What strategic value do middle managers have for companies? 

 

2. What are reasons that companies doubt the value of middle managers? 

 

3. Summarize in your own words all the steps that google took to 'sell its engineers on (middle) management' as explained in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) article by David A. Garvin. Ensure you include all steps and offer a brief explanation for each step.

 

4. Based on the information in the article '(Re)Conceptualizing Middle Managers' Roles in Modern Organizations' in Journal of Management Studies, would you want to be a middle manager?

 

 

5. According to research done by several professors, including yours, visionary middle managers will not automatically help with strategy implementation (see article 'Why Visionary Leadership fails'). Explain the following:

 

A) What do middle managers do during strategy implementation?

B) According to the article about visionary leadership, why would middle manager visionary leadership be helpful during strategy implementation

C) According to the article about visionary leadership, how is it possible that middle manager visionary leadership sometimes is not helpful during strategy implementation? 

D) What other qualities, skills and/or tasks are important for middle managers?

 

 

6. According to the article 'The Real Value of Middle Managers,' and the other articles in the assignment, what can organizations do to ensure middle managers add value (a) to their organization and (b) to the strategy implementation?