Middle Managers Hold Critical Keys to Organizational Success Despite Historical Undervaluation

The perception of middle management has historically been unflattering—viewed as organizational bureaucracy rather than value creators. However, the McKinsey article "The future of middle management" challenges this perception with compelling research showing middle managers are actually pivotal to organizational success.

In their book "Power to the Middle: Why Managers Hold the Keys to the Future of Work," authors Emily Field, Bryan Hancock, and Bill Schaninger make a powerful case for reevaluating and reinventing the middle manager role for today's workplace.

The Maligned Middle: Origins of the Stereotype

The middle management stereotype can be traced back to significant shifts in organizational structure and communication. As Bryan Hancock notes in the article, middle managers were once respected career positions from the 1950s through the 1970s, serving as essential communicators of leadership directives throughout organizations.

Bill Schaninger explains that the post-World War II industrial expansion required this military-inspired hierarchical structure: "The people at the top made decisions, the people in the middle passed those decisions on, and the people at the bottom did the work."

This model began collapsing in the late 1970s and 1980s as American companies faced global competition and needed to become leaner. The advent of the internet in the early 1990s accelerated this change by enabling direct communication across organizational levels, making the traditional middle management communication function seem redundant.

As organizations flattened, middle managers increasingly became scapegoats for bureaucratic inefficiency. What was forgotten in this transition was the critical coaching, direction-setting, and people development that effective middle managers provide.

Mission Impossible: The Current Middle Management Challenge

Today's middle managers face what the authors describe as "mission impossible." They're overwhelmed with administrative tasks that previously would have been handled by support staff. According to the research, administrative work now consumes approximately 25% of managers' time.

Emily Field shares a striking example: "Just by having a direct report, every people manager had 105 tasks to do." Many of these tasks—like simple approvals of credit cards or expense reports—add little value and could be automated or eliminated.

This administrative burden significantly reduces the time managers can spend on high-value activities like coaching, developing talent, and connecting employees to organizational purpose. As Bryan Hancock observes, "We need more time for managing as we look at productivity going forward."

Compounding this problem, many organizations actually train managers to limit time with their teams in favor of administrative tasks. The authors suggest inverting this priority: "Limit the size of the container on administrivia and refocus that time on the most important thing, which is our people."

The current situation is particularly concerning as emerging technologies like generative AI create a critical choice point. Organizations can either use productivity gains to increase managers' span of control without increasing coaching time, or they can reinvest that time into more effective leadership.

The Middle Manager Value Proposition

Despite these challenges, the research shows middle managers create tremendous value when properly positioned and supported. Emily Field emphasizes that "managers are the single biggest determinant of employee satisfaction, performance, and perceptions of well-being."

Effective middle managers contribute to organizational performance in several key ways:

• Strategy Translation and Execution: They set direction, determine work processes, hold people accountable, and challenge teams to achieve beyond expectations.
• Talent Development: The best managers serve as coaches rather than taskmasters, connecting employees' work to purpose and meaning.
• Team Engagement: Research demonstrates that employees who feel valued by their managers are significantly more likely to stay with an organization.
• Organizational Performance: Companies with healthy management practices show a three-times increase in total return-to-shareholder value compared to companies with average practices.

Bryan Hancock uses sports coaching as an illuminating comparison: "Your head coach is a middle manager. A basketball coach, for instance, is responsible for a team of 12 to 15 people, for making them the best they can be." Yet unlike in business, head coaches are highly valued and compensated, with few aspiring to leave coaching for front office roles.

Reimagining the Middle Management Role

To unlock the full potential of middle managers, the authors suggest several transformative approaches:

• Role Redesign: Organizations must fundamentally redefine the middle manager role by automating, eliminating, or making self-serve many administrative tasks. A bank mentioned in the article successfully reduced the 105 tasks assigned to managers to a much smaller set focused on value-adding activities.
• Career Path Reinvention: Rather than viewing middle management as a stepping stone to executive positions, organizations should create meaningful career paths within management itself. As Emily Field suggests, "Imagine this as a set of tours of duty across middle-manager positions where the person can have broad impact."
• Talent Deployment Strategy: Organizations should place their best managers in their most challenging situations rather than automatically promoting them to larger teams or executive roles. As Bill Schaninger asks, "Why not park your best middle manager where you have real risk?"
• Multiple Career Tracks: Companies should create explicit pathways for both technical specialists and people managers. Bryan Hancock notes, "If you're great on the technical track and an outstanding scientist, we shouldn't make you manage people if that's not your aptitude."
• Selection and Development: Organizations need better processes to identify potential management talent through behavioral interviews, observation, and special projects that allow candidates to develop and demonstrate leadership skills before formal promotion.

The Research Perspective

Research from other sources confirms the critical role of middle management. According to a 2023 Gallup study, managers account for at least 70% of the variance in team engagement. When managers are engaged, their teams show 59% higher engagement. Conversely, disengaged managers create actively disengaged teams.

The Harvard Business Review published research in 2022 indicating that middle managers are the most important factor in determining whether change initiatives succeed or fail. Their position at the intersection of strategy and execution makes them uniquely positioned to translate organizational vision into operational reality.

A study from MIT Sloan Management Review found that organizations with strong middle management capabilities demonstrate greater agility, innovation, and resilience during times of disruption. These companies were able to pivot more effectively during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic challenges.

The Path Forward

The authors identify practical steps organizations can take to elevate middle management effectiveness:

• Create Space: Implement practices like no-meeting days to give managers time for thinking and coaching. As Bryan Hancock notes, "We can't fix all of the bureaucracy, but we can at least stop meetings on this day to create some space."
• Emphasize Coaching: Shift evaluation and compensation systems to reward people development rather than just operational metrics.
• Balance Inspiration and Execution: Bryan Hancock describes a home healthcare organization where managers connect their teams to a powerful social mission while ensuring operational excellence. "In every organization, you need a balance of inspiration and actually making sure things work."
• Recognize Value Differentiation: The authors highlight how different management approaches can produce dramatically different results even within the same organization. Emily Field shares the example of two managers responding to a return-to-office mandate—one rigidly enforcing policy, the other focusing on customer value and team effectiveness.

Conclusion

The McKinsey article presents a compelling case for middle management's crucial role in organizational success. Rather than continuing to malign or marginalize middle managers, forward-thinking organizations should invest in redefining and elevating these roles.

As business environments become more complex and technology continues to transform work, effective middle managers may become even more valuable. They provide the human connection, contextual understanding, and coaching that algorithms cannot replicate.

By freeing managers from administrative burdens and empowering them to focus on people leadership, organizations can unlock significant performance improvements. The future of work may well depend on giving power to the middle—recognizing that middle managers truly do hold the keys to organizational success.

The stereotype of the ineffective middle manager should be relegated to history. In its place, we need a new vision of middle management as a critical strategic role—one worthy of investment, development, and respect. As Emily Field aptly states, "A great manager is a coach, not a taskmaster. They're really helping connect people's work to their purpose." That connection may be more valuable than ever in today's rapidly evolving workplace.