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Facilitating the role of middle managers in further education

Abstract This article presents work in progress investigating a range of middle manager roles in further education colleges through perceptions of staff at three levels of hierarchy, to identify features of the ‘environment for management’ which facilitate and impede the middle managers in role. The research is being carried out at four colleges: this article offers preliminary results from one large multi-site college. The methodology comprises interviews with senior staff, focus group meetings with middle managers, questionnaire surveys of team members, observation of meetings and study of college documentation. Analysis to date indicates that the role is largely an intuitive one and that there is a difference in the transactional, transformational, supervisory and representative natures of the different roles. Facilitators include clarity of college systems, championing of the role by SMT and strong personal skills, impediments include lack of training, tension over the devolved nature of the role, and role overload.