Ethics of the Relationship Between Managers. Observations on the Ethics of the Relationship Between Top Management and Middle Management in Certain State-Owned Companies in Romania

Abstract

The article is a study of ethical problems observed on an empirical basis in several state-owned companies in Romania. We aim to bring to the attention of the research several ethical non-conformities in the relations between the top management and the middle management of some state-owned companies under the conditions of good relations overall. The study did not propose the generalizations allowed by the use of the statistical method of selection. It will therefore not have the capacity to establish whether the identified non-conformities are representative. However, their analysis remains valid, regardless of whether they are representative or not, regarding the concordance of the factual situation recorded with the validated theories in ethics or management.

We started in the section Typologies of ethics applicable to the top management and middle management of companies from several categories of norms accepted within companies based on corporate governance, namely the norms of objectivity ethics, virtue ethics, rights ethics, ethics of assumed obligations, and performance ethics.

In the section The relationship between top management and middle management strictly from the perspective of management science, we have included general aspects, mainly focused on managerial principles, of the relationships between top management and middle management of companies of any type. We have included references to the equation: Work performance = competence x motivation, to support the implications of the sense of justice on managers’ motivation in the case of non-application of the principle of proportionality between the allocated resources and the responsibilities required of a middle manager. We have referred to the existence of an implicit contract and a psychological one in relation to the management activity based on understanding that mutually amplify and transform into deep feelings between the manager and those coordinated. As a source of inspiration, those rules taken from organizations that were actually successful and also had the courage or sincerity to make them available to the public can be used.

In the section Changes and realities that strengthen the role of the middle manager, we considered the transition from organizations based on command and control to organizations based on responsibility, information, knowledge, but also the need for competent authority in the conditions of the increasing complexity of the manager’s activity on all levels: technological, economic, social. There is also the requirement for innovation of the modern manager who must overcome the inclination of inertial systems to avoid risks and minimal involvement in creative endeavors, which presupposes a strong position of the middle manager.

In the section How to understand the position of the middle manager today, we identified some essential attributions of the middle manager without which his assimilation into the category of managers would be ethically inappropriate, which further generates the exclusion of any liability in such conditions of limitation of attributions. We also proposed to clarify some delicate and less formalized aspects of the ethical relationship between managers based on a multi-disciplinary approach, namely from the perspective of logic, management science, contractual objectivity, and the efficiency of the managerial act.

In the last section, Some problems noted in the relationship between top managers and middle managers in state-owned companies in Romania, we analyzed the few non-conformities observed empirically in state-owned companies in Romania. These emerged against the background of generally good ethical relationships between the different levels of management during the mandate at the same time.