THE sweeping change in corporate India has clearly unnerved middle managers in most Indian organisations. They are lost in the maze of complex operational demands and the need to develop processes in conformance with ISO standards.

With cut-throat competition and demands from customers, organisations are forced to allocate scarce resources to most activities, to maintain costs within reasonable levels.

This in turn, leads to increased workloads, complexity of tasks, and monotony, which compromises on quality. The inevitable casualty is the Human Resource Department. Middle managers must spend time on issues relating performance and creative conceptualisation. What is urgently required is a huge dose of self-awareness programmes, starting from the top management. Unless organisations are transparent and open, the real issues confronting the middle managers will be brushed under the carpet.

Middle managers need to be made part and parcel of any structured behavioural exercise, so that the action plan wins their dedication and commitment.

Secondly, the middle manager should be given projects that relate to reduction in cost, enabling him to understand the wider ramifications of such cost cutting on things such as reduction in cost of finished goods, inventory carrying cost, manpower cost and so on.

This helps the middle manager `open up' and come out of his comfort zone. It is in this connection that job rotation, more so, in the context of developing talented young middle managers, becomes more relevant.

Taken seriously, and this HR initiative, coupled with mentoring, can work wonders for the organisation. It is however important that both the mentor and mentoree understand each other's roles and responsibilities and make job rotation a meaningful, value-adding exercise.

For instance, if a middle manager is rotated from manufacturing to industrial marketing at the corporate office, it is essential that a Senior Manager or even a General Manager becomes the mentor of the former.

Since the entire range of tasks is new, enough time and energy needs to be devoted to understanding customers, suppliers, and so on. If the manager is asked to do heavy paper work right at the beginning, as it often happens, it would dampen his enthusiasm.

Developing middle managers is one of the most important issues confronting any modern management. The short-term, quick fix solutions will work no more. Giving the HR professional a big role in managing change and transition is an urgent priority.

A. B. Sivakumar

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu Business Line