壓抑的中層經理們 Identity crisis of the middle manager
Betwixt and between is how Kirk Girard describes the problems of being a middle manager. “It can feel like purgatory.” As planning manager at Santa Clara County, a local authority in California, he felt he was searching for purpose, “trying to find my role in the organisation”. It led to considerable “gnashing of teeth”.
不上不下、左右爲難就是柯克吉拉德(Kirk Girard)對中層經理面臨的問題的形容。“感覺就像在煉獄一樣。”作爲加州聖克拉拉縣(County of Santa Clara)地方政府的一名規劃經理，他覺得自己正在尋找目標，“試着找到我在組織內的角色定位”。這使他常常沮喪得“咬牙切齒”。
Behnam Tabrizi, who teaches leadership to mid-level managers including Mr Girard at Stanford University’s Department of Management Science and Engineering, says “middle management” is a depressing title. “It’s perceived as a negative label — as an obstacle and overhead.” Frustrations felt by middle managers may also include a lack of autonomy.
在斯坦福大學(Stanford University)管理科學與工程系向吉拉德等中層經理教授領導力課程的貝南大不里士(Behnam Tabrizi)表示，“中層管理者”是一個令人壓抑的頭銜。“它被認爲是一種負面標籤——是障礙和天花板。”中層經理感受到的挫敗感或許還包括缺少自主權。
The fictional Bob Slocum in Joseph Heller’s Something Happened embodies middle management misery. Kurt Vonnegut summed up Slocum’s restlessness in his review of the book: “He mourns the missed opportunities of his youth. He is itchy for raises and promotions, even though he despises his company and the jobs he is exhausted. He dreads old age.”
約瑟夫眠勒(Joseph Heller)的《出了毛病》(Something Happened)一書中虛構的人物鮑勃斯洛克姆(Bob Slocum)便體現了中層管理者的悲慘命運。庫爾特馮內古特(Kurt Vonnegut)在其對這本書的書評中總結了斯洛克姆的如坐鍼氈：“他爲年輕時錯過的機遇感到痛惜。他渴望得到提拔和晉升，但又鄙視自己的公司和他所做的工作……他感到疲憊不堪。他害怕變老。”
Such characterisations are as enduring as the job itself despite the frequent announcement of its impending death. As technology flattens organisations, so middle managers are deemed dispensable. This year, Zappos, the online shoe retailer, said it would eliminate managers. Its founder, Tony Hsieh, said: “We’re trying to [switch] from a normal hierarchical structure to a system... which enables employees to act more like entrepreneurs and self-direct their work instead of reporting to a manager.”
儘管有關這類職位瀕臨消失的宣稱頻頻出現，但這類典型描述就像該職位本身一樣經久不衰。由於技術使組織結構扁平化，中層經理被認爲是可有可無的。今年，在線鞋類零售商Zappos表示將取消經理職位。其創始人謝家華(Tony Hsieh)稱：“我們正試圖從常規的等級結構轉向一種體系……使員工更像是企業家一樣行動，自己指揮工作，而非向經理彙報。”
From this standpoint, middle managers are cast as superfluous bureaucrats. It is these roles that can be hit by cuts. A report published in 2011 by the King’s Fund, a UK think-tank, highlighted the “sneering” political rhetoric about the National Health Service’s armies of “faceless bureaucrats”. It found that if anything the NHS was under-managed rather than over-managed, disputing the idea of a sagging middle.
從這個角度，中層經理被塑造爲多餘的官僚。正是這樣的角色可能被砍掉。英國智庫機構英皇基金(King's Fund)於2011年公佈的報告，突出反駁了政治辭令對英國國民衛生服務體系(NHS)“呆板官僚”大軍的“嘲笑”。報告發現，實際上NHS是管理不足而不是管理過度，這對認爲中層管理者鬆懈不力的觀點提出了質疑。
With such a war against them it is no wonder that middle managers may be depressed, research by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health discovered recently. The report challenged the idea that it is those who are at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder that feel the most miserable and anxious. Rather, those in the middle have to absorb the discontent of those below and above, while feeling frustrated that they do not have power to implement change.
哥倫比亞大學(Columbia University)梅爾曼公共健康學院(Mailman School of Public Health)最近所做的研究發現，面對這樣一場針對自己的戰爭，就難怪中層經理們會覺得壓抑了。該報告挑戰了一種想法，即處於社會經濟階梯底端的人感覺最痛苦和焦慮。實際上，是那些處於梯子中間位置的人不得不承受來自上層和下層的不滿，同時因無力實現改變而備感沮喪。
This follows research published in Harvard Business Review last year that said the most unhappy staff were not those “with poor performance ratings or the ones in over their heads — people with inadequate training, education, or experience for the job”. On the contrary, the most miserable of the 320,000 employees interviewed were those “stuck in the middle of everything”. These tended to be people with a degree, with five to 10 years’ tenure at the company, work as mid-level managers and who receive a good (rather than brilliant or terrible) performance rating.
此前，《哈佛商業評論》(Harvard Business Review)於去年公佈的研究表明，最不開心的員工並非那些“績效評分糟糕或是能力不足的人——培訓、教育背景或工作經驗不足的人”。相反，在受訪的32萬名員工中，最悲慘的是那些“困在所有事情中間”的人。這些人往往都有學位，在公司中任職5至10年，身爲中層經理，績效評分爲良（不是優也不是差）。
Yet the middle manager title is a catch-all, as Bill Wooldridge, professor and managing director of the Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship, University of Massachusetts, notes. “This is a very heterogeneous group. Some have exciting roles.” Most people are actually middle managers if you take that role literally, he says. Though Quy Huy, professor of strategic management at Insead, defines them as “people who are two levels below the CEO and one level above first-line supervisor”.
不過，正如馬薩諸塞大學(University of Massachusetts)貝爾蒂奧姆企業中心(Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship)的常務董事比爾伍爾德里奇(Bill Wooldridge)教授所指出的那樣，中層經理頭銜是一個總稱。“這是一個非常多樣化的羣體。一些人承擔着令人興奮的角色。”他稱，如果你從字面上來理解這個角色，大多數人實際上都是中層經理。歐洲工商管理學院(Insead)戰略管理教授誇伊許伊(Quy Huy)將他們定義爲“比CEO低兩級又比一線主管高一級的人”。
Joan Kingsley, organisational psychotherapist and author of The Fear-Free Organisation: Vital Insights from Neuroscience to Transform your Business Culture, says that age may contribute to the gloom of people in mid-management.
組織心理治療師瓊金斯利(Joan Kingsley)稱，年齡可能致使中層經理變得陰鬱。金斯利著有《沒有恐懼的組織：來自神經科學的企業文化變革重要啓示》(The Fear-Free Organisation: Vital Insights from Neuroscience to Transform your Business Culture)一書。
“For those who have not achieved their goals, there is likely to be a crisis of confidence; fears that it’s too late; that they have missed the boat. This is not surprising given that organisations value youth, energy and enthusiasm.”
“那些還未達成自己目標的人，很可能會遭遇信心危機；擔心爲時已晚；擔心自己已經錯過機會。考慮到如今的企業看重年輕、活力和熱情，這並不足爲奇。”
She notes the problems with moving up the organisational ladder. “People typically move... on output and delivery to the bottom line. But the higher people climb, the more distanced they become from the work they’ve excelled at.”
她指出了沿組織階梯向上攀爬的問題。“人們通常……基於產出和對利潤的貢獻而向上晉升。但是人們爬得越高，離自己擅長的工作就越遠。”
The problem is that managers who are identified and promoted for doing a great job are then expected to delegate to other people. The result is often that managers rarely possess the skills and expertise to run a team. “They fear letting their bosses know that they’re in over their heads.” The best strategy may be to retain — or develop — a specialism alongside managerial skills.
問題是，因工作出色而獲得認同並得到晉升的經理，之後人們會預期他會將工作委派給其他人。結果往往是經理很少擁有可以負責一個團隊所需的技巧和專業知識。“他們擔心被老闆知道他們力不從心。”最佳策略或許是保留——或發展——一門專長，同時學習管理技巧。
She observes that a manager left to chance and guesswork might use the “quick and dirty route” to manage and motivate people, through the blunt tool of fear. “The trouble is, however, that nothing demotivates someone faster than fear. As fear takes hold of a team or department, people move from thriving to surviving. The manager is left being the object of loathing. And this leaves the manager in a lonely place where he or she is avoided, disliked and not trusted. That’s a depressing place to be.”
她注意到，只能憑運氣和瞎蒙的經理或許會利用“快捷卻骯髒的手段”、以恐懼這把鈍器來管理和激勵員工。“然而，麻煩的是沒有什麼比恐懼更能使人快速失去動力的了。當恐懼主宰一個團隊或部門時，人們將從朝氣蓬勃轉爲混日子。經理只能淪爲被厭惡的對象。同時，這使經理身處一個被他人迴避、討厭、不信任的孤獨之地，令人壓抑。”
Job satisfaction, notes Prof Wool , is dependent on the relationships with those you manage. “If they are innovative it’s exciting.”
伍爾德里奇教授指出，工作滿意度取決於你與下屬的關係。“如果關係是創造性的，就會令人興奮。”
Gianpiero Petriglieri, associate professor of organisational behaviour at Insead, wrote a riposte in the HBR to Zappos’ efforts to kill the management role. The consequence, he argues, is “people work harder, and control gets more pervasive once it is exercised by everyone rather than by one boss. Issues have to be sorted out rather than delegated up.”
歐洲工商管理學院的組織行爲學副教授詹皮埃羅簠靟裏利埃裏(Gianpiero Petriglieri)在《哈佛商業評論》上寫了一篇文章，回擊Zappos擬扼殺管理角色的舉動。他認爲，這樣的結果是“人們工作更努力，同時一旦所有人都行使控制權、而非只是老闆，控制將變得無處不在。問題必須被解決，而不是分派出去。”
In research published in 2001, Prof Huy identified middle managers as key to organisational change. They often have good entrepreneurial ideas that they are able and willing to realise — if they can get a hearing. Second, they are far better than most senior executives at leveraging informal networks at companies and can sustain the momentum of the organisation. Finally, they ward off inertia or chaos.
在2001年發表的研究中，許伊教授認定中層經理爲組織變革的關鍵。他們往往擁有良好的企業理念並且有能力也願意去實現這些理念——如果他們的聲音能被傾聽。第二，他們在利用公司內部非正式網絡方面遠比大多數高管更加出色，並且能夠維持公司的發展勢頭。最後，他們可以防止惰性和混亂。
