) · qualitative case · MediumOrganizational Change and Managerial Sensemaking: Working Through ParadoxAt Lego, middle managers charged with carrying out a major restructuring struggled for meaning; reflecting jointly with researchers brought their dilemmas into view as paradoxes, and the authors set out a process for working through them.

Home and work collide

Work-family conflict shows up in one middle-manager survey, and a randomized trial among IT employees, not middle managers specifically, found it can be reduced.

Chen et al. (2018) · survey · MediumHigh‐commitment work systems and middle managers' innovative behavior in the Chinese context: The moderating role of work‐life conflicts and work climateIn 113 Chinese manufacturing firms, high-commitment HR systems went with more innovative middle managers, but heavy work-family conflict weakened that link, less so where the climate made it easier to share family concerns.Kelly et al. (2014) · experiment · MediumChanging Work and Work-Family ConflictIn a randomized trial in a Fortune 500 firm's IT division, training supervisors to support staff's personal lives and prompting employees to rethink when and where they work modestly cut work-family conflict without raising hours.

What the top does matters

The behavior of senior leaders is tied to how engaged, committed and well-performing the middle is.

Ou et al. (2014) · mixed · MediumHumble Chief Executive Officers’ Connections to Top Management Team Integration and Middle Managers’ ResponsesIn 63 private Chinese firms, humble CEOs were linked to more unified top teams, and middle managers below them saw a more empowering climate and were more engaged, committed and better performing.

What I take from it

Before adding a change, I would ask what the managers carrying it will stop doing. In the studies I read, the load landed on them; none tested whether planning for it helps.

This is my reading, Gabriel Lopez's, not a finding of the studies above.

Common questions

Do middle managers get more autonomy after restructuring?

In one study of five UK organizations that delayered and downsized, middle managers reported more autonomy but also longer, more intense hours, closer monitoring and fewer promotion prospects.

Can organizations reduce the strain?

One randomized trial suggests so, though not among middle managers specifically. In a Fortune 500 firm's IT division, training supervisors to support staff's personal lives and prompting employees to rethink when and where they work modestly cut employees' work-family conflict without raising hours.

Every summary on this page was written by Unfrozen from the study's abstract or full text and checked twice by independent reviewers. Loop coding is exploratory and AI-assisted, pending human verification. Spot an error? Email info@unfreeze.us and it gets fixed.