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Building Culture from the Middle Out

Building Culture from the Middle Out

by Starling Insights

Starling Insights Editorial Board

Mar 29, 2024

Observations

In an article published in the MIT Sloan Management Review last month, Spencer Harrison (Insead) and Kristie Rogers (Marquette) explain how organizations can build culture from the "middle out," emphasizing the importance of middle managers for "enriching" corporate culture.

People tend to think of culture as something that is driven by organizational leaders as the ‘tone-from-the-top.’ As we have argued frequently, this is a very one-dimensional view of culture. Yet possibly due to that perception, few middle managers feel empowered to actively engage in building the organization's culture. "Middle managers often assume that the best approach for ensuring a strong workplace culture is frequent messaging from top leaders promoting the mission, purpose, vision, ethos, and values of the organization," Harrison and Rogers write.

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