What is happening to middle managers in Europe? Problems and promises associated with their changing roles and responsibilities.

Few people have anything encouraging to say about middle management: past, present, or future. The picture of middle management that comes from many articles and from the business press is predominantly a gloomy one. Most writers portray the middle manager as a frustrated, disillusioned individual caught in the middle of a hierarchy, impotent, and with no real hope of career progression. In this article, these predictions are discussed and compared with a recent study of middle management in Europe that suggests a different picture. The authors have been participating in a six-country Western European study, initiated and partially funded by the European Foundation for Living and Working conditions, which has been examining the nature of the changes affecting middle management jobs and careers and middle managers' reactions to such changes. Specifically, the study sought to examine the nature of the changes affecting middle management jobs and careers and middle managers' reactions to these changes in six countries: U.K., Germany, Italy, France, Denmark, and The Netherlands.