{"id":7667,"date":"2009-04-13T14:53:15","date_gmt":"2009-04-13T14:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cerebyte.biz\/journal\/?p=47"},"modified":"2009-04-13T14:53:15","modified_gmt":"2009-04-13T14:53:15","slug":"middle-managers-middle-management-and-leadership-the-accuracy-of-dilbert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cerebyte.com\/2009\/04\/13\/middle-managers-middle-management-and-leadership-the-accuracy-of-dilbert\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle managers, middle management, and leadership : the accuracy of "Dilbert""},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tBy William Seidman<\/strong>\n\nOne of my colleagues used to insist that he didn’t know anyone who got up in the morning saying “My goal for today is to be completely mediocre.”\n\nClearly he hadn’t been talking to some of the middle managers we’ve all known. What is it about middle management? Why is it so often seen as drags on productivity, creativity, and positive change? Cartoonist Scott Adams<\/a> has made his career lampooning middle management with Dilbert.<\/a>\n\nIn my discussions with middle managers, I’ve learned some things. One manager told me that his goal was just to survive each day. Another asked me not to talk about our program to anyone – he didn’t want expectations raised!\n\nMiddle managers have a difficult job; they are expected to both\u00a0represent the organization to the workers and to lead the workers at the same time.\n\nI am currently working in a program in which the workers – under middle management –\u00a0want to move forward and add value to the corporation. But the middle managers are so concerned about daily survival that they constantly and consistently subvert the workers and the program. (Again, think “Dilbert.”)\n\nIronically, this retrogressive behavior puts more short-term survival pressure on the middle managers. It’s bad for the company and bad for the managers themselves.\n\nThere is very little true leadership in middle management in almost any organization. Is\u00a0the very idea of middle management\u00a0structurally flawed, philosophically flawed, or … ?]]>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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