The financial crisis has been hard on middle managers. Given the downsizing of middle management, this group of employees has been made to feel disengaged, overworked and underappreciated.
But now, the tables have turned as companies begin to feel the negative impact in terms of company growth and loss of talent. More bosses have recognised that middle managers will play an increasingly important role as the economy recovers.
Strategically, middle managers act as ambassadors between senior leadership and the rest of the company, enabling the organisation to run smoothly.
Elmar Kronz, vice-president (Asia) of Development Dimensions International (DDI), a global human resources consulting firm, says mid-level leaders are 'shock absorbers', as they take pressure from the top and bottom.
Kronz says the changing business environment in recent years has meant companies needed to create new career opportunities and focus resources on developing the so-called young, high-potentials and executives at the expense of nurturing mid-level leaders.
According to a recent McKinsey study, 64 per cent of mid-level managers do not expect to be with their organisation two years from now. This negative sentiment seems to be mutual, as demonstrated by a DDI leadership forecast last year, indicating that only about one-third of the 13,700 leaders surveyed had a high degree of confidence in mid-level leaders' ability to meet their business goals. Kronz says poorly developed, or non-existent, middle management will make strategy execution difficult or impossible for organisations, especially in an emerging economy such as the mainland, with many expatriate leaders.