213-239

• Galanou, Ekaterini

Contemporary management thinking is paying a great deal of attention to recruit, develop and retain managers’ talent to gain a competitive edge and create an effective and high performing organization. Manager and especially middle managers have secured an increasingly important place in the strategic change management. After the peace agreement, to find a solution for the apparent lack of high performing organizations, some clarify that middle managers and their leading style are the key that reinforce the importance of innovative, entrepreneurial and strategic practices in leading and managingorganizational renewal. The author, having developed a theoretical change management approach, provides a framework of four kinds of leadership styles that middle managers can adapt to their behavior and recommends the “empowering” leadership style as the specific one for managerial performance and effectiveness. The primary data has been generated through a survey of middle managers who have participated in a Bank.The findings of the research indicate a favorable assessment that the middle managers are able to learn, to take new initiatives and change to the critical and integral “empowering” leadership style for the organization.

• Economics and Business

• Managerial economics

change management, competences, management development, middle managers, leadership styles

JEL classification: M12, M1