Date of Conferral
10-17-2025
Degree
Ph.D.
School
Management
Advisor
Dr. Elizabeth Thompson
Abstract
Middle managers, who serve as conduits between the senior leadership and frontline employees, may lack the leadership behaviors and practices necessary to maintain high engagement levels. Financial services company leaders need to understand what causes middle managers to be highly engaged and motivated to provide them with the leadership skills necessary for better organizational alignment. Grounded in transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore and describe the lived experience and leadership behaviors and practices that middle managers use to enable them to be highly engaged in financial services companies in the United States. The participants comprised 16 middle managers from publicly traded U.S. financial services companies. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews guided by open-ended questions. Six themes emerged from the thematic analysis: (a) team coordination and collaboration, (b) productivity and goal achievement, (c) leaders' support systems and communication, (d) development of leadership skills, (e) career and professional growth, and (f) corporate culture and structure. Senior leaders might apply these identified strategies to strengthen leadership effectiveness at the middle-management level and foster greater subordinate engagement. The implications for positive social change include the potential for financial services company leaders to exhibit behaviors and practices that middle managers can adopt to be highly engaged, improving employee work-life in the U.S. financial services industry.
Recommended Citation
Payne, Mr. Meredith Rudolph, "Leadership Behaviors and Practices That Enhance Middle Managers’ Leadership Skills to Be Highly Engaged" (2025). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 18527.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/18527
