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Business
商業報道
Middle managers
中層管理者
In praise of David Brent
贊揚大衛•布蘭特
Middle managers are not as useless as people think
中層管理者并不像人們認為的那樣沒有用處
IN “UNDERCOVER BOSS”, a British television programme, company chiefs disguise themselves and work on the shop floor of their own companies.
英國有一檔電視節目叫“臥底老板”，公司老板喬裝打扮后，下到自己公司一線與員工一起工作。
The climax comes when the boss reveals his true identity to his co-workers.
當老板向一起工作的員工揭開自己的真實身份時，節目達到了高潮。
Much to his surprise, the shop-floor grunts often have no clue who he is.
讓老板感到吃驚的是，這些基層員工常常不知道自己的老板是誰。
The cult of the chief executive has reached absurd proportions.
對于首席執行官的狂熱已經達到了一種荒謬的地步，
Business magazines splash their smug faces on glossy covers, and give them all the credit for achievements to which thousands of others have contributed.
商業期刊的封面上盡是他們的大幅照片，個個自命不凡。數千員工辛苦勞動取得的功勞全部記在他們的頭上。
Yet a recent study by Antoinette Schoar, an economist at MIT, found that the person at the top accounted for just 5% of a Fortune 500 firm's performance.
但最近麻省理工學院經濟學家安托瓦內特•斯考爾進行的一項研究發現，在財富500強公司中，最高領導對公司業績的貢獻僅有5%。
Some bosses believe their own hype: a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit, our sister company, found that many were convinced that their own words and actions were the key to motivating employees.
有些老板非常相信自己的號召力，經濟學人智庫“我們的姊妹公司”進行的一項調查發現，許多老板對自己的言行對員工的感召深信不移。
Yet when the same survey asked workers what they thought, more said that it was their relationship with their line manager that counted.
但該調查也征詢了員工的看法，很多員工表示，他們與現場主管的關系更為重要。
As Marcus Buckingham, a management writer, once quipped, “People join companies but leave managers.”
這正應了管理學作家馬庫斯•貝克漢姆的一句妙語：公司員工進來時看公司，出去時看領導。
Yet middle managers could hardly be less fashionable.
然而，中層管理者可能是最不風光的職位。
Companies sack them by the truckload. Sitcoms such as “The Office” mock them.
公司大批大批地對他們進行解雇。情景劇《辦公室》就是這些人的真實寫照。
The days of general managers who know “a little about lots” are completely over, claims Lynda Gratton of London Business School in “The Shift”, a new book.
倫敦商學院的琳達•布蘭頓在他的新書《大轉移》中斷言，總經理事無巨細管理公司的日子早已過去。
Knowledge workers often receive feedback from peers working on the same project, she observes.
她觀察到，知識工人常從在一個項目中工作的同事那里獲得反饋。
Technology helps them monitor each other's output, with little need for supervision by a middle manager.
他們可以借助技術手段來監控彼此的產出情況，不再需要中層管理者的監督。
Many firms have become nimbler by removing unnecessary bureaucracy.
很多公司通過清除不必要的繁文縟節而變得更加靈活。
Unilever, a consumer-goods firm, used to have as many as 36 tiers of management; now it has, by some counts, only six.
消費品公司聯合利華過去管理上有36個層級，有人發現現在只剩下了6個。
But cutting out too much of the middle can start to look like corporate hara-kiri.
但是砍掉這么多的中間管理層對公司來說，也許無異于切腹自殺。
Ethan Mollick, of Wharton Business School in Pennsylvania, argues that firms should nurture managers with the initiative to balance the needs of day-to-day operations against the need to implement the board's strategy. Middle managers also act as a crucial filter.
賓夕法尼亞沃頓商學院的伊桑•莫立克認為，公司應該用創新精神培養管理者，使他們既能搞好日常管理工作，又能貫徹董事會戰略。中層管理人員就像一個過濾器，作用十分重要。
A large firm may have tens of thousands of employees. The CEO cannot possibly listen to them all.
一家大公司可能有數萬員工，公司的CEO不可能聽到他們每個人的聲音。
