
Some common duties and responsibilities of middle level managers include:
- Developing and implementing day-to-day routines for a specific office, branch or department
- Monitoring employee performance
- Assigning and supervising specific work tasks
- Making sure that processes and procedures are in compliance with the overall organization’s guidelines
- Inspiring and encouraging employees to perform their best
What are the roles and responsibilities of middle management?
- Middle managers are the ones that recruit as well as retain employees. ...
- Middle management has the authority to make changes in the lower levels and thus implements strategies that can enable better work performance.
- They are the ones who get things done. ...
- They coordinate with both upper and lower levels and guide the workforce to achieve set targets. ...
What are the duties of middle manager?
What Are the Four Major Responsibilities for the Typical Middle Manager?
- Goal Setting. Managers at all levels of an organization set goals. ...
- Strategies. Strategic development and planning is necessary at all management levels. ...
- Resource Allocation. One of the most distinct roles of mid-level management is resource allocation and utilization. ...
- People Development. ...
What are middle managers responsible for?
The job of a middle manager is to develop division or region objectives that align with the company vision and goals. Then, the mid-level manager communicates goals, strategies, tactics and policies with front-line managers.
What is wrong with middle managers?
- Value people
- Believe in two-way, frequent effective communication and listening
- Want to create an environment in which employees are empowered to take charge of their jobs
- Able to hold people accountable and responsible without using punitive measures
- Demonstrate leadership and the ability to set a clear direction
- Believe in teamwork

What are the four major responsibilities for the typical middle manager?
The four major responsibilities of middle managers are (1) setting objectives consistent with top management's goals and planning and implementing subunit strategies for achieving these objectives; (2) coordinating and linking groups, departments, and divisions within a company; (3) monitoring and managing the ...
What are 3 duties of middle-level managers?
Following are the main functions of Middle-level Managers:(i) Interpreting Policies:(ii) Preparing Organisational Set-up:(iii) Appointing Employees:(iv) Issuing Instructions:(v) Motivating Employees:(vi) Creating Cooperation:
What is an example of middle manager?
Examples of middle management This will help in the smooth and continuous running of the company. The job title of a middle manager includes positions of divisional manager, regional manager, plant manager, and general manager.
What is the value of middle managers?
Middle managers play a critical role in the organization, especially as implementers of change. Middle managers are the "ears and eyes" of upper management because they are closer to day-to-day operations, customers and front-line employees.
Which skill is most important for the middle managers?
6 Skills Middle Managers NeedThe ability to hire well. ... Excellent communication skills. ... The ability to delegate. ... Performance management proficiency. ... Collaboration skills. ... Solid decision-making skills.
What critical roles do middle managers play in an organization?
Middle Managers Play an Important Role in Organizational...Planning and implementing the work of their teams.Supporting team effectiveness.Defining and monitoring performance indicators.Diagnosing and resolving problems within and among work groups.Facilitating communication and cooperative behavior.
What makes a good middle management?
Communication capabilities: Middle managers need exceptional communication skills to perform their jobs well. They need to accurately report the desires of senior management to their teams while also giving each of their employees an open avenue to voice concerns or ask for help if necessary.
Is a director a middle manager?
Middle managers have titles like department head, director, and chief supervisor. They are links between the top managers and the first-line managers and have one or two levels below them.
Why do middle managers matter?
Middle Managers are Important for the Company Culture. Middle managers often oversee the work of other employees and help them follow company procedures. They also help supervise and train new employees. This ensures that the company's culture continues to be strong, even as new people come in.
Why do middle managers fail?
They Focus on Short-Term Results Middle management is generally focused on generating immediate results. They are more interested in quarterly reports than what the company can achieve in five years. Thus, they fail to see the potential for growth in the long-term.
What is the authority of middle management?
Middle management has the authority to make changes in the lower levels and thus implements strategies that can enable better work performance.
Why do middle managers attend meetings?
The middle management attends top-level discussions and meetings so that they can report about the happenings in the company.
Why is a middle manager an able leader?
Their characteristics and skills include-. The middle manager must be an able leader because he has to handle both his superiors and juniors effectively. It is the inherent leadership qualities that will help him to make essential strategies for the welfare of his subordinates as well as the company.
Why is the role of middle managers considered unnecessary?
As the world is moving towards further technological advances, the role of middle managers is considered unnecessary. Companies have started reconstruction by introducing latest technologies for better efficiency and productivity. Now the position of middle managers is not as beneficial for them as t was earlier.
What is middle management?
Middle management is defined as the management level that reports to higher managers and manages at least one – two subordinate level of managers.
How to reach organizational objectives?
To reach the organizational objectives, they have to be diligent and aware of all the happenings in the company. He creates an amiable working atmosphere where all the employees are happy and satisfied.
What is the role of a strategic planner?
They coordinate with both upper and lower levels and guide the workforce to achieve set targets. They are the ones who are entrusted with creating and implementing the necessary strategy.
What is middle management?
Middle management includes all of the management positions in a hierarchical company structure underneath the top management positions and above the non-management workers. These managers generally answer to top management, those who have executive titles such as CEO or CFO. Middle managers are typically in charge of a specific office, branch or group of workers.
Why do you need middle level managers?
The main reason to hire middle level managers is to take the burden of employee management and everyday operations off top-level managers. For smaller organizations with a single location and a small staff, the person or team running the company can handle most management tasks. As your organization grows, separating out management duties into senior management and middle management can help keep everything running smoothly and ensure adequate supervision of multiple physical job sites.
How to get a middle management position?
This may mean starting out by hiring externally and creating assistant manager positions that give promising employees management experience before moving up. Establishing a clear path for moving up within your company keeps lower-level employees happy.
What do you need to know before you can put people in management positions?
Before you can effectively place people in management positions, you need to assess your organizational structure. This might mean creating new departments within your company, such as HR, sales or facilities maintenance, that were previously overseen by a single individual. It could also mean planning for future expansion by setting up a structure for regional or divisional managers once you have opened multiple physical locations.
How to manage a middle manager?
The job of a middle manager is to handle daily tasks and issues so senior management can focus on the bigger picture, so you need to choose middle managers who can handle this level of responsibility without direct interference. Scheduling regular skip level meetings or updates lets you track a mid-level manager’s performance without getting directly involved on a day to day basis.
What are the skills needed to be a good middle manager?
Leadership, interpersonal skills, communication skills and the ability to delegate tasks are all essential skills for a good middle manager. Flexibility is also important since middle managers are the ones who have to deal with immediate events and unexpected emergencies. Facilitating skills, such as conflict resolution and employee motivation, help a middle manager deal effectively with employees on a one-to-one basis.
What is the role of middle managers?
Middle managers need solid decision-making skills and the ability to communicate with and motivate employees. The most successful middle managers are adaptable. They can identify areas that need improvement and implement the necessary changes quickly. Organization is another important management skill at the branch or regional level since middle management needs to set goals and develop ways to measure and record progress at the employee or branch level.
What is top level organizational strategy?
Top-level organizational strategies that arenot cascaded down through the various levels of the organization are just that: top-level organization strategies. Buy-in and support for the top-level strategy will be weak unless middle managers are empowered to provide support, coaching, and facilitation of strategy implementation. Once all organization levels take ownership for their share of the top-level strategy and assign accountability for strategy implementation, the organization should be able to realize a fully aligned organization-wide strategy implementation.
What is SMO in management?
The SMO will support the entire organization by managing all aspects of the top-level strategic plan and incorporating monitoring and evaluation of the departmental middle manager’s strategy and the top-level strategy. The middle manager’s departmental, employee, and team strategies will soon realize that they are the front-line ...
What does it mean to maintain a persistent professional approach?
First, maintaining a persistent professional approach can mean striving for the best work from everyone on the team, keeping schedules, managing the team members’ expectations, and striving for the organization’s and team’s best outcomes while working in collaboration with the SMO and other department middle managers.
What does Maister say about middle managers?
Maister states that good middle managers listen, value input, establishes trust, coaches well, , communicates well, practices what they preach, and treats other unit members equally. Also, Maister’s research indicated that trust and respect at the middle management level was among the top factors in predicting a business’s profitability.
What is a manager today?
According to Clifton and Harter, today’s managers are facilitators and coaches for their employees. They are coordinators, speak with authority while still being open to employees’ input, and set transparent systems of accountability in a world where work hours flexible and where work and home life are blended. Today, successful managers are more analytical decision-makers. They are decidedly more future-focused, systems-oriented, curious, open minded, and empirically-grounded. 1
What is the importance of trust and respect in middle management?
Further research has shown that where trust and respect between management and employees are high, financial performance goes up. 2
What is a successful manager?
Today, successful managers are more analytical decision-makers.
Why are middle managers important?
Especially as remote and hybrid work takes over — and the distance between employees increases — middle managers are more important than ever.
Who created the middle managers?
The idea of middle managers as unexceptional, mediocre supervisors has been around for decades — at least since a seminal 1977 HBR article by Abraham Zaleznik that made a clear, explicit distinction between being a leader (an inspirational visionary) and a manager (a strategic administrator). These ideas are still central to what’s taught in many MBA and executive development programs, where there’s a tendency to educate managers on how to “upgrade” and become leaders.
What is the relationship between managers in the middle of hierarchical layers?
Thus, a manager in the middle of hierarchical layers builds relationships with those at the top (from a position of followership and lower power) and with the people at the bottom (from a position of leadership and higher power).
What is a broker in a dialogue?
A broker creates a dialogue between people who have conflicting agendas. Because hierarchical levels have often different goals and needs, connecting leaders can serve as interpreters and translators of these needs, brokering inter-level dialogue between the people above and below them.
Why is it important to connect with leaders?
So especially during times of change, it is important to offer this population extra support, like coaching and spaces for safe conversations and sharing. This is crucial for their success, but is often undervalued by companies who put a greater share of their coaching budget to top executives rather than to middle managers.
Why should the communications and human resources departments work together?
Once there is buy in from the top, both the communications and human resources departments need to work together to update company-wide language — for example, on balanced scorecards, hiring competencies lists, and contracts to reflect the importance of connecting behaviors. The balanced scorecards for executive performance should also be tweaked to accommodate the importance of psychological safety and their co-responsibility to ensure connections are truly enabled.
Who was extremely clear in presenting the dilemma and balancing the actions she decided to put in place on her team?
Andrea was extremely clear in presenting the dilemma and balancing the actions she decided to put in place on her team:
What is the role of a middle manager?
One of the most important functions of a middle manager is motivating, leading and inspiring their subordinates. This also includes building a team and supporting any team member when necessary. Strategic. Strategic functions involve analyzing a subordinate group in terms of productivity and financial effectiveness, ...
What is the primary responsibility of a middle manager?
Primary responsibility of a middle manager is to implement a strategy, created by the executive level, in the most efficient way possible. In order to reach the target goals, a manager may adjust and interpret the initial plan. Other functions can be divided into three main categories: Technical.
Why do middle managers work?
Due to involvement into day-to-day running of a business, middle managers have the opportunity to report valuable information and suggestions from the inside of an organization. Moreover, the middle manager is a channel of communication within the organization, as they pass on major decisions of executives and the main goals ...
What is middle management?
Middle management is the intermediate management level of a hierarchical organization that is subordinate to the executive management and responsible for ‘team leading’ line managers and/or ‘specialist’ line managers. Middle management is indirectly (through line management) responsible for junior staff performance and productivity.
What is the ability to quickly solve problems, make decisions under pressure and take responsibility for the outcome?
Ability to quickly solve the problems, make decisions under pressure and take responsibility for the outcome. Creativity & Visioning. Managers should have a clear vision of the strategy implementation and be creative in overcoming the possible difficulties. Performance management.
What is the most important competency in management?
Leadership. The most important competency that consists of many skills. As an inherent leader, middle managers have to possess sense-making and persuading skills. They must be able to motivate, influence and guide their subordinates, become a role model for them, demonstrate the quality and the level of work contribution necessary for the organization and engage in continuous self-development and learning.
Is there a need for a middle manager?
At the same time, there is still a need in a middle manager as an employee and they continue playing a significant role in organizations, specifically in setting an overall strategy and targets. Changes in the global market forced them to become more flexible, stress-resistant, acquire new skills.
What is the new role that's emerging for middle managers during organizational change?
What is the new role that's emerging for middle managers during organizational change? At a fundamental level, an increasingly significant role change is from “manager” to “leader,” or rather, from being concerned with completing tasks to being concerned for the people working on the tasks. Part of this shift from manager to leader requires an understanding of, and an appreciation for, how change affects the people doing the work. There are extrinsic and intrinsic components to any change within an organization when considering the perspective of the workers:
What is the role of middle managers in organizational change?
The result is a new role for middle managers. They are now charged with ensuring that the benefits of organizational change are communicated to those who implement it.
Why are middle managers important?
The role that middle managers (be they project managers, program managers, resource managers or directors of project offices) will be asked to play is changing primarily because the nature of organizational change is in itself changing. Until very recently, external changes affecting organizations, and internal changes initiated by organizations, were one-time, single events. As events, these changes were discrete, were easy to identify, and a beginning and an end could be reasonably established. This type of shift allowed organizations to better prepare for change, usually with a more successful outcome.
What is the role of a mid level leader?
In the fundamental role as a leader of change, middle managers—the mid-level leaders—need to help everyone around them change the way they perceive and approach change, from an extrinsic (compelled) to an intrinsic (desired) viewpoint.
What is matrix organization?
As businesses recognized the need to usher their products and services to market faster to be more competitive, a new organizational entity was created—the matrix organization. This new organizational structure emerged in response to the lethargic means by which traditional organizational structures moved information—up and down, and only across at the executive level. The matrix organization created what many thought would be a panacea, with the ability for workers at all levels to talk to each other and get work done together. And, the continuing evolution of communications technology made it easier for executives to communicate directly with the workers, thereby eliminating the need for the huge cadre of middle managers.
What is the role of mid level leaders in the organization?
Once the need for change and the intent of the change is communicated from the executive level to the entire organization, the mid-level leaders no longer act as the translator of the change, but as the hub for insight creation about what the change means throughout the organizational networks they influence.
What is the role of middle managers?
Traditionally, middle managers acted as the vital link connecting the small group of executives at the top of an organization with the vast ranks of workers who were actually responsible for the bulk of the organization's output.

Role of A Middle Manager
Importance of Middle Management
- The middle management is an important position as the middle manager is the one who executes the plans that have been designed by top-level management. He understands the requirement of his superior and then implements plans by defining those plans to low-level managers. High-quality and efficient middle managers are an asset to the company and often proves the key to s…
Disadvantages of Middle Management
- The position of middle management is sometimes considered an unnecessary one and is often criticized for the following reasons- 1. The middle managers hold a powerful position in an organization as they are in direct contact with both the higher and lower levels in the company. This centric position gives them an additional advantage as they can influence the decisions bot…
Examples of Middle Management
- The middle management yields a strong influence on the company as his main role is to execute strategies made by upper-level management most efficiently. He is the one who strikes a balance between idealism and realities to create important pathways for the welfare of the company. Middle managers are the ears and eyes of a company for example if there is discord between th…
Skills of Middle Management
- The middle managers need to have definite skillsso that they can fulfill the required role in the company. Their characteristics and skills include- 1. The middle manager must be an able leader because he has to handle both his superiors and juniors effectively. 2. It is the inherent leadership qualities that will help him to make essential strategies for the welfare of his subordinates as we…