Big enterprises are (too) great at improving efficiency for their low-level workers. On the other hand they utterly fail to do so with the middle management.
The alternative theory would be that middle management does its job efficiently but it is a different one than the job description says.
Low-level work can often be measured in some way, and that's the kind of "efficiency" one can improve most easily. Whereas the whole point of having middle management in a firm is to deal with the many things that can't be measured easily,
The alternative theory would be that middle management does its job efficiently but it is a different one than the job description says.