Am I a middle manager?

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Someone asked me the other day, "So how goes middle management?"
Now when I think middle manager, the first person that comes to my mind is the PHB.

And though, I don't manage people at work, I do feel like I'm supposed to "manage" stuff.
So, I checked the definition. What does Wikipedia have to say about it?

"In pre-computer times, middle management would collect information from junior management and reassemble it for senior management. With the advent of inexpensive PCs this function has been taken over by e-business systems. During the 1980s and 1990s thousands of middle managers were made redundant for this reason."

Finding, re-assembling and presenting information for others: isn't that a non-negligible part of most people's jobs now (at a large company anyway?)

So, does an efficient company eliminate middle management? Or is everyone middle management?
Ummm.....:)

Comments

Anonymous said…
I like to think of middle managers as purely 'Project Managers', with no P&L responsibility. Their job is to simply make sure a project goes through to completion, and sometimes, even just act a filter to/from senior management. 'Program Management' and 'Product Management' on the other hand are different roles since they come with responsibility for both the strategy of the product going forward and the associated P&L.
7:01 AM
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