unfreezeGabriel Lopez

What the research says

What role do middle managers play in strategy?

The short answer

A real one, though the research describes it more than it measures it. A review of 25 years of strategy research organized a scattered literature on middle managers. In the cases we mapped, middle and senior managers built shared understanding in informal conversations around formal meetings, a purchasing department wrote its own strategy by telling stories about work, and middle managers shaped their own strategic role during a top-driven renewal. One interview study argues the same role expectations can both free and limit them. Six of the nine studies here are rated low strength, and none tests whether involving middle managers improves strategy.

Based on 9 studies from the Atlas of the Middle: 0 rated high strength, 3 medium, 6 low. Designs: qualitative case (4), conceptual (2), review/meta-analysis (1), qualitative interviews (1), archival (1).

A large and scattered literature

One review of 25 years of strategy research on middle managers organized a scattered literature into key constructs, relationships and contributions.

Wooldridge et al. (2008) · review/meta-analysis · LowThe Middle Management Perspective on Strategy Process: Contributions, Synthesis, and Future ResearchA review of 25 years of strategy research on middle managers organizes a scattered literature into key constructs, relationships and contributions, and charts directions for future work.

The role can free them or limit them

Drawing on 262 interviews, one study argues the same role expectations can both free and limit middle managers' strategic action, depending on enabling conditions. In a top-driven renewal, middle managers built reputation through operational efficiency, then shaped their own strategic role, until top and middle were reinforcing each other's efforts.

Mantere (2008) · qualitative interviews · MediumRole Expectations and Middle Manager Strategic AgencyDrawing on 262 interviews, Mantere argues the same role expectations can both free and limit middle managers' strategic action, depending on enabling conditions he identifies for each of four strategic roles.Canales (2013) · qualitative case · LowConstructing Interlocking Rationales in Top‐driven Strategic RenewalIn a top-driven renewal, after top managers repositioned the middle level, middle managers built reputation through operational efficiency, then shaped their own strategic role, until top and middle were reinforcing each other's efforts.

Strategy gets made in conversation

In a public administration, middle and senior managers shaped strategy in informal conversations around formal committee meetings. A purchasing department wrote its own strategy by telling stories about work, and the director signed off on it. At a local government strategy seminar, middle managers voiced a sense that something different had to be done, though they could not say what.

Hoon (2007) · qualitative case · MediumCommittees as strategic practice: The role of strategic conversation in a public administrationIn a public administration rolling out staff development, middle and senior managers shaped strategy not just in formal committee meetings but in informal conversations around them, where they built shared understanding, aligned on issues and pre-arranged support.Kryger (2017) · qualitative case · LowStrategy development through interview technique from narrative therapyA purchasing department wrote its own strategy by telling stories about work, and the director signed off on it.Pors (2016) · qualitative case · Low‘It Sends a Cold Shiver down my Spine’: Ghostly Interruptions to Strategy ImplementationIn conversations at a Danish local government's strategy seminar, middle managers glimpsed darker futures behind the familiar strategy and voiced a sense that something different had to be done, though they could not say what.

How top and middle work together

Two conceptual papers propose that how top teams and middle managers interact, including mutual trust, shapes the quality of strategic decisions and how well they are carried out, and that different kinds of renewal give top, middle and front-line managers different roles. In one archival study of 33 organizations, the tie between an operations-oriented top team and management innovation was stronger when top and middle managers had similar professional backgrounds.

Raes et al. (2011) · conceptual · LowThe Interface of the Top Management Team and Middle Managers: A Process ModelThe authors propose that how top teams and middle managers interact, including their role behaviors and mutual trust, shapes both the quality of strategic decisions and how well they are carried out.Volberda (2017) · conceptual · LowComments on ‘Mastering strategic renewal: Mobilising renewal journeys in multi-unit firms’, Henk W. Volberda, Charles Baden-Fuller, Frans A.J. van den Bosch. Long Range Planning, Volume 34, Issue 2, April 2001, Pages 159–178Revisiting his earlier work with colleagues, Volberda argues that big firms can renew through four kinds of journeys, emergent, directed, facilitated or transformational, each giving top, middle and front-line managers different roles.Heyden et al. (2018) · archival · MediumThe Conjoint Influence of Top and Middle Management Characteristics on Management InnovationAcross 33 organizations from 2000 to 2008, the tie between an operations-oriented top team and management innovation was stronger when top and middle managers had similar professional backgrounds; age and gender similarity showed more complex patterns.

What I take from it

My read is that middle managers already take part in strategy through the conversations and stories that decide what a strategy means in practice. I would rather bring that into the open, and invite it, than treat strategy as finished once it leaves the top.

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

Common questions

Should middle managers be involved in strategy?

The studies we mapped describe middle managers shaping strategy more than they test whether involving them pays off. In one case, a purchasing department wrote its own strategy by telling stories about work, and the director signed off on it.

What limits middle managers' role in strategy?

One study drawing on 262 interviews argues that the same role expectations can both free and limit middle managers' strategic action, depending on enabling conditions it identifies for each of four strategic roles.

Free guideThe 12 core answers in one 15-page PDFWhat the research says about change in the middle, with how strong the evidence is.Get the guide

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

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