The need for organizational transformation is a response to a larger paradigm shift occurring in science and society. It represents a shift from the mechanistic model to a systems, holistic model. The purpose of this study was to determine patterns and practices that limit training effectiveness when facilitating a major organizational paradigm shift. A literature survey identified major clashes between those values and tools of organizational models based on the new paradigm and those of bureaucracy, bureaucratic management and training relationships, domains and dynamics. Participant observation and interviews were the methods used to collect data from a study group of 15 upper middle managers involved as a pilot management team in the first year of TQM implementation at a public university. The group was closely observed during five months of training and 10 participants were interviewed at the end of the first year of implementation. Their stories revealed four obstacles to transformation: 1) managers were coerced into complying, change was imposed from above, there were no appropriate support systems and fear was endemic; 2) the management team had more difficulty than non-management TQM teams learning the mechanics of TQM, claiming they didn't have necessary learning skills; 3) managers protected themselves by rewriting the rules of TQM to fundamentally preserve the status quo; 4) managers defined the TQM effort a success without substantive personal change, pushing responsibility down and praise up in the organization. These obstacles were inherent in the bureaucratic system that effectively protected the managers from substantive change. The conclusion was drawn that four conditions were missing for a major organizational paradigm shift: 1) a willingness to risk, coupled with organizational support; 2) deep learning skills that provide personal context for learning: 3) shared vision, and; 4) personal mastery. Training patterns and practices reflected the same missing conditions. The training program was powerless in the transformation effort because: 1) it modeled and reproduced the old instead of the new wisdom, values, tools and ways of thinking and talking, during the transformation process; 2) the learning capacity implicit in the training program was limited in the same ways management was, by missing support structures, willingness and ability to change, and shared vision; 3) it depended on traditional relationships and dynamics, despite new domain, and was not seen as a credible transformation agent. / Graduation date: 1994

Thesis (M.A. (Research Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

This study is motivated by the growing influence in organisational research on the perspective of culture as a toolkit of resources from which individuals can draw on to develop strategies of action. Research has established that ambidextrous organisations succeed both in incremental and discontinuous innovation. However, there remains a scarcity of study on how managers orchestrate ambidexterity. This thesis extends the ambidexterity research by investigating how managers orchestrate ambidextrous strategies and how these strategies are shaped by elements of the organisational culture in high technology firms. An interpretive case study approach was used to achieve the aims of the study. Focusing on two engineering projects, 55 interviews were conducted alongside documentary reviews and participant observation for 6 months at Brush Electrical Machines Ltd, UK. Analysis of the findings is conducted using thematic analysis to identify common themes and NVivo was used to draw out patterns until relationships among the emerging themes became clearer. The thesis makes important contributions to the organisational ambidexterity literature by providing useful empirically-driven insights and deconstructing the roles of middle managers in facilitating ambidexterity. The findings of the research indicate that most of the middle managers demonstrated ambidextrous behaviours. These middle level managers enabled their behaviours through diverse cultural resources selected from the organisation s cultural toolkit. Thus, important contributions are made to the literature on organisational culture, specifically on the toolkit perspectives. The thesis takes the perspective that organisational culture should be viewed as heterogeneous and not homogeneous. The study concludes by suggesting that middle management ambidextrous behaviours shaped by cultural resources may be vital for the realisation of improved or sustained competitiveness in organisations.

by Chan, Yee-tim, Ivor. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-60). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iv / LIST OF TABLES --- p.vi / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.vii / Chapter / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / People as a Strategic Resource --- p.1 / Management Practices --- p.1 / Cultural Elements in Forming Strategies --- p.2 / Hong Kong as a Cultural-Mixed Society --- p.3 / Objectives of the Study --- p.4 / Chapter II. --- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF ANALYSIS --- p.6 / Managerial Activities --- p.6 / Prioritising Activities --- p.7 / Theories of Managerial Functions --- p.8 / Theories of Managerial Roles --- p.9 / Corporate Culture --- p.13 / Definition of Culture --- p.13 / Elements of Organisational Culture --- p.14 / Framework of the Study --- p.15 / Chapter III. --- METHODOLOGY --- p.17 / The Sample --- p.17 / The Instrument Used --- p.18 / Variables --- p.21 / Measurement --- p.21 / Analysis --- p.21 / Chapter IV. --- RESULTS --- p.23 / Managerial Activities --- p.23 / The Male and Female Managers' Perception of the Relative Importance of Various Activities --- p.27 / Senior and Middle Managers' Perception of the Relative Importance of Various Roles --- p.30 / Managerial Roles --- p.33 / Management Practices --- p.36 / Statistical Testing --- p.44 / Chapter V. --- DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION --- p.45 / Managerial Activities in Hong Kong --- p.45 / Management Practices --- p.47 / Conclusions --- p.50 / APPENDICES --- p.53 / Chapter I --- DISTRIBUTION OF QUESTIONNAIRES --- p.53 / Chapter II --- RANK CORRELATION COEFFICIENT --- p.54 / Chapter III --- F - TEST FOR THE TESTING OF DIFFERENCES OF MEAN SCORES OF MANAGEMENT PRACTICES EXISTING IN ORGANISATIONS IN HONG KONG --- p.56 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.57

Thesis (MBA) --University of Limpopo, 2017 / Middle management at Shoprite faced challenges and their role is diverse and they lack strategies to cope with challenges within the organisation.Middle managers, in trying to balance the needs of senior and junior managers, often feel like ‘piggy-inthe- middle’, with potential for conflict and tension (McConville, 2006; Floyd and Wooldridge, 1992). A lack of leadership from senior management may compromise middle managers’ ability to take a professional approach to managing their area. Middle managers in Shoprite say that they want to be more professional Burgess, (2011)but are being inhibited by the lack of support and awareness from senior managers, with a negative impact on their motivation and their job satisfaction. In addition lack of middle manager’s involvement in decision making and strategy formulation. Middle managers become reluctant to change due to lack of communication on strategy alteration. This study intends to investigate the challenges faced by middle management at Shoprite Holdings Limited in Limpopo Province. The findings of the study show that the roles are challenging and varied, strategy implementation is a major challenge and support for middle managers is generally insufficient. Middle managers require support in induction into the middle management role and ongoing mentoring and appraisal. The little studies have been conducted about the challenges faced by middle management from different perspectives and organisations. Finally, further research into the challenges faced by middle management at Shoprite Holdings Ltd is required as it could either endorse or challenge the findings of this study and might also inform Top management about the Challenges faced by middle management and prompt an evaluation of the existing role, challenges and needs. Key words; Middle management

University of Technology, Sydney. / This overall objective of this research was to identify factors that were important in forming middle managers' attitudes toward quality and quality programs in their organisations. An underlying assumption of the research, supported by the literature, was that a middle manager's attitude toward his/her quality program could be an important indicator of behaviour toward the program e.g. resistance, willingness to be involved. Reviews of the literature on middle management, quality, attitude measurement and research more specifically related to the research topic was undertaken. The work of Ajzen (1988) was particularly useful in devising an overall theoretical framework for the research . A number of hypotheses related to the overall research question were formulated. Twenty-one organisations agreed to participate in the research. These all had a quality program. Some of the organisations were quite advanced in quality, a number had won Australian Quality Awards, others were much less advanced. Organisations were drawn from manufacturing and services in both private and public sectors. Data was collected in two main ways. Firstly, a questionnaire was designed, piloted and distributed to approximately 1100 middle managers in participating organisations. The response rate was approximately 50%. Secondly, in depth interviews were carried out with middle managers, senior managers and quality managers in a number of the participating organisations. The results generally confirm the importance of the middle management group as key to the success of a quality program. Middle managers across all of the participating organisations generally believed that the TQM approach to management was an effective one. Their views on the effectiveness of IS09000 were less positive. Middle managers generally believed that the quality programs were more likely to benefit their organisations rather than to directly benefit themselves, although quality programs did provide some opportunities for some middle managers. Middle managers generally believed that their quality programs provided both operational and strategic benefit for their organisations. Paradoxically, a widely held belief among middle managers was that quality programs did not reduce short term thinking and over-reacting to short term goals. Positive attitudes to quality in the organisation were associated particularly with the values and beliefs that middle managers held regarding: a) program support from top management, from their direct boss and from their colleagues; b) a range of program outcomes for the organisation and c) a range of program outcomes related to the individual middle manager. For middle managers actively involved in their organisations quality program the clarity of their program role was positively related to program attitudes. Training/education in quality was also significantly related to some beliefs and attitudes towards quality and quality programs. Middle managers generally believed that quality programs involved a significant increase in paper work and bureaucracy. However this was not a significant influence on their attitudes toward quality in their organisations. An important finding was that for a wide range of beliefs and attitudes related to quality no significant differences were found between the types of jobs held by middle managers. An exception was the quality specialist group who generally had significantly more positive attitudes and beliefs about quality and their quality programs than did other job categories. Middle managers seemed relatively at ease with most of the changes that were taking place as part of their programs. In particular they had relatively positive views on devolution of responsibility to lower level employees. Middle managers also seemed relatively at ease with their own performance being more tightly monitored with program implementation. The research supported the more optimistic view of middle Management that has been reported recently (e.g. Fenton-O'Creevy 1998). The notion of the middle management still had currency in all of the organisations participating in the research despite the many structural changes that had taken place.

University of Technology, Sydney. / This overall objective of this research was to identify factors that were important in forming middle managers' attitudes toward quality and quality programs in their organisations. An underlying assumption of the research, supported by the literature, was that a middle manager's attitude toward his/her quality program could be an important indicator of behaviour toward the program e.g. resistance, willingness to be involved. Reviews of the literature on middle management, quality, attitude measurement and research more specifically related to the research topic was undertaken. The work of Ajzen (1988) was particularly useful in devising an overall theoretical framework for the research . A number of hypotheses related to the overall research question were formulated. Twenty-one organisations agreed to participate in the research. These all had a quality program. Some of the organisations were quite advanced in quality, a number had won Australian Quality Awards, others were much less advanced. Organisations were drawn from manufacturing and services in both private and public sectors. Data was collected in two main ways. Firstly, a questionnaire was designed, piloted and distributed to approximately 1100 middle managers in participating organisations. The response rate was approximately 50%. Secondly, in depth interviews were carried out with middle managers, senior managers and quality managers in a number of the participating organisations. The results generally confirm the importance of the middle management group as key to the success of a quality program. Middle managers across all of the participating organisations generally believed that the TQM approach to management was an effective one. Their views on the effectiveness of IS09000 were less positive. Middle managers generally believed that the quality programs were more likely to benefit their organisations rather than to directly benefit themselves, although quality programs did provide some opportunities for some middle managers. Middle managers generally believed that their quality programs provided both operational and strategic benefit for their organisations. Paradoxically, a widely held belief among middle managers was that quality programs did not reduce short term thinking and over-reacting to short term goals. Positive attitudes to quality in the organisation were associated particularly with the values and beliefs that middle managers held regarding: a) program support from top management, from their direct boss and from their colleagues; b) a range of program outcomes for the organisation and c) a range of program outcomes related to the individual middle manager. For middle managers actively involved in their organisations quality program the clarity of their program role was positively related to program attitudes. Training/education in quality was also significantly related to some beliefs and attitudes towards quality and quality programs. Middle managers generally believed that quality programs involved a significant increase in paper work and bureaucracy. However this was not a significant influence on their attitudes toward quality in their organisations. An important finding was that for a wide range of beliefs and attitudes related to quality no significant differences were found between the types of jobs held by middle managers. An exception was the quality specialist group who generally had significantly more positive attitudes and beliefs about quality and their quality programs than did other job categories. Middle managers seemed relatively at ease with most of the changes that were taking place as part of their programs. In particular they had relatively positive views on devolution of responsibility to lower level employees. Middle managers also seemed relatively at ease with their own performance being more tightly monitored with program implementation. The research supported the more optimistic view of middle Management that has been reported recently (e.g. Fenton-O'Creevy 1998). The notion of the middle management still had currency in all of the organisations participating in the research despite the many structural changes that had taken place.

For the past decade or two, the industrial structure in Taiwan have been changed from production oriented to service type causing some industries to relocate abroad or to close their business. In the 90¡¦s, the structure of companies changed in the direction of flat organization in order to survive in the highly competitive market. The purpose of this paper is to identify the main functions of the middle managers in the flat organizations. Due to limited number of papers in discussing of the middle managers, the questionnaire is structured from the information of papers related in the area of the duties, abilities and strategic role of the middle managers. By applying structural questionnaire through qualitative research interview, came out the quotation script. Then, using narative inquiry concludes that middle managers should hold the following five main functions: 1. Function of communication 2. Function of problem solving 3. Function of implementation 4. Function of synthesis 5. Function of assisting development

For the past decade or two, the industrial structure in Taiwan have been changed from production oriented to service type causing some industries to relocate abroad or to close their business. In the 90¡¦s, the structure of companies changed in the direction of flat organization in order to survive in the highly competitive market. The purpose of this paper is to identify the main functions of the middle managers in the flat organizations. Due to limited number of papers in discussing of the middle managers, the questionnaire is structured from the information of papers related in the area of the duties, abilities and strategic role of the middle managers. By applying structural questionnaire through qualitative research interview, came out the quotation script. Then, using narative inquiry concludes that middle managers should hold the following five main functions: 1. Function of communication 2. Function of problem solving 3. Function of implementation 4. Function of synthesis 5. Function of assisting development

Thesis (Psy.D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Organizational Psychology." Includes bibliographical references (p. 92-94).