The Eye of the Storm: Middle Managers’ Experiences as Change Agents and Change Recipients
Open AccessOrganizational change is inevitable in today’s ever-changing and highly competitive business environments. Yet, the process of organizational change is rife with complexities and paradoxes (Jarzabkowski et al., 2017). Middle managers must be masters of paradox. In most contemporary organizations, middle managers do not have one homogenous role but rather they play a spectrum of roles. Studies show that middle managers can become entangled and stuck between competing demands as the roles they play are oftentimes contradictory. During organizational change, middle managers are as much of a change agent as they are a change recipient. The purpose of this qualitative, descriptive, single site case study is to examine the experiences of middle managers positioned as both a change agent and change recipient within a company acquired by a larger organization. With this study, the researcher aims to understand how middle managers experience and describe their roles during times of change, with a specific emphasis on paradox. The findings of this study have the potential to offer vital and timely practical and theoretical contributions. It is fundamentally important for Human Resource Development practitioners and organizational leaders across all industries to understand the role middle managers play during organizational change and inform how middle managers can be supported through the acquisition process as they navigate their various roles. Theoretically, the findings of this study can extend and answer questions about the micro-foundations of paradox, a body of research, management scholars have placed less emphasis and interest in examining, leaving it still heavily under-researched (Schad et al., 2016).
- All rights reserved
Notice to Authors
If you are the author of this work and you have any questions about the information on this page, please use the Contact form to get in touch with us.