310
Views
0
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Articles

Unpacking the ambiguous work of middle managers: on the ongoing becoming in liminality

Pages 19-33 | Received 03 Mar 2021, Accepted 11 Sep 2022, Published online: 27 Sep 2022

References

  • Ainsworth, S., D. Grant, and R. Iedema. 2009. “‘Keeping Things Moving': Space and the Construction of Middle Management Identity in a Post-NPM Organization.” Discourse & Communication 3 (1): 5–25. doi:10.1177/1750481308098762.
  • Andersen, F. B. 2016. Ledelse Gennem Skolens Ressourcepersoner. forlaget Klim.
  • Ashcraft, K. L., T. R. Kuhn, and F. Cooren. 2009. “Constitutional Amendments: ‘Materializing’ Organizational Communication.” Academy of Management Annals 3 (1): 1–64.
  • Ashforth, B. E., G. E. Kreiner, and M. Fugate. 2000. “All in a Day’s Work: Boundaries and Micro Role Transitions.” The Academy of Management Review 25 (3): 472–491.
  • Balogun, J. 2003. “From Blaming the Middle to Harnessing its Potential: Creating Change Intermediaries.” British Journal of Management 14 (1): 69–83. doi:10.1111/1467-8551.00266.
  • Barad, K. 2001. “Re(con)figuring Space, Time, and Matter.” In Feminist Locations: Global and Local, Theory and Practice, edited by M. DeKoven, 75–110. New Brunswick, NJ & London: Rutgers University Press.
  • Barad, K. 2007. Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
  • Barad, K., et al. 2013. “Ma(r)king Time: Material Entanglements and Re-memberings: Cutting Together-Apart.” In How Matter Matters: Objects, Artifacts, and Materiality in Organization Studies, edited by P. R. Carlile, D. Nicolini, and A. Langley, 16–31. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Barad, K. 2014. “Diffracting Diffraction: Cutting Together-Apart.” Parallax 20 (3): 168–187. doi:10.1080/13534645.2014.927623.
  • Beech, N. 2011. “Liminality and the Practices of Identity Reconstruction.” Human Relations 64 (2): 285–302. doi:10.1177/0018726710371235.
  • Borg, E., and J. Söderlund. 2014. “Liminality Competence: An Interpretative Study of Mobile Project Workers’ Conception of Liminality at Work.” Management Learning 46 (3): 260–279.
  • Borg, E., and J. Söderlund. 2015. “The Nature and Development of Liminality Competence.” Journal of Workplace Learning 27: 176–192.
  • Braun, V., and V. Clarke. 2006. “Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology.” Qualitative Research in Psychology 3 (2): 77–101.
  • Burns, T. 1957. “Management in Action.” Journal of the Operational Research Society 8 (2): 45–60. doi:10.1057/jors.1957.7.
  • Cooren, F., B. H. Brummans, and D. Charrieras. 2008. “The Coproduction of Organizational Presence: A Study of Médecins Sans Frontières in Action.” Human Relations 61 (10): 1339–1370.
  • Cunliffe, A. 2009. A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Management. London: Sage.
  • Currie, G., and S. J. Procter. 2005. “The Antecedents of Middle Managers’ Strategic Contribution: The Case of a Professional Bureaucracy.” Journal of Management Studies 42 (7): 1325–1356. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6486.2005.00546.x.
  • Czarniawska, B., and C. Mazza. 2003. “Consulting as a Liminal Space.” Human Relations 56 (3): 267–290. doi:10.1177/0018726703056003612.
  • Dille, M. H. 2021. Becoming in the middle: Towards a new materialist perspective on middle management positions in education (Doctoral dissertation). Aalborg Universitetsforlag. Aalborg University. The Faculty of Humanities. PhD-Series.
  • Dopson, S., and R. Stewart. 1990. “What is Happening to Middle Management?” British Journal of Management 1 (1): 3–16.
  • Ellis, N., and S. Ybema. 2010. “Marketing Identities: Shifting Circles of Identification in Inter-Organizational Relationships.” Organization Studies 31 (3): 279–305. doi:10.1177/0170840609357397.
  • Falzon, M. A. 2016. Multi-sited Ethnography: Theory, Praxis and Locality in Contemporary Research. 1st ed. London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315596389.
  • Floyd, S. W., and B. Wooldridge. 1997. “Middle Management’s Strategic Influence and Organizational Performance.” Journal of Management Studies 34 (3): 465–485.
  • Gallos, J. V. 2002. “The Dean’s Squeeze: The Myths and Realities of Academic Leadership in the Middle.” Academy of Management Learning & Education 1 (2): 174–184. doi:10.5465/amle.2002.8509367.
  • Garsten, C. 1999. “Betwixt and Between: Temporary Employees as Liminal Subjects in Flexible Organizations.” Organization Studies 20 (4): 601–617.
  • Gjerde, S., and M. Alvesson. 2020. “Sandwiched: Exploring Role and Identity of Middle Managers in the Genuine Middle.” Human Relations 73 (1): 124–151.
  • Harding, N., H. Lee, and J. Ford. 2014. “Who Is ‘the Middle Manager’?” Human Relations 67 (10): 1213–1237. doi:10.1177/0018726713516654
  • Iedema, R., P. Degeling, J. Braithwaite, and L. White. 2003. “‘It’s an Interesting Conversation I’m Hearing’: The Doctor as Manager.” Organization Studies 25 (1): 15–33. doi:10.1177/0170840604038174.
  • Johnsen, C. G., and B. M. Sørensen. 2015. “‘It's Capitalism on Coke!’: From Temporary to Permanent Liminality in Organization Studies.” Culture and Organization 21 (4): 321–337.
  • Juelskjær, M. 2016. “Gendered Subjectivities of Spacetimematter.” Gender and Education 25 (6): 754–768.
  • Kanter, R. M. 1984. Change Masters. London: Simon and Schuster.
  • Kuhn, T., K. Ashcraft, and F. Cooren. 2017. The Work of Communication: Relational Perspectives on Working and Organizing in Contemporary Capitalism. London: Routledge.
  • Lapp, C. A., and A. N. Carr. 2006. “To Have to Halve to Have: “being” in the Middle in Changing Time's Space.” Journal of Organizational Change Management 19 (5): 655–687.
  • Linstead, A., and R. Thomas. 2002. “"What Do You Want from Me?" A Poststructuralist Feminist Reading of Middle Managers' Identities.” Culture and Organization 8 (1): 1–20.
  • Mantere, S. 2008. “Role Expectations and Middle Manager Strategic Agency.” Journal of Management Studies 45 (2): 294–316.
  • McConville, T., and L. Holden. 1999. “The Filling in the Sandwich: HRM and Middle Managers in the Health Sector.” Personnel Review 28 (5/6): 406–424.
  • Mintzberg, H. 1980. “Structure in 5’s: A Synthesis of the Research on Organization Design.” Management Science (Pre-1986); Linthicum 26 (3): 322.
  • Mintzberg, H. 1989. Mintzberg on Management: Inside Our Strange World of Organizations. New York: Simon and Schuster.
  • Mintzberg, H. 1993. Structure in Fives: Designing Effective Organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
  • Newell, H., and S. Dopson. 1996. “Muddle in the Middle: Organizational Restructuring and Middle Management Careers.” Personnel Review 25 (4): 4–20.
  • Orlikowski, W., and S. Scott. 2015. “Exploring Material-Discursive Practices.” Journal of Management Studies 52 (5): 697–705. doi:10.1111/joms.12114.
  • Paulsen, J. M. 2014. “Norwegian Superintendents as Mediators of Change Initiatives.” Leadership and Policy in Schools 13 (4): 407–423.
  • Pors, K. 2014. Støjende Styring – Genopfindelse af Folkeskolen Mellem Ledelse, Organisering og Læring. Frederiksberg: Nyt fra Samfundsvidenskaberne.
  • Pors, J. G. 2016. “‘It Sends a Cold Shiver Down my Spine’: Ghostly Interruptions to Strategy Implementation.” Organization Studies 37 (11): 1641–1659. doi:10.1177/0170840616655495.
  • Redman, T., A. Wilkinson, and E. Snape. 1997. “Stuck in the Middle? Managers in Building Societies.” Work, Employment and Society 11 (1): 101–114. doi:10.1177/0950017097111006.
  • Sharma, G., and D. Good. 2013. “The Work of Middle Managers: Sensemaking and Sensegiving for Creating Positive Social Change.” The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 49 (1): 95–122.
  • Sims, D. 2003. “Between the Millstones: A Narrative Account of the Vulnerability of Middle Managers’ Storying.” Human Relations 56 (10): 1195–1211.
  • Söderlund, J., and E. Borg. 2018. “Liminality in Management and Organization Studies: Process, Position and Place.” International Journal of Management Reviews 20 (4): 880–902. doi:10.1111/ijmr.12168.
  • Sturdy, A., M. Schwarz, and A. Spicer. 2009. “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? Structures and Uses of Liminality in Strategic Management Consultancy.” Human Relations 59 (7): 929–960. doi:10.1177/0018726706067597.
  • Styhre, A., and P. E. Josephson. 2006. “Revisiting Site Manager Work: Stuck in the Middle?” Construction Management and Economics 24 (5): 521–528.
  • Sveningsson, S., and M. Alvesson. 2016. Managerial Lives: Leadership and Identity in an Imperfect World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Swan, J., H. Scarbrough, and M. Ziebro. 2016. “Liminal Roles as a Source of Creative Agency in Management: The Case of Knowledge-Sharing Communities.” Human Relations 69 (3): 781–811. doi:10.1177/0018726715599585.
  • Tengblad, S., and O. E. Vie. 2012. “Management in Practice: Overview of Classic Studies on Managerial Work.” In The Work of Managers, edited by S. Tengblad, 18–47. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Thomas, R., and A. Davies. 2005. “Theorizing the Micro-Politics of Resistance: New Public Management and Managerial Identities in the UK Public Services.” Organization Studies 26 (5): 683–706.
  • Thomas, R., and A. Linstead. 2002. “Losing the Plot? Middle Managers and Identity.” Organization 9 (1): 71–93.
  • Thompson, J. D. 1967. Organizations in Action: Social Science Bases of Administrative Theory. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
  • Turner, V. 1967. The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
  • Turner, V. 1969. “Liminality and Communitas.” In The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Chicago, IL: Aldine.
  • UVM. 2013. Af aftale om et fagligt løft af folkeskolen, 2013. Available at: http://www.uvm.dk/folkeskolen/folkeskolens-maal-love-og-regler/politiske-oplaeg-og-aftaler (accessed September 06, 2020).
  • Uyterhoeven, H. 1989. “General Managers in the Middle.” Harvard Business Review 67 (5): 136–145.
  • Van Gennep, A. 1901/1960. The Rites of Passage. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
  • Vásquez, C., and F. Cooren. 2013. “Spacing Practices: The Communicative Configuration of Organizing Through Space-Times.” Communication Theory 23 (1): 25–47.
  • Walsh, J. P., A. D. Meyer, and C. B. Schoonhoven. 2006. “A Future for Organization Theory: Living in and Living with Changing Organizations.” Organization Science 17 (5): 657–671.
  • Watson, T. J. 1994/2001. In Search of Management: Culture, Chaos and Control in Managerial Work. London: Cengage Learning EMEA.
  • Watson, T. 1996. “How Do Managers Think?” Management Learning 27 (3): 323–341.
  • Wooldridge, B., T. Schmid, and S. W. Floyd. 2008. “The Middle Management Perspective on Strategy Process: Contributions, Synthesis, and Future Research.” Journal of Management 34 (6): 1190–1221. doi:10.1177/0149206308324326.
  • Ybema, S., N. Beech, and N. Ellis. 2011. “Transitional and Perpetual Liminality: An Identity Practice Perspective.” Anthropology Southern Africa 34 (1–2): 21–29. doi:10.1080/23323256.2011.11500005.
  • Ybema, S., D. Yanow, H. Wels, and F. Kamsteeg. 2009. Organizational Ethnography Studying the Complexity of Everyday Life. Los Angeles: Sage.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.