Between Compass and Backbone - A Study of Middle Managers and the Lived Complexities of Organizational Values
(2026) MGTN59 20261Department of Business Administration
- Abstract
- This thesis examines how middle managers construct, enact, and navigate organizational values in everyday managerial practice. While organizational values are often presented as stable principles intended to guide behavior and create cohesion, the everyday realities of managerial work are more ambiguous and relational than such representations suggest, particularly for middle managers positioned between strategic expectations from senior management and operational realities within teams. The study draws on qualitative semi-structured interviews with twelve middle managers across a range of Nordic industries, analyzed through a Gioia-inspired approach and informed primarily by sensemaking and cognitive dissonance theory, alongside... (More)
- This thesis examines how middle managers construct, enact, and navigate organizational values in everyday managerial practice. While organizational values are often presented as stable principles intended to guide behavior and create cohesion, the everyday realities of managerial work are more ambiguous and relational than such representations suggest, particularly for middle managers positioned between strategic expectations from senior management and operational realities within teams. The study draws on qualitative semi-structured interviews with twelve middle managers across a range of Nordic industries, analyzed through a Gioia-inspired approach and informed primarily by sensemaking and cognitive dissonance theory, alongside perspectives on organizational culture and identity.
The analysis reveals three interconnected findings. Organizational values are not experienced as stable principles but as socially negotiated meaning structures continuously shaped through everyday interaction. Middle managers act not as passive carriers of these values but as active sensemakers who attempt to create coherence between organizational expectations, practical realities, and their own self-understanding. Because values are closely intertwined with identity, value conflicts are experienced not merely as professional disagreements but as threats to authenticity, integrity, and self-concept. The thesis contributes to research on organizational values and middle management by offering a more situated, relational, and practice-based understanding of managerial value work. Rather than treating value conflicts as implementation failures or individual moral shortcomings, the study highlights them as recurring and structurally embedded conditions of the middle managerial position, falling with particular weight on those who take their responsibility for organizational values most seriously. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9231779
- author
- Martinsson, Hanna LU and Löfgren, Tilde LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MGTN59 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- organizational values, middle managers, sensemaking, cognitive dissonance, organizational culture, identity, value conflict, managerial work
- language
- English
- id
- 9231779
- date added to LUP
- 2026-06-29 14:47:44
- date last changed
- 2026-06-29 14:47:44
@misc{9231779,
abstract = {{This thesis examines how middle managers construct, enact, and navigate organizational values in everyday managerial practice. While organizational values are often presented as stable principles intended to guide behavior and create cohesion, the everyday realities of managerial work are more ambiguous and relational than such representations suggest, particularly for middle managers positioned between strategic expectations from senior management and operational realities within teams. The study draws on qualitative semi-structured interviews with twelve middle managers across a range of Nordic industries, analyzed through a Gioia-inspired approach and informed primarily by sensemaking and cognitive dissonance theory, alongside perspectives on organizational culture and identity.
The analysis reveals three interconnected findings. Organizational values are not experienced as stable principles but as socially negotiated meaning structures continuously shaped through everyday interaction. Middle managers act not as passive carriers of these values but as active sensemakers who attempt to create coherence between organizational expectations, practical realities, and their own self-understanding. Because values are closely intertwined with identity, value conflicts are experienced not merely as professional disagreements but as threats to authenticity, integrity, and self-concept. The thesis contributes to research on organizational values and middle management by offering a more situated, relational, and practice-based understanding of managerial value work. Rather than treating value conflicts as implementation failures or individual moral shortcomings, the study highlights them as recurring and structurally embedded conditions of the middle managerial position, falling with particular weight on those who take their responsibility for organizational values most seriously.}},
author = {{Martinsson, Hanna and Löfgren, Tilde}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Between Compass and Backbone - A Study of Middle Managers and the Lived Complexities of Organizational Values}},
year = {{2026}},
}