It's not often employees consider their managers as employees; individuals just as subordinate and answerable to a superior. But that’s precisely what they are. They, too, have managers to whom they report, only their situation is perhaps a little more challenging: they’re effectively, or ineffectively as the case may be, stuck in the middle dealing with, according to new research, a lot of "shit".

Managers are essentially sandwiched between two groups of stakeholders, trying to balance the conflict that arises when employees’ expectations are contradicted by senior leaders’ directives. As such, managers perform the role of umbrella carrier, shielding employees from the unreasonable demands of those located in the upper echelons of the hierarchy.

In small enterprises, it’s normally a compressed hierarchy. It simply comprises a set of employees, one line of management, and the owners at the top. The situation becomes more complex as the organisation grows, with added levels of management, dotted reporting lines and, heaven forbid, a matrix structure.

Whatever the structure, the imperative to meet the needs of two very different audiences makes them "vulnerable for attacks from both above and below". And as can be seen in the research mentioned earlier, the results of which are due to be released next month, managers are transformed into two-faced operators mired in "insecurity, ambiguity and confusion".