BACKGROUND

Our client was an organisation of about 300 people whose primary purpose is research in a specialist area. The problem was that a high proportion of middle management in a key Division, all of whom were technical, were either uninterested in, or not at all committed to, their management role. This meant that they saw their role more as a ‘shop steward’ (e.g. passing on staff objections) rather than as one supporting and implementing the organisational requirements.

Objectives

The objective of the assignment was to identify what needed to be done to improve the way that middle managers performed in their management roles.

Process

Following discussions with senior management the following was carried out:

• Questionnaires were sent to all the managers (22) concerned that asked them to think about certain matters that we would discuss with them later.
• One-to-one interviews were carried with the managers to discuss the matters covered by the questionnaire and any other issues they considered important.
• Analysis of the results was carried out from which our core recommendations were made.

It became apparent from the interviews that there were two major factors that were foremost in the minds of the managers that were having an inordinate influence on the way the managers saw their roles

• They felt the management structure had, in the way it was applied, some really negative effects and was therefore seen as a bureaucratic approach that had no redeeming features
• A recent review of the research programmes to decide where resources should be allocated had been handled by senior management in a way that had left staff unsure of their own positions and roles for lengthy period.

Workshops that included a cross-section of the managers were held to discuss the possible solutions to the above. In the case of the management structure it was agreed this would be handled internally. A process was agreed whereby the managers would review the structure with their own team, as it related to their teams, in order to put forward proposals as to changes they felt would make the basic structure work better in practice for them. These proposals were reviewed by a sub-committee of the managers and proposals, which were subsequently agreed, were put forward for some practical amendments. In the case of the review of the research programme, some guidelines were established that would be taken into account in future reviews of this nature or in other ‘change management’ circumstances.

Outcome and benefits

The outcome was that some practical changes to the way the management was carried out were agreed and implemented, and the practical problems in the review of the research programme were identified and some firm suggestions made to senior management about how such matters should be handled in the future. The benefit of the above was that two major issues where managers felt their views had been ignored were identified, discussed and practical steps, emanating from them, were taken to deal with them. Geoffrey Bray led this assignment.