Doing yourself out of a job? : How middle managers cope with empowerment

Abstract

Looks at the effect of modern empowerment policies on middle management. The transition of middle managers from technical experts to coaches, and the position at the sharpest point of conflict between senior management and employees, means that empowerment often requires middle management to implement a policy which threatens their own jobs. Based on 28 management interviews and five focus groups held within two large UK organizations between 1995‐1996, this research seeks to to answer three central questions: How does empowerment affect middle managers? What coping mechanisms do they use? What are the implications for the organizations? The results show that, in line with previous literature, managers are resisting empowerment policies to some extent. However, the added fear of redundancy among middle managers means that they are, to varying extents, beginning to “act” their compliance to empowerment affecting the ultimate success of such initiatives.

Citation

Denham, N., Ackers, P. and Travers, C. (1997), "Doing yourself out of a job? : How middle managers cope with empowerment", Employee Relations, Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 147-159. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425459710171030