The survival wisdom of middle managers

Abstract

As a department director, I'm at the middle level. It's a sandwich position. The sandwich position is the most confusing position, because I need to coordinate with the upper level, and accurately pass the messages to my lower level. I also need to solve the lower level's confusion caused by the unseen future of the company. To some of the requests raised by the upper level, the lower level staff might not understand. It is understandable to me that since people at different levels have different thoughts, they see things from different angles. When there are different opinions, it is difficult to solve, and our middle managers need to make some effort to coordinate. (Interview record, Dec. 14, 2009)