MIDDLE MANAGEMENT’ S WARFARE: Balancing top management team’s directives and subordinates’ daily tasks during servitization

Abstract

This qualitative study researches how the role and organizational position of middle managers in a manufacturing company influence the implementation of servitization, as an intended strategic change. The chief purpose of the research is to shed lights on the middle managers’ role in balancing the top management team’s directives and subordinates’ daily tasks during the transitioning process towards a more service-oriented logic. The focus, therefore, is on strategy implementation, middle management, and servitization. The theoretical framework is built based on these themes by, first, developing a clear idea about the middle managers’ role and impact on strategy implementation, in general, through linking strategy implementation literature to middle management work related literature. Subsequently, the output of this phase was placed in the context of servitization.

This empirical study was carried out in a publicly-listed Finnish manufacturing company. Nine conducted interviews with middle managers served as empirical data that were analyzed using the qualitative content analysis method.

The results suggest that the organizational position of middle managers could sets restrictions to the implementation of servitization. Moreover, the balancing mechanisms used by middle managers are shaped by some contextual aspects. Nonetheless, communication remains the most cited mechanism by middle managers to achieve the said balance. Hence, this research is deemed relevant both for academicians and practitioners.