Yes / Middle managers occupy a central position in organizational hierarchies, where they
are responsible for implementing senior management plans by ensuring junior staff
fulfil their roles. However, explorations of the identity of the middle manager offer
contradictory insights. This article develops a theory of the identity of the middle
manager using a theoretical framework offered by the philosopher Judith Butler and
empirical material from focus groups of middle managers discussing their work. We
use personal pronoun analysis to analyse the identity work they undertake while talking
between themselves. We suggest that middle managers move between contradictory
subject positions that both conform with and resist normative managerial identities,
and we also illuminate how those moves are invoked. The theory we offer is that
middle managers are both controlled and controllers, and resisted and resisters. We
conclude that rather than being slotted into organizational hierarchies, middle managers
constitute those hierarchies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/10302 |
| Date | 04 September 2014 |
| Creators | Harding, Nancy H., Lee, Hugh, Ford, Jackie M. |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article, Accepted manuscript |
| Rights | The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Human Relations, vol 67/issue 10 by SAGE Publications Ltd, All rights reserved. ©2014 The Authors. |
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