{"id":8106,"date":"2025-12-03T15:18:46","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T15:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.aom.org\/?p=8106"},"modified":"2025-12-03T20:19:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T20:19:18","slug":"why-2026-will-be-the-year-of-the-line-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/why-2026-will-be-the-year-of-the-line-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"Why 2026 Will Be the Year of the Line Manager"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2026 and beyond, the most successful\u2014and the most sustainable\u2014organizations will be those that have consistently developed and supported their line managers, according to Academy of Management Scholar Carol Kulik<\/a> of the University of South Australia.<\/p>\n

Over the past decade, many organizations have moved hiring and onboarding activities to online platforms, replaced employer-sponsored training with self-directed learning, and outsourced routine tasks to AI agents. In the short term, these organizational choices are efficient and cost-effective, Kulik noted, but over the long run, these choices are reducing opportunities for employees to create and maintain work-based relationships.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are damaging employee well-being: Employees are more likely to describe themselves as lonely at work, and to report having no work friends,\u201d Kulik said. \u201cFurther, those choices are putting organizations\u2019 long-term performance at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey make it especially difficult for early-career employees to establish mentoring relationships with their more experienced colleagues,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen new hires need to upskill fast\u2014think law, journalism, consulting, and other professions\u2014to transform their academic degrees into on-the-job skills, those mentoring relationships can make-or-break an employee\u2019s career.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the social ties among employees fray, an early-career employee\u2019s relationship with their line manager has become the most critical link, Kulik said. When work is digitalized and the workforce dispersed, effective line managers can fill the gaps: introducing employees to new professional contacts, nudging employees toward valuable development opportunities, and role modeling high performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose managerial behaviors don\u2019t happen automatically, because managers routinely overestimate their people skills,\u201d Kulik said. \u201cAnd even a motivated manager may not have enough slack in their schedule to nurture early-career employees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ten years ago, the average manager had five or six people reporting directly to them. Today the number of reports is more likely to be 10 or even 20, Kulik noted, and it\u2019s even higher in remote-work environments.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost organizations have been \u2018delayering\u2019 their structures and eliminating managerial roles,\u201d Kulik said. \u201cI\u2019m predicting that the 2026 \u2018winners\u2019 will be those organizations that have maintained their managerial workforces and given them sufficient support to do their jobs well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re the organizations best positioned to weather future storms and help employees adapt to change,\u201d she said. \u201cPast investments in line managers will pay dividends across the entire business.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher In 2026 and beyond, the most successful\u2014and the most sustainable\u2014organizations will be those that have consistently developed and supported their line managers, according to Academy of Management Scholar Carol Kulik of the University of South Australia. Over the past decade, many organizations have moved hiring and onboarding activities to online platforms, replaced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,19,44,79],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-8106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hr","category-leadership","category-motivation","category-teams"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy 2026 Will Be the Year of the Line Manager - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/why-2026-will-be-the-year-of-the-line-manager\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Butcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-2026-will-be-the-year-of-the-line-manager\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-2026-will-be-the-year-of-the-line-manager\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"Why 2026 Will Be the Year of the Line Manager\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-03T15:18:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-03T20:19:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-2026-will-be-the-year-of-the-line-manager\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":388,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-2026-will-be-the-year-of-the-line-manager\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/leader-manager.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"HR\",\"LEADERSHIP\",\"MOTIVATION\",\"TEAMS\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-2026-will-be-the-year-of-the-line-manager\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-2026-will-be-the-year-of-the-line-manager\\\/\",\"name\":\"Why 2026 Will Be the Year of the Line Manager - 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