Exploring the Leadership-As-Practice of Middle Managers Engaged in Organizational Changes in an Asia Pacific Multinational Setting

There has been a great need for leadership studies on middle management, particularly in the Asia Pacific context. This study explored the leadership practices of middle managers engaged in leading organizational changes of multinational corporations (MNCs), within the Asia Pacific context. Organization ethnography was used as the research method. The ethnographer observed and analyzed the actual practice of middle managers of a multinational manufacturing company located in China for six months. The findings showed that middle managers played significant roles in communication and execution in leading organizational changes. The study also showed that change management could be a dynamic process at the organizational, team, and individual levels. A leadership-as-practice model with four main practices (problem solving, continuous improvement and learning, relationship management, and communication and coordination) was constructed which seemed to be more comprehensive, and relevant to the MNC and manufacturing settings. The implications of this study were involving middle managers in strategic planning and leading organizational changes, leadership development of middle managers in leading change, and practicing leading change with sensitivity to the Asia Pacific cultural context. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu)