From: Navigating in a Hierarchy: How Middle Managers Adapt Macro Design
Design element | Executive management team (vice president and directors) | Middle managers (senior managers and managers) | Congruence in perceptions (executive management vs. middle management) |
---|---|---|---|
Strategy | Must-wins: | Must-wins: | Yes |
• Valued finance partner | • Valued finance partner | ||
• Strong finance fundamentals | • Strong finance fundamentals | ||
• Boost standardization and harmonization agenda | • Boost standardization and harmonization agenda | ||
• ONE finance team | • ONE finance team | ||
• Proactive collaboration with stakeholders | • Proactive collaboration with stakeholders | ||
• Engaged, developed, and mobile colleagues | • Engaged, developed, and mobile colleagues | ||
• Developed and utilized new technologies | • Developed and utilized new technologies | ||
Structure | Simple functional structure | Full-blown matrix | No |
Clear roles and command | Blurred lines | ||
Confusing roles, especially business partners and controllers | |||
Processes | Business plan (e.g., standardization of systems, SAP) | Few formal processes—people do their own thing | Partly |
Service-level agreement (SLA) as a foundation for collaboration with sites | Service-level agreement (SLA) looks good on paper but does not reflect reality | ||
SAP is not working on production sites | |||
Rewards | Rewards given based on contribution to finance function | Formal rewards based on finance function | No |
Rewards given based on the 7 must-wins in the strategy | |||
Informal rewards based on line of business | |||
People | Highly skilled and specialized finance people | Need for people who can “work the matrix,” e.g. serve both the function and the business | No |
Need for people that think more strategic | Difficult to make employees fill out role as finance business partner | ||
Frustration—people do not deliver | Concerns about stress |