不上不下的中层经理人

Betwixt and between is how Kirk Girard describes the

plablems of being a middle manager.

“It can feel like purgatory.” As planning manager at SantaClara C ounty, a local authority in California, he felt he was searching for purpose,

“trying tofind my role in the organisation”. It led to considerable “gnashing of teeth”.

不上不下、左右为难就是柯克吉拉德(Kirk Girard)对中层经理面临的问题的形容。“感觉就像在炼狱一样。”作为加州圣克拉拉县(County of Santa Clara)地方政府的一名规划经理，他觉得自己正在寻找目标，“试着找到我在组织内的角色定位”。这使他常常沮丧得“咬牙切齿”。

Behnam Tabrizi, who teaches leadership to mid-level managers inc luding Mr Girard at StanfordUniversity’s Department of Manageme nt Science and Engineering, says “middle management” isa depres sing title.

“It’s perceived as a negative label — as an obstacle and overhea d.”Frustrations felt by middle managers may also include a lack of autonomy.

在斯坦福大学(Stanford University)管理科学与工程系向吉拉德等中层经理教授领导力课程的贝南大不里士(Behnam Tabrizi)表示，“中层管理者”是一个令人压抑的头衔。“它被认为是一种负面标签——是障碍和天花板。”中层经理感受到的挫败感或许还包括缺少自主权。

The fictional Bob Slocum in Joseph Heller’s Something Happened embodies middle management misery. Kurt Vonnegut summed up Slocum’s restlessness in his review of the book:

“Hemourns the missed opportunities of his youth. He is itchy for ra ises and promotions, eventhough he despises his company and the jobs he does...He is exhausted. He dreads old age.”

约瑟夫眠勒(Joseph Heller)的《出了毛病》(Something Happened)一书中虚构的人物鲍勃斯洛克姆(BobSlocum)便体现了中层管理者的悲惨命运。库尔特冯内古特(Kurt Vonnegut)在其对这本书的书评中总结了斯洛克姆的如

坐针毡：“他为年轻时错过的机遇感到痛惜。他渴望得到提拔和晋升，但又鄙视自己的公司和他所做的工作……他感到疲惫不堪。他害怕变老。”

Such characterisations are as enduring as the job itself despite th e frequent announcement of its impending death. As technolog y flattens organisations, so middle managers are deemed dispensa ble. This year, Zappos, the online shoe retailer, said it would elimi nate managers. Itsfounder, Tony Hsieh, said:

“We’re trying to [switch] from a normal hierarchical structure to asystem... which enables employees to act more like entrepreneur s and self-direct their workinstead of reporting to a manager.”

尽管有关这类职位濒临消失的宣称频频出现，但这类典型描述就像该职位本身一样经久不衰。由于技术使组织结构扁平化，中层经理被认为是可有可无的。今年，在线鞋类零售商Zappos表示将取消经理职位。其创始人谢家华(Tony Hsieh)称：“我们正试图从常规的等级结构转向一种体系……使员工更像是企业家一样行动，自己指挥工作，而非向经理汇报。”

From this standpoint, middle managers are cast as superfluous b ureaucrats. It is these rolesthat can be hit by cuts. A report publish ed in 2011 by the King’s Fund, a UK think-tank,highlighted the “sn eering” political rhetoric about the National Health Service’s armie

s of“faceless bureaucrats”. It found that if anything the NHS was u nder-managed rather than over-managed, disputing the idea of a s agging middle.

从这个角度，中层经理被塑造为多余的官僚。正是这样的角色可能被砍掉。英国智库机构英皇基金(King'sFund)于2011年公布的报告，突出反驳了政治辞令对英国国民卫生服务体系(NHS)“呆板官僚”大军的“嘲笑”。报告发现，实际上NHS是管理不足而不是管理过度，这对认为中层管理者松懈不力的观点提

出了质疑。

With such a war against them it is no wonder that middle manager

s may be depressed,research by Columbia University’s Mailman S chool of Public Health discovered recently. Thereport challenged th

e idea that it is those who are at the bottom o

f the socio-economic ladder that feel the most miserable and anxious. Rather, those i

n the middle have to absorb the discontent of those below and ab ove, while feeling frustrated that they do not have power to imple ment change.

哥伦比亚大学(Columbia University)梅尔曼公共健康学院

(Mailman School of Public Health)最近所做的研究发现，面对这样一场针对自己的战争，就难怪中层经理们会觉得压抑了。该报告挑战了一种想法，即处于社会经济阶梯底端的人感觉最痛苦和焦虑。实际上，是那些处于梯子中间位置的人不得不承受来自上层和下层的不满，同时因无力实现改变而备感沮丧。This follows research published in Harvard Business Review last ye

ar that said the most unhappy staff were not those “with poor per formance ratings or the ones in over their heads— people with in adequate training, education, or experience for the job”. On the c