Transparent Leadership: Bridging the Trust Gap Between Senior Executives and Middle Managers (Innovative Leadership Series)

Establishing a culture of trust in organizations and strengthening the middle line are both critical for implementing innovation, especially during major disruptions. Work units and teams operate in environments that are largely influenced by broader organizational and institutional goals where middle managers are most needed for guiding and directing the staff to carry out change.

Recently, however, the value of middle managers has come under attack. Despite their valuable contributions that often have gone unnoticed by senior executives, middle managers have regularly been viewed as non-value-added practitioners who consume resources but do not add value to products or services. Further, as technology advances and social media allow executives to interact more directly with stakeholders, it also removes middle management from the communication loops or the decision-making process.

Conscious about the potential of being eliminated, demoted, or bypassed, some middle managers attempt to "prove their premium" by working excessively hard, thus becoming hyper-effective, working longer hours with a desire to perform their roles better. Surprisingly, however, executives who react harshly to these attitudes and behaviors also typecast middle managers as being unmotivated and needed to be further bypassed or often incentivized monetarily to accomplish important tasks. Neglecting middle managers’ strengths or focusing on negative attributes and weaknesses creates conditions of failure harmful to employees and organizations.

Transparent Leadership: Bridging the Trust Gap Between Senior Executives and Middle Managers focuses on trustworthy relationships between senior executives and middle managers. A proven framework of trustworthy leadership is presented as a practical guide for leaders and professionals wishing to gain skills for building and maintaining trust in the workplace. It provides practical strategies and assessment tools for bridging the trust gap between executives and middle managers.

Alan T Belasen holds a Ph.D. from Rockefeller College, SUNY. For over 30 years, Dr. Belasen has been involved in executive education and development programs in the U.S. and abroad in business, government, and healthcare organizations. Dr. Belasen chaired the MBA Program at SUNY Empire University from 2004-2015 where he led the development of the MBA in Management, MBA in Global Leadership, MBA in Healthcare Leadership, and MBA Pathway for Veterans. Dr. Belasen has written over journal articles, book chapters and conference papers on topics such as executive education, self-managed teams, HR competencies, work motivation, women’s leadership, communication innovation. corruption in business, trusted leadership, healthcare management, and leadership development. His research papers appear in journals such as the International Journal of Strategic Communication; Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities; Gender in Management; International Journal for Quality in Health Care; Journal of Human Resource Management; The International Journal of Leadership Studies; Journal of Management Development; Journal of Health Organization and Management; and the Proceedings of the Academy of Management.

Belasen’s recent books include: Brilliant Leadership – Unlocking the Power of Innovation-Communication (Routledge, 2024); Transforming Leadership, Improving Patient Experience: Communication Strategies for Driving Patient Satisfaction (Routledge, 2024); Resilience in Healthcare Leadership: Practical Strategies and Self-Assessment Tools (Routledge, 2022); Women in Management: A Framework for Sustainable Work-life Integration (Routledge, 2017); Confronting Corruption in Business: Trusted Leadership, Civic Engagement (Routledge, 2016).

Ariel R. Belasen, Ph.D., received his degrees from Cornell University and SUNY Binghamton. Dr. Belasen currently he serves as a Professor of Economics at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. Additionally, he recently served as a Research Fellow for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Innovation Center (CMMI). For the past decade, he has been conducting research on human development and anti-corruption endeavors as well as on disaster recovery efforts.

Dr. Belasen’s work has resulted in dozens of conference papers, book chapters, and journal articles. He has provided strategic economic and management consulting to healthcare and business organizations in the areas of valuation, performance optimization, human capital optimization, middle management, and project management. His recent research includes healthcare communication, reputation building, and leadership. Dr. Belasen is frequently sought for interviews on national policy, crisis communication, natural disasters, healthcare, and labor economics.