Power to the Middle: Why Managers Hold the Keys to the Future of Work

"Middle manager." The term evokes a bygone industrial era in which managers functioned like cogs in a vast bureaucratic machine. In recent decades, midlevel managers became a favorite target for the chopping block—underappreciated, often considered a superfluous layer of the organization.

Not only does this outdated perspective need to change, but the future demands it. In Power to the Middle, McKinsey...