The role of middle managers

The role of middle managers in the transmission and integration of organizational culture.
Publication: Journal of Healthcare Management
Publication Date: 01-NOV-04
Author: Valentino, Caterina Lucia
In this article the authors discuss the role of middle managers in terms of transition and integration of organizational culture. When organizations merge, the role of the middle manager as an agent of change is to make sense of, unite, and transmit the organization's culture. This process is complicated because the managers must have deep knowledge about the needs of the employees and organizational culture. They have short period of time to weld all the employees together into a smoothly functioning entity. Schein (1999) proposes eight essential steps that the manager must accomplish if cultural change is to occur. Bennis's (1989) four competencies of leadership is a framework to categorize and record actions that create a milieu of clear-cut goals, values, and basic assumptions for the organization's employees. Combining these two theoretical models illustrates how middle managers are able to create a "pull" style of influence (Kotler 2000) to attract and energize people to enroll in the new organization's vision of the future.
The data for this research came from interviews with the middle managers, the chief executive officer, and other staff members of a recently merged healthcare organization.
Here are the Bennis’s competencies and scheinäs steps which are much affective for change to make the organization culturally fit.
Integrated Framework for the Transmission and Integration of an
Organization's Culture

Bennis's Competencies Schein's Steps

1. Management of Attention
Create a compelling vision that moves the employees beyond their
present vision to a new vision.

2. Management of Meaning
Communicate the meaning of the vision to the employees.
3. Management of Trust
The ability of managers to
demonstrate reliability or
constancy, keep their word, and always let the staff know where
they stand.
4. Management of Self liaisons.
The ability of managers to make
not just decisions but also
collective decisions.
Schein's Steps
1. Create a compelling positive vision.
2. Coach and provide feedback.
3. Be a positive role model
4. Provide opportunities for
formal training.
5. Create in employees a sense that the organization's leaders will allow them to manage and
be in control of their own personal learning process
6. Create interdepartmental groups and cross-departmental liaisons.
7. Provide support groups
8. Align the organization's reward and discipline systems with the new way of thinking and
working.

They also suggest that Chief executive officers should take the following steps to facilitate culture integration:

1. Acknowledge and reward the work of middle managers by involving them in the planning and implementation of organizational changes.

2. Undertake early and focused activities that identify the merging organizations' basic underlying cultural assumptions.

3. Be cognizant of the change anxiety associated with mergers, and seek methods of increasing the employees' psychological safety.

Middle managers should initiate the following efforts when dealing with culture issues for merged entities:

1. Identify and bring to the surface any differences between the CEO's and middle managers' basic underlying assumptions.

2. Create support groups, composed of members from other departments, to talk about frustrations and difficulties associated with the merger process.

3. Explore the implications of applying business tools, such as the balanced scorecard, to assess the ability to achieve the desired results.

As long as mergers continue to take place, the findings presented here will be useful to inform decision makers as they attempt to make progress in newly formed organizations.
Findings:
Although the concepts of culture are abstract, they turn out to be highly related to creating effective organizational change.
As long as the organization's internal environment remains stable and the organization continues to experience success, its culture will remain strong. However, when the organization's internal environment changes, "some of those shared basic assumptions can become liabilities, precisely because of their strength" (Schein 1999, 165).
Middle managers are important. They help develop and translate the organization's vision and ideas into action and change (Bennis 1989; Schein 1999).
Middle managers know well to the employees of the organization. They are much important for making the change process effective. They are much familiar with the employees their needs. They understand them well as compared to the top management because they are close to the employees. They have much relations to the employees.
Leaders and managers who understand the construct of organizational culture and its potential affect the employees' willingness to identify with and become emotionally attached to the organization's basic underlying assumptions and, through the transmission and integration of an organization's culture, potentially affect and contribute to the development of the employees' affective commitment (Meyer and Allen 1997).
As organizational entities continue to merge, both to survive and to achieve economies of scale, research is needed to discover how an organization's culture evolves and who plays the key roles in the transmission and integration of its culture (Yin 1994).
The study give us much guide line to deal with change. How top management can make the transition process much effective. They face less barriers while implementing the change. Middle managers play a key role in communicating the change among the organizational employees. They listen both the parties (top management and employees). They also work as a communicator between the top management and employees.