Literatures are available to enhance our understanding of the process of change and to give us guidelines, but not to be applied as “one-size-fits-all solution to the organization”.(Mcallaster, 2004) explains that solutions vary according to different types of businesses. One has to stand back, keep the guidelines in mind, analyse and then recommend. (Furnham, 2002)

On Nov 24 Mica Wulff Kamm, Director Business Development, TV, Content & Digital Home Telia Sonera gave us the insight to her career, the following content is categorised according to the leverages Mica uses (Mcallaster, 2004) and her responsibilities(Balogun,2003). The 5 leverage points are: Pain, Process, Politics, Payoffs and Persistence. While the responsibilities engage into two types of activities:
· Sense making: to understand one’s own personal transitions as change progress
· Coordination and management:
o operational management: keeping the current business running: planning, budgeting, resourcing and over seeing related activities.
o Emotional management: to help the staff through their transitions, by handling resistance, and providing coaching, training, support as needed.

(Huy,2002) states that due to the competitive environment , organizations are compelled to downsize (to reduce cost, be adaptable and flexible), (Balogun,J) adds that the middle managers are becoming targets of this change. Thence the question is, are middle managers: “endangered species” or “ a new breed of empowered middle manager ?”( 2003)

Literature bears witness to the different names that middle managers have gained by the top managers. To summarize it; middle managers are known as primary locus for resistance, de- energized, blockage to change, foot draggers, costly and emotionally striken in the face of change. According to traditional management; “their duty is to take senior managers plans and put them into place in their division to align organizational action with strategic intent”,provided with “limited discretion.” (Balogun,2003)
On contrary, Mica supports the “new breed of empowered “status, so does (Huy,2002) and (Balogun,2003) ,who claims that middle managers can be the “foot soldiers”, “change agent”,” strategic asset”, being the one in the middle they can “attenuate the pace and magnitude of the organizational learning” (Huy,2002) by giving “ meaning, purpose and direction”. (Westley,1990)

Pain and Sensemaking:
According to (Balogun,2003), good pain or bad pain depends on how you interpret change, middle managers need to first make an “interpretation” of what type of change is initiated by the top managers: whether is it ‘ unified/differentiated, straight forward/complex’ ,what type of approach is being taken: “directive, master, self assembly or emergent.” (Higgs & Rowland, 2005) By framing change they can then take advantage of the emerging possibilities.
· Personal Transition:
(Westley,1990) explains the reason why middle managers don’t participate in the change is due to fear and exposure, Mica suggestion was that when ground gets shaky, don’t get scared! Take the “courage to fail” (Furnham,2002), read signs and signals(Balogun,2003) and find out what jobs you like and what department will fit you. Get involved in both high projects i.e make “conversations” with top managers (Westley,1990) and low projects i.e deal with the employees and colleagues different interpretation (Balogun,2003). This will aid in building networks, which will help you in the future as well. She suggests that one should have the ability to adapt and as middle managers one should be able to act in both hierarchy and flat organization and need to be good at both strategic and operational management depending on the industry.
Mica also stated that one should know their boss! Depending on his/her power in the “coalition”; you can influence corporate strategy. (Westley,1990)

Process, Coordination and management:
Process is described as the “essence of how one goes about changing the environment” (Mcallaster, 2004).
Politics and Payoffs:
A capable leader finds out the “power base” of each player(Latham,2003). In the process of change, many subordinates will be fired,which will lead to added anxiety and demotivation to the environment. Mica understands this and has tackled some of the issues in her company’s value “Show respect: you matter, build trust, commitment and empowerment” (Kamm,2008). How Mica implements is by being the role model, through her actions and delegation.
(Mcallaster, 2004) emphasizes: “communicate, communicate and communicate” and (Westley, 1990) states “the ability of an organization to be cohesive depends on the structure and quality of its communication system”.When change occurs top managers keep the information to themselves; which results in rumors and added anxiety as explained above. Mica in her strategy : “Information: Open/Closed”stated that information should be shared: not too much and not too less, and not too early but not too late as well, information should be provided at the right time and in the right content so it can aid the process of change and not hinder it.
(Balogun,2003) states that most middle managers become “figure heads” as their responsibilities demand most of their time, and they can’t keep up. Mica advise is to be accessible all times, according to (Huy,2002), middle managers are “structurally closer to employees and so are likely to be more attuned to their emotional needs.
In order to keep the business running, which means keeping the employees motivated so that it doesn’t affect their productivity, Mica said that she takes care of not only those who work for her but also those who leave. Depending on the situation Mica makes use of the payoffs strategies: money, relationships, opportunity and development and pride. ” (Mcallaster, 2004)
For those who wanted to leave, she made sure that they were compensated by using the money leverage: take an early retirement or help them get a job in one of the sister companies.
To make sure people delivered and remained motivated,Mica’s business plan was the next strategic tool. The business plan is like the “superordinate goal” (Latham,2003) that provided the employees with the information of the company’s identity and its direction for future goal, a tool to align the employees project and commitment to the “change intent” (Balogun,2003).
For underperformers Mica follows the concept of “support first; deadlines second” (Furnham,2002). Mica said that one can only guide the employees and not teach them as they are educated people. For this purpose her company allows time to employees to cater their own personal needs, which in return in my opinion would increase their loyalty to the company, increase motivation and innovation.

Feedback: Mica said for the middle managers and for the employees , the “cognitive appraisal” is important as cognition is related to emotions and with encouragement can lead to organizational learning as “trial and error” (Huy,2002)

In conclusion, what Mica and the rest of the literature were trying to distinguish was: What makes an effective Middle Manager. Mica emphasized that “Persistence” to deliver is the key word for success, when she delivers her top managers are satisfied and the same goes for her subordinate. (Mcallaster, 2004) Also the other distinguished characteristic that so many middle manager lack as highlighted by Mica is “planning”. Sense making takes time and is an “ongoing and gradual activity” ,but it’s not impossible and can be achieved as discussed in this post which encourages middle managers to become “foot soldiers”. (Balogun,2003).

References

Balogun, J. (2003) From Blaming the Middle to Harnessing its Potential: Creating Change Intermediaries, British Journal of Management, vol. 14, 69-83.

Westley, F. T. (1990) Middle Managers and Strategy: Micro-Dynamics of Inclusion, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 11 (5), 337-351.

Higgs.M & Rowland.D, (2005) All Changes Great and Small: Exploring Approaches to Change and its Leadership, Journal of Change Management,vol. 5, 121–151

Huy, N. Q. (2002) Emotional Balancing of Organizational Continuity and Radical Change, Administrative Science Quarterly, 47(1), 31-69.

Latham, G.P. (2003) “Goal Setting: A Five-step Approach to Behavior Change."
Organizational Dynamics. Vol 32, no 3, 309-318.

MCallaster, C.M. (2004) “The 5 P’s of Change. Leading Change by Effectively Utilizing Leverage Points within an Organization”. Organizational Dynamics. Vol 33, no 3, 318-328.
Kamm,M. W (2008) Middle Management- Real Life. Lecture, prepared for JIBS
seminar on Leadership: Innovation and Business Creation.