The Role of Middle Management in Corporate America Research Proposal Paper

The Role of Middle Management in Corporate America

Introduction

The middle management has been recognized by the corporate sector as one of the vital factors in the effective implementation of organizational goals. (Ashen, 2002) Nonetheless, the principles of the management are also dynamic when subjected to various kinds of organizational cultures. This study seeks to discuss the role of middle managers in the corporate world – their role in the past as compared to the present and speculation about the future for middle managers. Moreover, the study also seeks to describe the concept of corporate culture and the impact of different types of culture on the typical middle manager.

The role of middle level management has been discussed in several studies. Bower (1970) found that in large organizations, planning was spread across corporate, division, business and department levels. He concluded that middle level managers are the only ones in the organization to judge whether strategic issues are being considered in the proper context. Burgelman (1983, 1985, 1988) pointed out that middle level management plays an important role in supporting initiatives from operating levels, combining these with firm strengths and conceptualizing new strategies. Hambrick (1981) confirmed a decline in strategic “awareness” at descending levels of the managerial hierarchy. That is, middle managers were less aware of their firm’s strategy than were top managers.

Hutt, Reingen and Ronchetto, (1988), Mowday (1978), Schilit (1987) and Schilit and Locke (1982) have studied the upward influence of middle managers in strategic decision, while Wooldridge and Floyd (1990) examined the relationship between middle management involvement in strategy and organizational performance.

Guth and MacMillan (1986) studied strategy implementation versus middle management self-interest. Middle managers pursue their self-interest when their goals and beliefs are not highly congruent with those of senior management. Low personal commitment by middle managers may result in only passive compliance or, in a more extreme case, in “upward intervention” my middle managers during strategy formulation or implementation processes. Guth and MacMillan found that managers who believe their self-interest is being compromised could redirect a strategy, delay its implementation, reduce the quality of its implementation and even totally sabotage the effort.

Connors and Romberg (1991) study the other subversive reactions of middle managers faced with a change in their power and authority base. The authors argue that the current trend toward flatter organizational structures has place the true decision-making authority in the hands of line workers and the “coaching” function in the hands of senior management. In this environment, middle managers may feel their power bases slipping away and may behave subversively in an attempt to maintain their power and status.

Workman (1993) believes that interaction and communication between managers and coalitions of managers is perhaps the most significant informal process within most organizations. Hambrick and Cannella (1989) stress the importance of both vertical and lateral interaction in implementation processes. Sandy (1991) considers that breakdowns in implementation occur when the strategic initiative is not well organized for action. This can cause key organization members to fail in implementation simply because they do not understand how to succeed.

Organizational Culture Since the 1980’s, there has been extensive research about what organizational culture is, what effect organizational culture has on the operation of organizations; and to what extent organizational culture can be managed. Many organizations have realized the importance of culture, and researches are conducted to identify the culture within the organizations. However, trying to understand and study organizational culture is not an easy task.

Schein (1985), for example, defined organizational culture as a pattern of basic assumptions-invented, discovered, or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration-that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems.

On the other hand, Trice and Beyer (1993) defined it as collective phenomena that embody people’s responses to the uncertainties and chaos that are inevitable in human experience. These responses fall into two major categories. The first is the substance of culture-shared, emotionally charged belief systems that we call ideologies. The second is cultural forms-observable entities, including actions, through which members of a culture express, affirm, and communicate the substance of their culture to one another.

Thus, both definitions emphasize the notion of sharing. However, it is important to understand that culture depend upon both community and diversity. It allows for similarity, but also supports and relies upon difference. Sharing culture means that each member participates in and contributes to the broad patterns of culture, but the contributions and experiences of individual members of the culture are not identical.” (Hatch, M. J, 1997)

Furthermore, organizational researches have utilized a wide variety of culture definitions. Those definitions have in common certain elements, and therefore, organizational culture can be defined or understood, as “The patterns of beliefs, values and learned ways of coping with experience that have developed during the course of an organization’s history, and which tend to be manifested in its material arrangements and in the behaviors of its members”. (Brown, A. 1995). This is the definition considered for this paper.

Objectives

The aim of this study is to examine the role of middle managers in the corporate world – their role in the past as compared to the present and speculation about the future for middle managers. The expected findings should present a number of corporate cultures and its effect on its middle management.

Research Questions

Generally, this study aims to discuss the role of middle managers in the corporate world – their role in the past as compared to the present and speculation about the future for middle managers. Specifically, the study seeks to answer the following questions:

1. What are the manifestations of the organizational culture?

2. What are the roles of the middle management in an organization?

3. How does the manifestation of the organizational culture affect the role of the middle management?

4. What are the implications of the organizational culture to the middle management and the organization as a whole?

5. How the manifestations of organizational culture affect the communication, interpretation and adoption of strategies among members of the organization, especially middle managers?

Proposed References

Smithson, Kimberly. (2001) The Importance of Middle Management Recognition. Culture Worx. Available: http://www.cultureworx.com/cultureworxarticles/articles-midmgmnt.htm. [Accessed 03/24/03]

Getlan, Michael. (2001) Game Room: Grooming Middle Management. Amusement Consultant Ltd. Available: http://www.amusementconsultants.com/basic_grooming.shtml. [Accessed 03/24/03]

Ashen, Alejandra Chávez. (2002) The Role of Middle Management in the Implementation Process: An Organizational Culture Perspective. Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration.

Katz, D. and Kahn, R. (1978). The social psychology of organizations (2nd ed.). New York: John Wiley.

Kanter, R. M. (1983). The change masters. London: George Allen and Unwin Publishers Ltd.

Martin, J. and Siehl, C. (1983). Organizational culture and counterculture: An uneasy symbiosis. Organizational Dynamics. Autumn: 52-64.

Mowday, R. (1978). The exercise of upward influence in organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly. Vol. 23, 137-156.

Mumby, D. (1988). Communication and power in organizations: Discourse, ideology and domination. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Schein, E. H. (1999). The corporate culture survival guide: Sense and nonsense about culture change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Bower, J. L. (1970). Managing the Resource Allocation Process. Division of Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University, Boston.

Burgelman, R. A. (1983). A Model of the Interaction of Strategic Behavior, Corporate Context and the Concept of Strategy. Academy of Management Review, Vol. 8: 1, 61-70.

Burgelman, R. A. (1985). Corporate entrepreneurship and strategic management: Insights from a process study. Management Science. Vol. 7:29.

Burgelman, R. A. (1988). Strategy making as a social learning process: The case of internal corporate venturing. Interfaces. Vol. 18: 3, 74-85.

Hambrick, D. C. (1981). Strategic awareness within top management teams. Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 2, 263-279.

Hutt, M. D., Reingen, P. H. and Ronchetto, J. R. (1988). Tracing emergent processes in marketing strategy formation. Journal of Marketing. Vol. 52, 4-19.

Schilit, W. K. (1987). An examination of the influence of middle-level managers in formulating and implementing strategic decisions. Journal of Management Studies. Vol. 24, 271-93.

Schilit, W. K. and Locke, E. A. (1982). A study of upward influence in Organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly. Vol. 27, 304-16.

Floyd, Steven W., and Wooldridge, Bill. (1990). The strategy process, middle management involvement, and organizational performance. Strategic management Journal. Vol. 11, 231-241.

Guth, W. D. and MacMillan, I. C. (1986). Strategy Implementation Versus Middle Management Self-Interest. Strategic Management Journal. Vol. 7: 4, 313-317.

Connors, J. L. and Romberg, T. A. (1991). A Middle Management and Quality Control: Strategies for Obstructionism. Human Organization. Vol. 50, 61-65.

Hambrick, D. C. and Cannella, A. A. Jr. (1989). Strategy Implementation as Substance and Selling. Academy of Management Executive. Vol. 3, 278-285.

Workman, J. P. (1993). Marketing’s Limited Role in New Product Development in One Computer Systems Firm. Journal of Marketing Research. Vol. 30, 405-421.

Sandy, W. (1991). Avoid the Breakdowns between Planning and Implementation. Journal of Business Strategy. Vol. 12, 30-33.

Schein, E. H. (1985). Organizational Culture and Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Trice, H. and Beyer, J. (1993). The cultures of work organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Hatch, M. J. (1997). Organization Theory. Modern, Symbolic and Postmodern Perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press.

Brown, Andrew (1995). Organizational Culture. London: Pitman Publishing.

Methodology

This study will use the descriptive approach. This descriptive type of research will utilize interview, observation and questionnaires in the study. To illustrate the descriptive type of research, Creswell will guide the researcher when he stated: Descriptive method of research is to gather information about the present existing condition. The purpose of employing this method is to describe the nature of a situation, as it exists at the time of the study and to explore the cause/s of particular phenomena.

The primary source of data will come from a researcher-made survey questionnaire, which will be given to the respondents. The respondents of this study will be selected middle managers.

The secondary sources of data will come from published articles from social science journals, theses and related studies on organizational management and business administration.

For this research design, the researcher will gather data, collate published studies from different local and foreign universities and articles from social science journals, distribute sampling questionnaires; arrange interviews; and make a content analysis of the collected documentary and verbal material. Afterwards, the researcher will summarize all the information, make a conclusion based on the null hypotheses posited and provide insightful recommendations on the dealing with the corporate role of middle managers in America.

To determine the role of the middle managers, the researcher will prepare a survey questionnaire, which will be given to the intended respondents.

The first part shall measure the profile of the respondents according to age, sex, civil status, educational attainment, position, and number of years in the position.

The second part shall measure their level of effectiveness as managers. The respondents will grade each statement in the survey-questionnaire using a Likert scale with a five-response scale wherein respondents will be given five response choices. The equivalent weights for the answers will be:

Range Interpretation

4.50 – 5.00 Very Effective

3.50 – 4.00 Effective

2.50 – 3.49 Satisfactory

1.50 – 2.49 Ineffective

0.00 – 1.49 Very Ineffective

For validation purposes, the researcher will initially submit a survey questionnaire and after approval, the survey will be given to at least five respondents. After the survey questionnaire will be answered, the researcher will ask the respondents for any suggestions or any necessary corrections to ensure further improvement and validity of the instrument. The researcher will again examine the content of the survey questionnaire to find out the reliability of the instrument. The researchers will exclude irrelevant questions and will change words that would be deemed difficult by the respondents, to much simpler terms.

The revised instrument will then be administered to the respondents of the study that will be chosen through a combination of cluster and random sampling. The researcher will exclude the five respondents who would be initially used for the validation of the instrument. The researcher will also tally, score and tabulate all the relevant data in the survey questionnaire.

Hypothesis

The role of the middle management is significantly affected by the organizational culture of the corporation.

Significance of the Study

This shall benefit the top level management of organizations since the thesis would allow them to study and to try to understand the relations among people and the behavior they shape, their customs and traditions, habits, norms and expectations, learned codes of conduct, both formal and informal, and shared assumptions, which are elements of an organizational culture. Moreover, these could be applied on the organizational level.

Likewise, this study would also benefit the corporate industry since this would provide recommendations on how organizational culture could shaped the environment in such a way, that middle managers are able to both formulate and implement a strategy. This involvement, according with the model, can be expected to have a higher commitment in middle managers with the strategies and therefore, can be argued that the implementation can be achieve.

Moreover, the study would also benefit the middle managers since their roles would be more definite. Their jobs wouldn’t be limited to mere implementers of the policies provided by the top management. Through this study, both of the prescribed duties and unstated obligations of the middle management would be clearly defined.

Sources