The depowerment of European middle managers: Challenges and uncertainties

This paper is based on the research of middle managers in three countries (The Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK) in public and private sector organisations. The findings indicate that increasing pressures on managers to perform within a surge of management initiatives and policy moves to make organis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of managerial psychology 2004, Vol.19 (3), p.269-287
Main Authors: Holden, Len, Roberts, Ian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Communitarianism
Cultural values
Culture
Decision making
Employee empowerment
Employment
Ideology
Industrial concentration
Influence
Middle management
Middle managers
Netherlands
Occupational psychology
Power
Private sector
Privatization
Public sector
Stress
Studies
Uncertainty
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Summary:This paper is based on the research of middle managers in three countries (The Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK) in public and private sector organisations. The findings indicate that increasing pressures on managers to perform within a surge of management initiatives and policy moves to make organisations more profitable (in the private sector) and more “efficient” and accountable (in the public sector) invariably lead to contradictions in their performance and perceived roles. In the context of the oxymoron that “they are to do more with less”, this will lead to increased stresses and strains on those performing this pivotal operational role. Terminologically, middle managers are becoming increasingly “depowered”.
ISSN:0268-3946
1758-7778
DOI:10.1108/02683940410527757