Reorienting the Role of Middle Managers for Creating Value within the Organization: an Economical, Social and Ethical Proposal

Abstract

Many studies have focused on custo- mer value and how it is created based on the perfor- mance of front-line employees in addition to the un- questionable role of top management. It is also necessary to analyze the creation of value within the organization from the role of middle managers. These managers are crucial to orient employees for promo- ting value for customers that in turn creates value for stakeholders. Using an anthropological model we analyzed the creation of value in three organizational dimen- sions: economical, social and ethical, and how the role of middle managers contributes to this purpose. We applied a survey to 263 middle managers to identify their views about their role and their needs for assu- ming it. We designed and executed a program for de- veloping the competencies and personal qualities re- quired for fulfilling their role focused on the creation of value. This study included semi-structured interviews to explore the experience and beliefs of these mana- gers about the main tasks they face according to the three dimensions of the model. Through the results ob- tained we designed a scheme to arrange the role of these managers. Finally, we validated a model to pre- pare them as leaders for creating value. Keywords: Role of Middle Managers, Customer Value, Value Creation, Value for Stakeholders Resumen: