In both the business and the education literature, researchers identified middle manager barriers to exhibiting leadership competencies. In business, barriers identified in order of most to least include: emphasis on administrative, operational, and managerial work (Alvesson & Jonsson, 2018; Tsuda & Sato, 2020); excessive work load leading to lack of time to engage in leadership behaviors, which in turn, leads to decreased employee performance (Kieran et al., 2020; Larsson et al., 2020; Tsuda & Sato, 2020); lack of leadership development and understanding of leadership competencies (Alvesson & Jonsson, 2018; Jaser, 2020); lack of role clarity and ambiguous role definition (Alvesson & Jonsson, 2018); leader identity conflicts (Larsson et al., 2020); lack of peer support (Kieran et al., 2020); and lack of work experience (Tsuda & Sato, 2020). Alvesson and Jonsson (2018) observed middle managers often espouse leadership competencies, such as coaching, but fail to develop and display them due to the conflicting demands of the middle manager role. Way et al. (2018) noted middle managers must balance their senior leadership’s expectations with their followers’ reality, which often do not align. Senior leaders also expect middle managers to promote values or initiatives from top management with which the manager may not actually agree, which creates a situation where the manager experiences inner conflict between what to believe and say, and how to act (Way et al., 2018).
In the education domain, where there was significantly more research on middle leadership, the top-cited barrier to enacting leadership for middle managers was a lack of leadership development and understanding of leadership competencies (Amey et al., 2020; Bassett & Shaw, 2018; Chilvers et al., 2018; Gurr, 2018; Lipscombe et al., 2019; Thompson & Wolstencroft, 2018; Thornton, 2020; Wei, 2018). According to Chilvers et al. (2018), although middle leadership is a critical role for influencing employee performance, few universities have identified the leadership competencies middle leaders require and thus, middle leaders are frequently unprepared to practice leadership in their position. Similarly, Bassett and Shaw (2018) argued middle leaders in schools lack confidence because middle managers do not really know what leadership competencies middle managers need to influence employee performance. Thompson and Wolstencroft (2018) cited 71% of middle leaders in schools had not received any form of leadership development training, and of those who did, the training focused on administrative or managerial systems, policies, and processes rather than identifying, understanding, and building middle leadership competencies. Additional barriers to middle leadership in the education domain included ambiguity about middle leadership and lack of role definition (Chilvers et al., 2018; De Nobile, 2019; Edwards-Groves et al., 2018; Lipscombe et al., 2020; Lipscombe et al., 2019; Thompson & Wolstencroft, 2018); excessive administrative or managerial tasks (Bryant, 2018; De Nobile, 2019; Edwards-Groves et al., 2018; Lambert, 2020; Thompson & Wolstencroft, 2018; Thornton, 2020); and lack of time and excessive workload (Grootenboer et al., 2019; Gurr, 2018; Thompson & Wolstencroft, 2018; Thornton, 2020).
One barrier identified in the education domain the business literature did not mention was the limited autonomy, authority, and power middle leaders possess (De Nobile, 2018, 2019; Harris et al., 2019; Lipscombe et al., 2020; Lipscombe et al., 2019). For example, De Nobile (2018) asserted middle leaders frequently lack the decision-making authority to support the work resulting from interpreting senior leadership direction. Harris et al. (2019) cited the conflict between the high level of responsibility middle leaders possess for influencing employee performance contrasted with the low level of autonomy senior management affords them. Lipscombe et al. (2020) and Lipscombe et al. (2019) also both noted middle leaders’ influence is hampered by their intermediary status, which limits their positional power and authority.
An additional barrier mentioned in the education literature the business domain research failed to identify was the conditions middle leaders face inherent to their position in the middle of the organizational hierarchy (Amey et al., 2020; Bassett & Shaw, 2018; Bryant, 2018; Edwards-Groves et al., 2018; Irvine & Brundrett, 2019; Lipscombe et al., 2019). Middle leaders are frequently held responsible for employee performance related to both efficiency and effectiveness, which are sometimes conflicting goals (Amey et al., 2020). Bassett and Shaw (2018) underscored middle leaders often have split responsibilities and divided loyalties between senior leader and staff-level relationships because middle managers are group members at multiple levels. Similarly, Lipscombe et al. (2019) discussed middle leaders’ hierarchical position requires them to work up with senior leadership, work across with their peers, and work down with their staff, sometimes creating both internal and external relational conflicts for middle leaders.
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