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Conversations about the scarcity of women in leadership often focus on the C-suite, but companies shouldn’t overlook the payoffs of pursuing gender diversity in middle management. 

A study co-authored by Tony Kong, associate professor of organizational leadership at the Leeds School of Business, found that more women in middle management yields “instrumental benefits to companies” in profitability and an improved work system.

The study, published online in December 2022 in Human Resource Management, analyzed data from some 1,000 organizations in South Korea because its racial and cultural homogeneity isolated gender effects.

Middle managers are a “vital link between employees and upper management,” Kong said. Women in these positions provide democratic leadership, collaborative negotiation and generate “innovative and norm-challenging HR policies and practices,” per the study.