Middle management plays a key role in any organization. The effectiveness of most corporate entities rests in the hands of middle managers. As the last link between upper management and supervisors they serve an important role in running the business. The work goes on, day in and day out, in large part because of them. They keep people on the straight and narrow for the corporation. They keep people mindful of the expectations for the work. This is their traditional role. Middle managers are also key to successful organisation change.
As that last link between upper management and frontline supervisors, they are the conduit through which organisation change plans are funneled down to workers. However, they’re participation in change is often informed from their experiences with running the business. When change plans are presented, many middle managers are leery of them. Something a middle manager might say when confronted with change might be: “Show me why we have to do this?” This can create a perception of middle management as a bottleneck.
Given the key role that middle managers play in running the business, it makes sense to include them in the development of organisation change. They can provide insight into how a change will impact daily operations. It also lends credibility to the process. Like it or not, for the people most affected by change, if you wear a suit every day, you have no business changing procedures. If people believe that a someone who actually knows what they do participated in the project design, they will approach it with less angst.
It is a must to choose people from middle management that have genuine credibility to participate in the planning. They are experts on the material under discussion. They can comment about every benefit to the process as it exists presently. If the design is a mess, they won’t hesitate to call it that. Implementation design is another area where middle managers can of help. They will be able to provide commentary on what is or is not a realistic timetable for implementation.
To achieve support from middle management for a change, an effective method is to have them work through a series of change related steps. That process encourages them to think logically about change. Blind opposition is on the problems when organisation change doesn’t involve middle managers. The purpose is to generate an analysis from rational discussion of facts.
During this process, the middle manager’s position should be honored and respected. There opposition occurs because change causes distraction and disruption on the frontline; the very thing they work to avoid. They try to keep people on track and change takes people off track. By being cognizant of the difficult position change puts them in and respecting the problems, middle management will be more receptive to organisation change.
For more information, please see our website: Organisation Change