ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION The role of middle managers remains a controversial subject. The picture of middle management portrayed by many articles and by the business press is predominantly a gloomy one. Most writers describe the middle manager as a frustrated, disillusioned individual caught in the middle of a hierarchy, impotent and with no real hope of career progression. The work is dreary, the careers are frustrating and information technology, some writers argue, will make the role yet more routine, uninteresting and unimportant. Other writers claim that recent organizational change has enhanced the role of middle managers as they serve as strategic ‘ambassadors’ for downward and upward communication. We have been working on a variety of different projects exploring the changing nature of middle management work and, in turn, these claims. We draw upon these projects in offering some thoughts about how middle management jobs and careers are changing. Specifically in this chapter, we address the topic of how British middle managers are reacting to those organizational changes which affect their roles, responsibilities and careers. We analyse data using a conceptual framework which combines the ‘psychological contract’ with a ‘double-bind situation’. From this analysis, we find evidence for three common reactions from middle managers to their changing employment contracts: uncertainty, contrariness, and the doublebind. Finally, the chapter points to a number of conclusions and discusses areas in which the ideas in this chapter could be developed.
