Stuck in the middle (management) of nowhere
How did this happen? Should we do something about it?
Image: Shutterstock
I’m working on a book. Or, rather, I should say, we are working on a book because I’m privileged to be alongside two scarily brainy co-authors in this venture, Dr Olaf Hermans and Jef Teugels. The book is about middle management … or, rather, the lack of middle management … or, you might go so far as to ask, what the hell happened to middle management? Middle managers are, it seems, at best, out of favour and, at worst, a vanishing breed.
Recently, Jef alerted Olaf and me to a new article in Business Insider. It’s titled Gen Z may be on track to kill middle management (December 05, 2023) and includes priceless verbal gems such as this:
In my head, I was like, 'Great, awesome, this is a step up, it'll look good on my résumé,' and blah, blah, blah … But then, when I really thought about it, I'm doing way more, I'm not even getting paid more, and I just feel like I'm stressing myself out more than I have to.
Our young pioneers are, it seems, far more concerned than earlier generations with work-life balance and, crucially, seem not to trust their managements. All of which means, according to the article, that many Gen Z folks …
… would rather earn more at their current level or wait it out and go for senior roles later on.
So that’s okay. Mind you, I don’t pretend to understand how that last maneuver works: “I’ll stay in this non-management role for another umpteen years and then hop straight on to the board.” Good luck with that one.
Anyway, I thought it might be interesting to air a few thoughts about this ‘I don’t want to be a middle manager - I just want to be a senior executive’ concept to highlight some bits of the research that are going into our book project. And, oh, I should say at the outset that these are rather random and early-stage thoughts. They may even be quite mad.
What changed? With digital tech in mind.
Until recently, middle management was a distinct and vital part of the hierarchy of business enterprise, right? I joined the workforce way back in the late-1960s and at that time ambitious young people scrabbled to get on the management ladder. Often, it was the only way to get on; an absolutely required part of the ascent. So, what happened to apparently change it?
Is a lot of it down to digital technology? You know: the digitally-enabled distribution of business functions across multiple geographies; the ubiquitous deployment of apps to ensure standardization of performance in specific functions; and, above all else, digitization’s sheer goddam nosiness about, and fine measurement of, everything.
Go back a hundred years. What was going on then? Well, one of the Big Boys of the industrial age was Henry Ford. He pioneered a great number of developments in the automotive industry, not least the moving production line. And in 1926, when he was already over sixty years of age, he wrote Today and Tomorrow1. It included this:
The eventuality of industry is not a standardized, automatic world in which people will not need brains. The eventuality is a world in which people will have a chance to use their brains … (My emphases)
In his book on the Toyota Production System2, Taiichi Ohno writes approvingly of Ford’s observation and points out that, indeed, ongoing human involvement at all levels is an absolute element of kaizen (change for the better or continuous improvement). An online definition of kaizen includes …
Kaizen supports change from any employee at any time.3
So, is it the case that digital tech’s sheer capacity and precision contributes to the diminishing of middle management because it does away, theoretically at least, with much of the requirement to stimulate, manage, communicate and analyze ongoing conversations at all levels of the organization?
What changed? With the Military Model in mind.
I’m thinking about this and any links to middle management issues because, throughout history, the military model has been a, if not the, leading example of Big Organization. From the beginning of time, right up through the the Roman Empire, to the moment, in 1942, when Montgomery addressed his senior officers before Alamein, reminding them that he expected them to stick rigidly to the chain of command system, the military has pioneered new Big Organization concepts.
This reality ran deep into society. I recall a meeting in the 1980s when I visited a large insurance company client. I was invited to lunch in … The Senior Mess! Doesn’t that speaks volumes about the connection between businesses and the military during the 20th century?
So, perhaps, we might usefully review the work of U.S. Marine General Charles Krulak who, in the late-1990s, put forward the concept of the three-block war. His idea was that, in latter day conflicts, marines may be required to move seamlessly between three operational modes - full-scale military action, peacekeeping activities, and humanitarian aid activities - all within the space of three contiguous city blocks.
What I find particularly interesting about this idea is that, Krulak pointed out, this multi-role work requires substantial increases in training at the lowest levels. Which is to say, the role of the corporal, who is the lowest non-commissioned officer rank, takes on added importance. These people become ‘strategic corporals’ and must be able to take independent action and make major decisions.
Does this help us better understand the changed or changing management needs of business organizations and, specifically, any changes in the role and reputation of middle management?
“We’ve got to start looking for a new Treasurer.”
So, there we are, a brief peek into a couple of the strands in the quest to decide what is happening to the poor middle manager.
Finally, a reminder of the fact that some management issues may always have been elusive. 1933 saw the release of a film titled Duck Soup4 starring the Marx Brothers. In it Groucho Marx plays Rufus T. Firefly, appointed leader of Freedonia, a small financially-struggling country. In a cabinet meeting the Minister of Labor says …
Minister of Labor: The Department of Labor wishes to report that … the workers of Freedonia are demanding shorter hours.
To which Rufus T. Firefly replies …
Firefly: Very well, we’ll give them shorter hours. We’ll start by cutting their lunch hour to twenty minutes. And now, gentlemen, we’ve got to start looking for a new Treasurer.
Minister of Labor: But you appointed one last week.
Firefly: That’s the one I’m looking for.
Sorry, couldn’t resist it. Don’t worry, Jef and Olaf are the sensible ones in our team. At least, that’s what they tell me.
Thanks for reading.
Ford, Henry. Today and Tomorrow (1926)
Ohno, Taaichi. Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production (1978)
Google search for ‘kaizen’, 18 Dec 2023
Duck Soup starring the Marx Brothers. Released by Paramount Pictures, 1933. Script: Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. Additional dialogue Arthur Sheekman and Nat Perrin. Director: Leo McCarey.