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2015-06-25 09:12:04
Sydney Finkelstein
As the US election season gets underway, American politicians are rolling out
their usual lines about creating jobs for the middle class. It s a terrific
sentiment, but if they re talking about the middle class that used to populate
middle-management jobs in offices around the country, I m sorry to report that
that train has left the station.
The sad truth is that middle management is on its way to becoming virtually
extinct. While there will always be some people supervising the work of other
people, changes in technology, business culture and demographics are all
conspiring to upend what has long been standard practice in companies.
We should no longer expect traditional job ladders for managers to move up the
ranks, or even retaining the notion that middle managers are the glue that
connects workers and ensures goal alignment up and down the hierarchy.
This is different.
Replaced by computers
While lauded, technological advances have already taken their toll on
lower-level jobs. Office software, including email, enables executive
assistants to take on more work. ATMs replace tellers; Amazon eliminates store
clerks; automated toll-free numbers have reduced the need for customer service
reps.
Further up the chain, the problem gets much worse, particularly for some
professions. What do you think these changes have done to the people who
supervised all these front-line workers? That s right, there s just not the
same need for them. But it gets much worse (or better, if you re a company
looking to cut costs).
Human-resource managers, for instance, can t keep up with the latest computer
algorithms that do a better job identifying what job skills are needed for a
particular position, and how to get talent, than they do. So companies begin to
wonder: why do we need all of those HR managers? Bosses who used to make
choices over the type of music we listen to, or TV shows we watch, can t keep
up with data-driven analyses from Apple, Netflix, and Amazon that can much more
accurately assess what content we want.
Rather than managerial rules of thumb to guide such decision-making, real
data based on past behaviours has become remarkably effective at predicting
what we like to consume.
A cultural shift
The demise of middle management isn t due to technological advances alone.
Start-up cultures have had just as big an impact. ? Start-ups hate middle
management! Within start-ups, there are people who generate business ideas,
people who write code, and people who sell what comes together from those ideas
and that code.
None of these essential jobs in the start-up world is dependent on middle
managers making sure people do what they re supposed to do. Instead, start-ups
embody the notion that you can do more with fewer, pushing each individual
contributor to take on greater job responsibility.
Millennials at work
Nowhere does this technology and business culture come together more naturally
than in the way the millennial generation embraces the new world of business.
The idea of being supervised by a middle manager whose job is to supervise,
rather than to actually do things, is anathema to young people who come out of
university believing they know more than they do.
Where does this confidence come from? Their parents, of course, who ensured
they were rewarded, win or lose.
The upshot is that millennials look for even demand jobs that are
meaningful, where they can have an impact. Pigeon-holing this generation into
small jobs and strict reporting requirements to middle managers won t retain
them.
Moving forward
All of these changes technology, business culture, and demographics add up
to a world where middle managers will be less valued, and less needed. It s
already started, and I see no reason why it won t accelerate.
It s not all bad. Organisations where people make their living by doing things,
more than they do by making sure others are doing things, well, I like that.
And the rise of the millennial generation is coinciding with these other
changes that will create organisations custom-made for how they want to work.
That s a good thing.
Jobs in some sectors may be less vulnerable. While the tech industry holds no
love for middle management, moving from start-up to bigger business inevitably
requires a little more managerial oversight. High-growth companies in any
industry will also need to build out talent to manage new opportunities.
Technology and growth have always been good places to work; expect competition
for these jobs to be even more intense in light of the broader trends on middle
management.
But for those caught in the middle of this seismic shift, it doesn t look quite
so good. For some, they ll try to ride it out as long as they can and that
might work for a while. Despite the magnitude of the underlying changes, few
things happen overnight. Hopefully.
But for those with a longer time horizon, it s time to really focus on getting
on the right side of history by upgrading skills, seeking out opportunities to
directly impact the work and not the people who are doing the work, and
adopting an entrepreneurial mind-set no matter how big the organisation.
Getting stuck in the middle is the last place you want to be.