Frames and Actions: Middle Managers’ Sensegiving of Change Readiness Sentiments

Middle Managers’ Upward Roles in the Public Sector

“…Research on middle managers in public administration has been decidedly sparse and mixed in recent decades. The term middle management refers to managers who typically head a function, team, or office, and supervise day-to-day and other operations; they are located below top managers and, in large organizations, typically distinct from first-tier supervisors (Dutton & Ashford, 1993; Janto, 2004; Varma, 2012; Wooldridge, Schmid, & Floyd, 2008). 1 Public administration theory has traditionally regarded implementation as the core of middle management activity, but by the 1990s, middle management had become seen, in public and business administration alike, as a source of major bureaucratic dysfunction that stifles change (Stark, 2002).…”

“… 1. For example, Schmid, Floyd, and Wooldridge (2010: 143) define middle managers as “those actors who combine access to top management with knowledge of operations.” According to Varma (2012), middle managers typically head a function, a team, or a department, and Kanter, Stein, and Jick (1992) posit a broad definition where “middle” stretches from those with supervisory responsibilities of firstline employees to managers below top management. …”