Whilst beauty is in the eye of the beholder, surely power is a much more objective thing.  A recent University of Kansas study finds that perceptions of the power held by managers differ significantly throughout the organization however.

This gap in perception led managers in the study to compensate by using micro-power strategies when engaging with employees.  What’s more, these strategies varied considerably throughout the organization, leading to discrepancies in how employees are treated.

The study found that supervisors often felt like disempowered go-betweens, pulled this way and that by senior managers above them and frontline staff below them.  Despite this general sense of disgruntlement, they did nonetheless feel like they had control over their particular patch, and they focused on maintaining control over it.

What’s interesting is that the seemingly individual nature of each manager resulted in significant differences in how managers behave across departments and sites, which is not the intention of the senior leaders whatsoever.

“Frontline supervisors may not be conscious of how their micro-power moves disconnect from some of the values or intentions of the organization overall,” the authors say.

Moving on up

The sample size used in the study was relatively low, but the authors believe their findings are valuable nonetheless, not least because they highlight the challenges involved in providing suitable training and preparation for these early managerial positions.

“It’s often their first management role, and so the way in which they’re using their power in those positions may be surprising,” the researchers say. “We need to be looking at frontline supervisors and how they are using the authority of the office. The other aspect is how we are providing training on their unique positions.”

They suggest that a way to overcome these micro-power moves is to establish more transparent communication across the organization so that frontline staff don’t rely solely on their line manager when receiving important messages, or indeed for relaying feedback back to senior leaders.

“If we focus on training for frontline supervisors, it provides a space for collaboration,” the authors say, “and we may not have inconsistencies between how they implement their work.”