Peter F. Drucker Boxed Set (8 Books) (The Drucker Library)

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Slimming Management’s Midriff

A WIDELY QUOTED ARTICLE in the Harvard Business Review thirty years ago asked, “Is Middle Management Obsolete?” and answered a resounding yes. But instead of disappearing or even shrinking, middle management has been exploding in the last few decades. In many companies the “middle” between the first-line supervisor and the corporate top has been growing three or four times faster than sales, even before adjustment for inflation.

The growth hasn’t been confined to big business; middle management in small and medium-size companies may have grown even faster: since thirty years ago many of these ...