Middle Leader Role Description in the Business Literature
The middle leader role description in the business literature appears more often as middle managers exercising leadership than as middle leaders or they use the terms middle manager and middle leader interchangeably. Middle managers are all levels of management between front-line supervisors and the top of the organization (Kieran et al., 2020). Middle managers often have multiple roles as part of their job rather than a fixed relationship with a single group of subordinates (Alvesson & Jonsson, 2018). Middle managers consistently function as intermediaries between their followers and the senior organizational leadership (Way et al., 2018). According to Tsuda and Sato (2020), the primary role of a middle manager is to improve their employees’ performance, yet middle managers are often required to be both individual contributors and leaders at the same time. Jaser (2020) points out middle managers’ dual identity as both followers of their senior leaders and leaders to their subordinates. In the business literature, scholars most often describe middle leadership roles as: developing and supporting direct reports (Alvesson & Jonsson, 2018; Jaser, 2020; Paetzel et al., 2019; Tsuda & Sato, 2020); strategy formation and implementation (Iasbech & Lavarda, 2018; Larsson et al., 2020; Sudirman et al., 2019; Way et al., 2018); leading and implementing change initiatives (Iasbech & Lavarda, 2018; Sudirman et al., 2019; Way et al., 2018); administrative and managerial responsibilities (Alvesson & Jonsson, 2018; Sudirman et al., 2019); and leading teams and evaluating performance (Jaser, 2020; Tsuda & Sato, 2020). Also included in the middle leadership role description, but referenced less frequently, is continuing to be an individual contributor to team goals (Tsuda & Sato, 2020), and driving innovation (Sudirman et al., 2019).
Middle Leadership Role Description in the Education Literature
In contrast to the business literature, scholars in the education domain refer to the middle level or organizational leadership as middle leaders and far less frequently as middle managers exercising leadership. Additionally, the education literature reflects a more nuanced middle leadership role description as compared to the business literature, possibly due to a more mature middle leadership research agenda in the education domain. In the education literature, numerous researchers assert middle managers’ leadership roles are changing and becoming increasingly more complex (Bryant, 2018; Chilvers et al., 2018; Grootenboer et al., 2019; Gurr, 2018; Li et al., 2018; Lipscombe et al., 2020; Thompson & Wolstencroft, 2018; Thornton, 2020). In general, the education literature describes middle leaders as providing both leadership and management (Bassett & Shaw, 2018; Bryant, 2018; Grootenboer et al., 2019; Irvine & Brundrett, 2019; Li et al., 2018; Lipscombe et al., 2019; Thornton, 2020), and also emphasizes the social nature encompassing the majority of their responsibilities (Bryant, 2018; Grootenboer et al., 2019; Li et al., 2018).
The top five most frequently cited middle leadership role responsibilities in the education literature are mediators of change (Amey et al., 2020; Bassett & Shaw, 2018; Bryant, 2018; Edwards-Groves et al., 2018; Grootenboer et al., 2019; Gurr, 2018; Hargreaves & Shirley, 2019; Harris et al., 2019; Li et al., 2018; Thompson & Wolstencroft, 2018); administrative, operational, or managerial responsibilities (Amey et al., 2020; Bassett & Shaw, 2018; Bryant, 2018; De Nobile, 2019; Edwards-Groves et al., 2018; Forde et al., 2018; Grootenboer et al., 2019; Irvine & Brundrett, 2019); classroom teaching responsibilities (Bassett & Shaw, 2018; Bryant, 2018; De Nobile, 2019; Forde et al., 2018; Grootenboer et al., 2019; Gurr, 2018); informal leadership and influence (Amey et al., 2020; De Nobile, 2019; Irvine & Brundrett, 2019; Lipscombe et al., 2020; Thornton, 2020); and forming and implementing strategy (Amey et al., 2020; Bryant, 2018; De Nobile, 2019; Forde et al., 2018; Thornton, 2020), including developing vision and goal setting (De Nobile, 2019; Do & Nuth, 2019; Li et al., 2018; Thompson & Wolstencroft, 2018; Wei, 2018). The next set of middle leadership role responsibilities cited somewhat less frequently in the education literature include being collaborators (Amey et al., 2020; Bryant, 2018; Edwards-Groves et al., 2018; Grootenboer et al., 2019); developing others and building professional capacity (De Nobile, 2019; Edwards-Groves et al., 2018; Forde et al., 2018; Li et al., 2018); driving innovation (Amey et al., 2020; Bryant, 2018; Gurr, 2018; Wei, 2018); contributing to overall organizational leadership (Bryant, 2018; De Nobile, 2018; Forde et al., 2018; Gurr, 2018); functioning as key communication and information brokers (Amey et al., 2020; Li et al., 2018; Thompson & Wolstencroft, 2018); and sense-making (Bryant, 2018; Li et al., 2018). Cited least frequently in the education literature were middle leadership role responsibilities including advocacy (Bryant, 2018), boundary-spanning (Amey et al., 2020), empowering others (Amey et al., 2020), performance evaluation (De Nobile, 2019), problem-solving (Amey et al., 2020), relationship building (Amey et al., 2020), exercising servant leadership (Bryant, 2018), and stakeholder engagement. (Bryant, 2018).
Negative Middle Leadership Role Descriptions
Not all researchers cast the middle leadership role in a positive light. Amey et al. (2020) provide a negative perception of middle leadership oscillating “between being invisible and being a scapegoat” (p. 128). Additionally, only two researchers call out what middle leadership is not. Amey et al. (2020) emphasizes middle leaders are not “only managers” (p. 129) and Bryant (2018) identifies a lack of “whole school work” as part of middle leadership roles (p. 418).
References
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