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Business
商业报道
Middle managers
中层管理者
In praise of David Brent
赞扬大卫•布兰特
Middle managers are not as useless as people think
中层管理者并不像人们认为的那样没有用处
IN “UNDERCOVER BOSS”, a British television programme, company chiefs disguise themselves and work on the shop floor of their own companies.
英国有一档电视节目叫“卧底老板”，公司老板乔装打扮后，下到自己公司一线与员工一起工作。
The climax comes when the boss reveals his true identity to his co-workers.
当老板向一起工作的员工揭开自己的真实身份时，节目达到了高潮。
Much to his surprise, the shop-floor grunts often have no clue who he is.
让老板感到吃惊的是，这些基层员工常常不知道自己的老板是谁。
The cult of the chief executive has reached absurd proportions.
对于首席执行官的狂热已经达到了一种荒谬的地步，
Business magazines splash their smug faces on glossy covers, and give them all the credit for achievements to which thousands of others have contributed.
商业期刊的封面上尽是他们的大幅照片，个个自命不凡。数千员工辛苦劳动取得的功劳全部记在他们的头上。
Yet a recent study by Antoinette Schoar, an economist at MIT, found that the person at the top accounted for just 5% of a Fortune 500 firm's performance.
但最近麻省理工学院经济学家安托瓦内特•斯考尔进行的一项研究发现，在财富500强公司中，最高领导对公司业绩的贡献仅有5%。
Some bosses believe their own hype: a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit, our sister company, found that many were convinced that their own words and actions were the key to motivating employees.
有些老板非常相信自己的号召力，经济学人智库“我们的姊妹公司”进行的一项调查发现，许多老板对自己的言行对员工的感召深信不移。
Yet when the same survey asked workers what they thought, more said that it was their relationship with their line manager that counted.
但该调查也征询了员工的看法，很多员工表示，他们与现场主管的关系更为重要。
As Marcus Buckingham, a management writer, once quipped, “People join companies but leave managers.”
这正应了管理学作家马库斯•贝克汉姆的一句妙语：公司员工进来时看公司，出去时看领导。
Yet middle managers could hardly be less fashionable.
然而，中层管理者可能是最不风光的职位。
Companies sack them by the truckload. Sitcoms such as “The Office” mock them.
公司大批大批地对他们进行解雇。情景剧《办公室》就是这些人的真实写照。
The days of general managers who know “a little about lots” are completely over, claims Lynda Gratton of London Business School in “The Shift”, a new book.
伦敦商学院的琳达•布兰顿在他的新书《大转移》中断言，总经理事无巨细管理公司的日子早已过去。
Knowledge workers often receive feedback from peers working on the same project, she observes.
她观察到，知识工人常从在一个项目中工作的同事那里获得反馈。
Technology helps them monitor each other's output, with little need for supervision by a middle manager.
他们可以借助技术手段来监控彼此的产出情况，不再需要中层管理者的监督。
Many firms have become nimbler by removing unnecessary bureaucracy.
很多公司通过清除不必要的繁文缛节而变得更加灵活。
Unilever, a consumer-goods firm, used to have as many as 36 tiers of management; now it has, by some counts, only six.
消费品公司联合利华过去管理上有36个层级，有人发现现在只剩下了6个。
But cutting out too much of the middle can start to look like corporate hara-kiri.
但是砍掉这么多的中间管理层对公司来说，也许无异于切腹自杀。
Ethan Mollick, of Wharton Business School in Pennsylvania, argues that firms should nurture managers with the initiative to balance the needs of day-to-day operations against the need to implement the board's strategy. Middle managers also act as a crucial filter.
宾夕法尼亚沃顿商学院的伊桑•莫立克认为，公司应该用创新精神培养管理者，使他们既能搞好日常管理工作，又能贯彻董事会战略。中层管理人员就像一个过滤器，作用十分重要。
A large firm may have tens of thousands of employees. The CEO cannot possibly listen to them all.
一家大公司可能有数万员工，公司的CEO不可能听到他们每个人的声音。
