{"id":23882,"date":"2015-03-24T11:02:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T11:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kepner-tregoe.com\/what-executives-dont-know-about-middle-management\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T09:41:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T09:41:24","slug":"what-executives-dont-know-about-middle-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kepner-tregoe.com\/nl\/blogs\/what-executives-dont-know-about-middle-management\/","title":{"rendered":"What Executives Don&#8217;t Know about Middle Management"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Top management teams often assume that since middle managers\u2019 responsibilities are operational, they don\u2019t need strategic details. Yet middle\u00a0management is a strategic force within an organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While functioning in the operational realm, managers cannot carry out operational responsibilities effectively if they lack strategic context. Operational decisions \u2014 hiring, training, purchasing, improving productivity, assigning research priorities, designing marketing programs, selecting sites for new facilities \u2014 need strategic guidance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, a company manufactures pumps and sells them exclusively to utilities. A strategy to pursue customers for its existing products in other industries is very different from a strategy to add product lines to meet more of the current utility customer needs. Operationally, the research and marketing decisions to support the strategy would be entirely different. The active support of middle managers is critical to the effective implementation of the strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While executives formulate what the organization will become, managers implement it, determining how the organization will get there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Strategy promoting actions for executives<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Communicate the strategy (including its rationale) to middle managers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Help middle managers link their unit missions and job responsibilities to the strategy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Describe to middle managers the sorts of \u201cstrategic information\u201d you need to direct and fine-tune the strategy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Strategy promoting actions for middle managers:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Step up and proactively force strategy clarification<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Carve out a meaningful strategic role within your operational one.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Provide ongoing information and recommendations that can help top management evaluate and adjust both the implementation and the strategy itself.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spelling out the strategy to employees is not a matter of being nice or making everyone feel like part of a team. An organization\u2019s success in carrying out its strategy to a great extent depends that middle managers understanding the strategy as well as how to implement it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>See Debra\u2019s complete article as published on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smartbusinessblog.biz\/leadership\/51-leadership-lessons\/919-strategy-and-the-middle-manager-\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SmartBusiness<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-wsfirst-responsive-spacer responsive-spacer\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><div class=\"responsive-spacer-fullsize\" style=\"height:2.125rem\"><\/div><div class=\"responsive-spacer-tablet\" style=\"height:1.6875rem\"><\/div><div class=\"responsive-spacer-mobile\" style=\"height:1.25rem\"><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-tagline\" id=\"h-explore-more-insights\">Explore more insights<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-yoast-seo-related-links yoast-seo-related-links\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/resources\/whitepapers\/strategy-and-the-middle-manager\/\">Strategy and the Middle Manager<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/kepner-tregoe.com\/blogs\/middle-management-the-nerve-cells-of-the-enterprise\/\">Middle Management, the \u201cNerve Cells\u2019 of the Enterprise<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/kepner-tregoe.com\/blogs\/improve-hiring-success-with-kepner-tregoe-decision-analysis\/\">Improve Hiring Success with Kepner-Tregoe Decision Analysis<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Top management teams often assume that since middle managers\u2019 responsibilities are operational, they don\u2019t need strategic details. Yet middle\u00a0management is a strategic force within an organization. While functioning in the operational realm, managers cannot carry out operational responsibilities effectively if they lack strategic context. Operational decisions \u2014 hiring, training, purchasing, improving productivity, assigning research priorities, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[86],"class_list":["post-23882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v27.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What Executives Don&#039;t Know about Middle Management - Kepner-Tregoe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"While functioning in the operational realm, managers cannot carry out operational responsibilities effectively if they lack strategic context. Operational decisions \u2014 hiring, training, purchasing, improving productivity, assigning research priorities, designing marketing programs, selecting sites for new facilities \u2014 need strategic guidance.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/kepner-tregoe.com\/nl\/blogs\/what-executives-dont-know-about-middle-management\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"nl_NL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Executives Don&#039;t Know about Middle Management\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While functioning in the operational realm, managers cannot carry out operational responsibilities effectively if they lack strategic context. Operational decisions \u2014 hiring, training, purchasing, improving productivity, assigning research priorities, designing marketing programs, selecting sites for new facilities \u2014 need strategic guidance.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/kepner-tregoe.com\/nl\/blogs\/what-executives-dont-know-about-middle-management\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Kepner-Tregoe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-24T11:02:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-24T09:41:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Debra Evans\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kepner-tregoe.com\\\/nl\\\/blogs\\\/what-executives-dont-know-about-middle-management\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kepner-tregoe.com\\\/nl\\\/blogs\\\/what-executives-dont-know-about-middle-management\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"What Executives Don&#8217;t Know about Middle Management\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-24T11:02:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-24T09:41:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kepner-tregoe.com\\\/nl\\\/blogs\\\/what-executives-dont-know-about-middle-management\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":334,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kepner-tregoe.com\\\/nl\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Other\"],\"inLanguage\":\"nl-NL\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kepner-tregoe.com\\\/nl\\\/blogs\\\/what-executives-dont-know-about-middle-management\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kepner-tregoe.com\\\/nl\\\/blogs\\\/what-executives-dont-know-about-middle-management\\\/\",\"name\":\"What Executives Don't Know about Middle Management - Kepner-Tregoe\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kepner-tregoe.com\\\/nl\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-24T11:02:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-24T09:41:24+00:00\",\"description\":\"While functioning in the operational realm, managers cannot carry out operational responsibilities effectively if they lack strategic context. 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