Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T05:54:41.210Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Making strategy work: The role of the middle manager

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Mari Jansen Van Rensburg ,
Annemarie Davis  and
Peet Venter
Mari Jansen Van Rensburg*
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Business Leadership, University of South Africa, Cnr Janadel and Alexandra Avenues, Midrand, South Africa
Annemarie Davis
Affiliation:
Department of Business Management, School of Management Sciences, University of South Africa, AJH Van Der Walt Building, Muckleneuk Campus, Preller Street, Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
Peet Venter
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Business Leadership, University of South Africa, Cnr Janadel and Alexandra Avenues, Midrand, South Africa
*
Corresponding author: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In recognition of middle managers as influential strategists we collected 654 responses from South African middle managers detailing their spontaneous and unguided descriptions of their strategic roles in the organisation they represent. The results show that middle managers generally associate their strategic role strongly with the traditional perspectives on the roles as implementers of strategies and communicators linking their subordinates and higher levels of management. We add the roles of ‘advocacy’ and ‘improving operational performance’ to the conventional elements of strategy implementation, and the roles of ‘managing performance’ and ‘driving compliance’ to the role of downward influence. Focus group discussions contextualised and authenticated these roles within the South African private and public sectors.

Keywords

middle managersstrategic rolesstrategy-as-practice
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , March 2014 , pp. 165 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Balogun, J. (2007). The practice of organizational restructuring: From design to reality. European Management Journal, 25(2), 81–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balogun, J., Johnson, G. (2004). Organizational restructuring and middle manager sensemaking. The Academy of Management Journal, 47(4), 523–549.Google Scholar
Barry, D., Elmes, M. (1997). Strategy retold: Toward a narrative view of strategic discourse. The Academy of Management Review, 22(2), 429–452.Google Scholar
Braun, V., Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briggs, A. R. J. (2005). Middle managers in English further education colleges. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 33(1), 27–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burgelman, R. A. (1983). A model of the interaction of strategic behavior, corporate context, and the concept of strategy. Academy of Management Review, 8(1), 61–70.Google Scholar
Carney, M. (2004). Middle manager involvement in strategy development in not-for profit organizations: The director of nursing perspective – How organizational structure impacts on the role. Journal of Nursing Management, 12(1), 13–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carpenter, M. A. (2002). The implications of strategy and social context for the relationship between top management team heterogeneity and firm performance. Strategic Management Journal, 23(3), 275–284.Google Scholar
Carter, C., Clegg, S. R., Kornberger, M. (2008). Soapbox. Editorial essays: Strategy as practice? Strategic Organization, 6(1), 83–99.Google Scholar
Chia, R., Holt, R. (2006). Strategy as practical coping: A Heideggerian perspective. Organization Studies, 27(5), 635–655.Google Scholar
Cohen, L., Manion, L., Morrison, K. (2000). Research methods in education (5th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge Falmer.Google Scholar
Costanzo, L. A., Tzoumpa, V. (2008). Enhancing organisational learning in teams: Has the middle manager got a role?. Team Performance Management, 14(3/4), 146–164.Google Scholar
Creswell, J. W. (2013). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Currie, G., Procter, S. J. (2005). The antecedents of middle managers’ strategic contribution: the case of a professional bureaucracy. Journal of Management Studies, 42(7), 1325–1356.Google Scholar
Dutton, J. E., Ashford, S. J. (1993). Selling issues to top management. The Academy of Management Review, 18(3), 397–428.Google Scholar
Dutton, J. E., Ashford, S. J., O'Neill, R. M., Hayes, E., Wierba, E. E. (1997). Reading the wind: How middle managers assess the context for selling issues to top managers. Strategic Management Journal, 18(5), 407–423.3.0.CO;2-J>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dutton, J. E., Ashford, S. J., O'Neill, R. M., Lawrence, K. A. (2001). Moves that matter: Issue selling and organizational change. Academy of Management Journal, 44(4), 716–736.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Floyd, S. W., Wooldridge, B. (1992). Middle management involvement in strategy and its association with strategic type: A research note. Strategic Management Journal, 13(S1), 153–167.Google Scholar
Floyd, S. W., Wooldridge, B. (1994). Dinosaurs or dynamos? Recognizing middle management's strategic role. The Academy of Management Executive, 8(4), 47–57.Google Scholar
Floyd, S. W., Wooldridge, B. (1999). Knowledge creation and social networks in corporate entrepreneurship: The renewal of organizational capability. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 23, 1–21.Google Scholar
Floyd, S. W., Wooldridge, B. (2000). Building strategy from the middle. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Floyd, S. W., Wooldridge, B. (2003). Middle management's strategic influence and organizational performance. Journal of Management Studies, 34(3), 465–485.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hambrick, D. C. (2007). Upper echelons theory: An update. Academy of Management Review, 32(2), 334–343.Google Scholar
Hambrick, D. C., Mason, P. A. (1984). Upper echelons: The organization as a reflection of its top managers. The Academy of Management Review, 9(2), 193–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herzig, S. E., Jimmieson, N. L. (2006). Middle managers’ uncertainty management during organizational change. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 27(8), 628–645.Google Scholar
Huy, Q. N. (2001). In praise of middle managers. Harvard Business Review, 79(8), 72–79.Google ScholarPubMed
Huy, Q. N. (2002). Emotional balancing of organizational continuity and radical change: The contribution of middle managers. Administrative Science Quarterly, 47(1), 31–69.Google Scholar
Ikävalko, H. (2005). Strategy process in practice: Practices and logics of action of middle managers in strategy implementation. Helsinki: Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Helsinki University of Technology.Google Scholar
Janesick, V. J. (2000). The choreography of qualitative research design: Minuets, improvisations, and crystallization. Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed). 379–399.Google Scholar
Jarzabkowski, P. (2003). Strategic practices: An activity theory perspective on continuity and change. Journal of Management Studies, 40(1), 23–55.Google Scholar
Jarzabkowski, P. (2004). Strategy as practice: Recursiveness, adaptation, and practices-in-use. Organization Studies, 25(4), 529–560.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jarzabkowski, P. (2005). Strategy as practice: An activity-based approach. London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jarzabkowski, P., Balogun, J., Seidl, D. (2007). Strategizing: The challenges of a practice perspective. Human Relations, 60(1), 5–27.Google Scholar
Johnson, G., Langley, A., Melin, L., Whittington, R. (2007). Strategy as practice: Research directions and resources. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, G., Whittington, R., Scholes, K. (2011). Exploring strategy: Text & cases (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Financial Times: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Karger, D. W., Malik, A. A. (1975). Long range planning and organizational performance. Long Range Planning, 8(6), 60–64.Google Scholar
Kodama, M. (2005). Knowledge creation through networked strategic communities: Case studies on new product development in Japanese companies. Long Range Planning, 38(1), 27–49.Google Scholar
Kuratko, D. F., Ireland, R. D., Covin, J. G., Hornsby, J. S. (2005). A model of middle-level managers’ entrepreneurial behavior. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 29(6), 699–716.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labuschagne, A. (2003). Qualitative research: Airy fairy or fundamental? The Qualitative Report, 8(1), 100–103.Google Scholar
Ling, Y., Floyd, S. W., Baldridge, D. C. (2005). Towards a model of issue-selling by subsidiary managers in multinational organizations. Journal of International Business Studies, 36, 637–654.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyles, M. A., Schwenk, C. R. (2007). Top management, strategy and organisational knowledge structures. Journal of Management Studies, 29(2), 155–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mantere, S. (2005). Strategic practices as enablers and disablers of championing activity. Strategic Organization, 3(2), 157–184.Google Scholar
Mantere, S. (2008). Role expectations and middle manager strategic agency. Journal of Management Studies, 45(2), 294–316.Google Scholar
Mantere, S., Vaara, E. (2008). On the problem of participation in strategy: A critical discursive perspective. Organization Science, 19(2), 341–358.Google Scholar
Marginson, D. E. W. (2002). Management control systems and their effects on strategy formation at middle-management levels: Evidence from a UK organization. Strategic Management Journal, 23(11), 1019–1031.Google Scholar
McNaught, C., Lam, P. (2010). Using Wordle as a supplementary research tool. The Qualitative Report, 15(3), 630–643.Google Scholar
Mills, C. W. (1956). White collar: The American middle class. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mouton, J. (2006). How to success in your master's and doctoral studies. Pretoria: Van Schaik.Google Scholar
Nonaka, I. (1988). Toward middle-up-down management: Accelerating information creation. Sloan Management Review, 29(3), 9–18.Google Scholar
Nonaka, I. (1994). A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. Organization Science, 5(1), 14–37.Google Scholar
Nordqvist, M., Melin, L. (2008). Strategic planning champions: Social craftspersons, artful interpreters and known strangers. Long Range Planning, 41(3), 326–344.Google Scholar
O'Shannassy, T. (2003). Modern strategic management: Balancing strategic thinking and strategic planning for internal and external stakeholders. Singapore Management Review, 25(1), 53–67.Google Scholar
Osterman, P. (2008). The truth about middle managers: Who they are, how they work, why they matter. Boston, Massachusettes: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Papadakis, V. M., Lioukas, S., Chambers, D. (1998). Strategic decision-making processes: The role of management and context. Strategic Management Journal, 19(2), 115–147.Google Scholar
Raes, A. M., Heijltjes, M. G., Glunk, U., Roe, R. A. (2011). The interface of the top management team and middle managers: A process model. Academy of Management Review, 36(1), 102–126.Google Scholar
Rouleau, L. (2005). Micro-practices of strategic sensemaking and sensegiving: How middle managers interpret and sell change every day. The Journal of Management Studies, 42(7), 413–1441.Google Scholar
Rouleau, L., Balogun, J. (2011). Middle managers, strategic sensemaking, and discursive competence. Journal of Management Studies, 48(5), 953–983.Google Scholar
Saldaña, J. (2009). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Schwandt, T. (1998). Constructivist, interpretivist approaches to human enquiry. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The Landscape of Qualitative Research. London: Sage, 221–259.Google Scholar
Van de Ven, A. H. (1992). Suggestions for studying strategy process: A research note. Strategic Management Journal, 13(Summer), 169–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westley, F. R. (1990). Middle managers and strategy: Microdynamics of inclusion. Strategic Management Journal, 11(5), 337–351.Google Scholar
Whittington, R. (2003). The work of strategizing and organizing: For a practice perspective. Strategic Organization, 1(1), 117–126.Google Scholar
Wiersema, M. F., Bantel, K. A. (1992). Top management team demography and corporate strategic change. The Academy of Management Journal, 35(1), 91–121.Google Scholar
Wooldridge, B., Schmid, T., Floyd, S. W. (2008). The middle management perspective on strategy process: Contributions, synthesis, and future research. Journal of Management, 34(6), 1190–1221.Google Scholar