Middle managers' issue packaging role at the interface between operational and top levels

This paper aims to provide a finer-grained analysis of the middle managers issue selling strategic role. While we learn a lot from the extant literature on middle managers’ issue selling, we do not know much about how and when middle managers involve in conveying the operational-level proposals to top management. We pose that middle managers have certain discretion on operational-level proposals emanating from their own unit and that they re-frame the content of the operational-level proposals to enhance their likelihood of adoption by the top management team (i.e., middle managers issue packaging role). Drawing on impression management theory, we theorize (and will test) when middle managers engage in issue packaging and how that affects the likelihood of adoption. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.