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Strengthening the critical core Strengthening
the critical core
Tapping the potential of middle managers
to achieve high performance
Extensive research has been done on
the upper and lower strata of today's
organizations. Theories and approaches
abound on extracting the most
performance and loyalty out of front-
line workers while guaranteeing a
steady supply of seasoned, ethical
leaders with business vision. But what
of the middle layers? Responsible for
countless day-to-day decisions and
actions that keep an organization
running, middle managers play a critical
role in the pursuit of high performance.
While top executives set the strategy,
middle managers deftly codify it into
functional business processes that
enable front-line resources to make
the strategy a reality.
Most recently, the jobs of these
middle managers have become more
difficult than ever before. To withstand
increased competitive pressures many
organizations have systematically
dismantled much of their middle
management structure, saddling their
remaining employees with workloads
inherited from departed colleagues.
With management attention focused
on those above and below, and with
their workloads growing rapidly, the
great midsection of today's global
organizations is beginning to show
signs of wear. Indeed, middle
managers around the world have
become dissatisfied and frustrated,
and many are actively looking for new
opportunities. This situation could, in
part, explain why Accenture's recent
High Performance Workforce Study
found that a majority of the 251
executives who participated in this
global survey did not report their
corporate functions to be performing
at a high level.
To shed light on this trend and help
executives build sustainable responses
to it, Accenture recently conducted
a survey of nearly 1,500 middle
managers across nine countries on the
challenges they face in their jobs. At
a high level, the survey found that
middle managers are:
Feeling unsupported when it comes
to benefits, compensation, and
managing the challenges of their
daily work life
Struggling to balance work and
outside life, and are frustrated by
their lack of clear career paths
Considering or actively seeking new
opportunities outside their current
employers
This research further reveals that
geography and culture appear to have
a substantial impact on how these
challenges play out across our survey
sample.
3
But what of the
middle managers? 4
Survey results
Employers are not highly
regarded
Our survey reveals that middle
managers around the world share a
lack of satisfaction with their current
organizations. In fact, 61 percent are
either dissatisfied (20 percent) or only
somewhat satisfied (41 percent) with
their existing employers. Satisfaction
levels were low in both developing
and developed countries and especially
low in Malaysia, the United Kingdom,
China, France and Singapore, where
roughly three-quarters of middle
managers were either dissatisfied or
only somewhat satisfied.
And while just over half (53 percent)
of all respondents said their companies
manage working conditions in a
"good" or "the best possible" way,
the majority gave their employers
much worse ratings on a list of key
workforce-related activities.
For instance, 52 percent said the way
their companies manage benefits was
only average or even worse than
average. The same low rating was
given to employers' compensation
management by 70 percent of
respondents, to the provision of flexible
working arrangements by 66 percent,
and to the aid given in communicating
bad news by 65 percent. Sixty-five
percent also gave an average or
worse-than-average rating to how
the company managed employees'
prospects for advancement.
These low levels of satisfaction were
reflected especially vividly in one key
question. Middle managers were asked
to choose one adjective out of a list of
10 to describe their organization. The
overall responses were not especially
positive, as only 17 described their
current organizations as "successful,"
just 7 percent used the word "ethical,"
and only 4 percent chose "intelligent."
In contrast, fully 30 percent said their
organization was "mismanaged," the
most popular descriptor on the list.
Jobs themselves are not
especially fulfilling
It's not only employers that frustrate
middle managers. Our survey also
reveals that the job itself is often rife
with obstacles to employee satisfaction
and engagement. To better understand
just what is frustrating middle managers
the most about their jobs, we asked
them to rank their biggest headaches.
The largest group44 percentlisted
insufficient compensation as the most
frustrating aspect. (This issue was
especially troublesome in France,
where 62 percent of respondents cited
it as their most serious frustration.)
Close behind low pay was misalignment
of effort and rewards"I am doing all
the work but not getting credit for it"
which was named by 43 percent. 5
Lack of access to key information is a
major cause of manager frustration
The list of things that frustrate and
challenge middle managers is long
and broad reaching. One of these
issuesseeking the information middle
managers need to do their jobswas
addressed by another recent Accenture
survey. This surveyof 1,009 managers
in the United States and United
Kingdomrevealed the startling facts
that middle managers spend up to two
hours a day searching for information,
and that more than 50 percent of the
information they obtain has no value
to them. Furthermore, nearly three
out of five respondents (59 percent)
said that as a consequence of their
company's poor information distribution,
they lack access to critical information;
and 42 percent of respondents said
they accidentally use the wrong
information at least once a week.
The respondents to the survey
represented five functional areas of
companies in the United States and
United Kingdom. On many levels, it
appears as if middle managers in the
United Kingdom experience greater
information management challenges
than their American counterparts. For
example, UK respondents reported
that they miss information and use
wrong information more often; that
they have more difficulty getting data
on costs; and that they are more
frustrated by a lack of cooperation
from other parts of their organizations.
However, when it comes to knowing
where to look for the right information,
managers in the United States are
relatively more frustrated: They
complain more loudly about having
to go to numerous sources to compile
information than UK managers do. In
a related finding, a higher percentage
of UK managers use a company-wide
intranet portal to store critical
informationa key practice for
efficiency in information management.
The differences among managers of
each function are just as interesting:
Sales and marketing managers are
among the least likely to use new
technology such as instant messaging
and PDAs to communicate or to
store information, relying instead on
paper processes. They are also among
the most likely to feel (along with IT
managers) that more than 50 percent
of the information they receive has
no value and they are the least
likely to feel their company does a
good job at governing information.
IT managers spend significantly more
time than other managers trying to
find the right information for their
jobs, and they have greater difficulty
getting information from other parts
of the company. As a result, they
spend a greater share of their work
week tracking down relevant
information and they miss valuable
information more frequently than
any other function surveyed. And as
just mentioned, along with sales and
marketing managers, IT managers
are the most likely to feel as if the
information they receive has little
value. They experience all of these
difficulties despite the fact that they
are the most likely to use instant
messaging, search engines, PDAs and
mobile devices to gather information.
When compared with other
departments, HR managers are
among the most likely to encounter
duplicate information and confusion
about which information is most
useful to whom. At the same time,
HR managers indicate that they are
less likely than managers in other
departments to miss valuable
information and have the least
amount of difficulty getting
information about customers.
They are also the most likely to use
PDAs or other mobile devices to
communicate with others in the
co