Managing up and managing down

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Managing Up and Managing Down is a part of management that details how middle managers or supervisors should effectively deal with their managers and subordinates. Promotion to management comes with additional responsibility of managing down. With the additional responsibility for managing their team while remaining accountable to their management teams, managers require additional skills and training to effectively influence up or down. Management levels within large organizations are structured from a hierarchal organization and include senior, middle, and lower management roles. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Outcomes

Effectively managing up and down can lead to the following accomplishments: [5] [6] [7] [8]

Required skills

Certain skills must be employed to manage up and down successfully. These include: [9] [6] [10] [11]

Managing up

Managing up

Turk suggests several different guidelines for managing up, including being loyal and committed; understanding the boss’s perspective, agenda, and preferences; providing solutions instead of problems; and understanding one's own management style. Each of the different guidelines Turk provides serves an important benefit for both sides. [12]

The Careers Group recommends “[understanding] where your work fits in with your manager’s goals and the wider goals of the organization”, which is applicable when managers have their own projects to work on in addition to managing subordinates. Considering the challenges that managers face with their projects and working to either assist or stay out of the way when those projects require more attention is recommended. Putting oneself in the position to be recognized as someone who can handle the work they were assigned and assist the manager in their work can be particularly beneficial when advocating for one's own projects. Figuring out where the work one wants to accomplish fits into the overall goals for the company is crucial to getting approval on those projects as well. [13]

According to Badowski, good managing up requires going above and beyond the tasks assigned to enhance the manager's work. Making the manager's job easier will not only help them do their job, but they will consider one to be a valuable asset to them and the organization. [14] [15]

Something to remember is to “be very clear about what job you were hired to do – and do it.” [2]

Communication

Understand how the manager likes to communicate. Price suggests appealing to the managers' communication styles: “If he or she likes to communicate face-to-face rather than through email updates, then set up short meetings.” Communicating with the manager in a way that they are receptive to feels as though time spent is well utilized and they will associate one with productivity. [16]

Influencing up

Bradford introduces the idea of "influencing up" where it may be possible for a subordinate without authority to influence those with authority. [17]

Managing down

Tendencies that negatively affect employees

Tendencies that positively affect employees

Skills required for managing down

It is claimed that good managing down requires the following attributes: [18]

Related Research Articles

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— Frances J. Milliken and Elizabeth Wolfe Morrison, Shades of Silence: Emerging Themes and Future Directions for Research on Silence in Organizations

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References

  1. Turk W (2007) Defense AT&L: March–April The Art of Managing Up
  2. 1 2 Johnson W (15 Dec 2014) Managing Up Without Sucking Up Harvard Business Review
  3. Price S Ivy Exec Managing Up Without Kissing Up
  4. The Careers Group (2010) Your Academic Career: Managing Professional Relationships University of London
  5. Turk W (2007) Defense AT&L: March–April The Art of Managing Up
  6. 1 2 Johnson W (15 Dec 2014) Managing Up Without Sucking Up Harvard Business Review
  7. Price S Ivy Exec Managing Up Without Kissing Up
  8. The Careers Group (2010) Your Academic Career: Managing Professional Relationships University of London
  9. Turk W (2007) Defense AT&L: March–April The Art of Managing Up
  10. Price S Ivy Exec Managing Up Without Kissing Up
  11. The Careers Group (2010) Your Academic Career: Managing Professional Relationships University of London
  12. Turk W (2007) Defense AT&L: March–April The Art of Managing Up
  13. The Careers Group (2010) Your Academic Career: Managing Professional Relationships University of London
  14. Badowski R (2004) Managing Up: How to Forge an Effective Relationship With Those Above You
  15. Garone E (30 Oct 2008) Wall Street Journal What It Means to 'Manage Up'
  16. Price S Ivy Exec Managing Up Without Kissing Up
  17. Bradford DL (2005) Influence Without Authority
  18. nameWard ME, Zambito J (Nov 2013) The Bulletin Vol 81 Issue 6 Managing in All Directions: Up, Down, and Sideways

Further reading

Books

Journal articles