30年前《哈佛商业评论》上有一篇被广为引用的文章曾问道:“中层管理过时了吗?”它给出了一个极为肯定的回答。但在过去的几十年里,中层管理并没有消失,也没有缩减,而是大大地膨胀了。在很多公司里,一线监督员到高级管理层之间的“中间层”,增长速度比销售额要快三四倍。而这里的销售额,还没有按通货膨胀率加以调整。这些增长中有一些是健康的。30年前,由于连续25年的低出生率和20 A well-cited article in the Harvard Business Review thirty years ago asked: “Is middle management out of date?” It gave a very positive answer. However, in the past few decades, middle management has not disappeared, nor been reduced, but greatly expanded. In many companies, the “middle tier” of front-line supervisors to senior management has grown three to four times faster than sales. And sales here, have not been adjusted according to the inflation rate. Some of these growths are healthy. Thirty years ago, due to 25 consecutive low birth rates and 20