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Innovation Implementation: Leading from the Middle Out

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Strategy and Communication for Innovation

Abstract

The Competing Values Framework, a model for understanding paradoxical tension in an organization, can explain how managers help translate new ideas into actionable improvements to ultimately fit an organization’s culture and operations by managing tasks and culture. Middle managers’ central roles at the crossroads of defining culture, strategy, process and markets allow them to act as a fulcrum for leaders to pry people and systems toward delivering meaningful change, yet also serve as a lynch pin to hold organizations together amid stress. These managers play alternating roles, first as agents of change and then buffers to temper the same, internalizing competing values stress then forging its resolution. An ambidextrous ability to shift focus then de-focus through skillful communication can yield significant results.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. SUNY Empire State College, 113 West Avenue, Saratoga Springs, NY, 12866, USA

    Alan Belasen

  2. SUNY Empire State College, 3589 Wyanet St., Seaford, NY, 11783, USA

    Elliot B. Luber

Authors
  1. Alan Belasen
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  2. Elliot B. Luber
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Correspondence to Alan Belasen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. ISEIC Consulting UG, Systems Management, Internat. Logistics ISEIC Consulting UG, Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Nicole Pfeffermann

  2. Princeton, New York, USA

    Julie Gould

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Belasen, A., Luber, E.B. (2017). Innovation Implementation: Leading from the Middle Out. In: Pfeffermann, N., Gould, J. (eds) Strategy and Communication for Innovation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49542-2_14

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