From Practitioner Insight to Theoretical Model: Bidirectional Leader Influence in Middle-Management Hierarchies

Hierarchical organizations are vulnerable to cascading dysfunction when counterproductive senior leader behaviors (e.g., passive insubordination, pursuit of personal agendas, and disparagement of higher authority) erode trust, alignment, and performance at subordinate levels. Middle managers and supervisors, positioned as linking pins, experience persistent dual-role tension (i.e., enacting effective downward leadership while performing constructive upward followership). This paper proposes a multi-level, chained nomological network that integrates follower role orientation and leader role orientation, implicit leadership theories and implicit followership theories, bidirectional influence (downward leader influence and upward follower influence, or “managing up”), and leader–member exchange across successive hierarchical dyads. Keywords: hierarchical leadership, bidirectional influence, middle management, linking-pin dilemma, role orientations, implicit theories, leader-member exchange, trickle-down dysfunction, upward followership, recursive alignment