Managers middle

At the enterprise level, the executive management responds to the voice of ownership and is primarily concerned with profit, return on capital employed, market share, etc. At the business level, the managers are concerned with products and services and hence respond to the voice of the customer. At the operational level, the middle managers, supervisors, operators, etc. focus on processes that produce products and services and hence respond to the voice of the processes carried out within their own function. 

Potential mentors are selected from the ranks of female junior and middle management. The mentees were initially those in upper management, but the scheme has been extended to include male managers at middle and junior management level with equally positive results. In the first instance mentoring participation was voluntary, but it is now expected that all eligible male senior level and female junior level managers will take part. 

Sayles, L. R., Middle managers can rescue business, The New York Times, p. 11, February 14, 1993. 

Hartville s upper management is largely unaware of the dissatisfaction of employees. There is evidence that middle management withholds vital information leading to upper management s underestimation of the severity of employee discontent. 

Probably the first and most important administrative action is to adopt a company policy of health awareness. The attitude of top management to health awareness is reflected in the subsequent attitudes of middle management, supervisors, and the employees themselves. No program of control is going to succeed without the full cooperation of management. In order to establish the frame of reference within which further actions can be successful, it is necessary then to adopt, declare, promulgate, and publicize a formal policy of health awareness within the plant. This policy should include the following ... 

The misunderstood role of the middle manager in driving successful growth programs... 

In the classic model, the discretion afforded middle managers is limited, and the leadership they are expected to display is confined to the scope of their more-or-less hierarchical jobs. Be a good company man and implement that s the job. 

He could have initiated a visionary-sounding corporate initiative he could have written memos to senior leaders asking for endorsement he could have paid expensive consultants and he could have waited for someone to make it an official corporate policy. He did none of those things - in a textbook case of leading as a middle manager, he instead orchestrated the conditions... 

Deploying the discovery driven approach, however, reqnires the agreement of those in control of resonrces and who review the plans to live with the different disciplines of this approach, as opposed to those of conventional planning. A critical middle management task is thns to create a receptive commnnity for the discovery driven approach among a coalition of powerfnl people. At Air Prodncts and Chemicals, Inc., for example, Ron Pierantozzi, the Director of New Business Development, spent considerable time orchestrating the acceptance of the discovery driven approach (see the mini-case in Table 9.5). 

A key middle management role is thus identifying whether and when charter moves will best facilitate the venture s chances. At telecommunications provider Nokia, for instance, charters are managed proactively in a milestone-oriented discovery approach. Ideas that were incubated in their new ventures organization might make the transition to an established line of business. Conversely, sometimes the company will pull charters out of existing lines of business, combine them with... 

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