For the past three years, corporate messaging around the world has seen companies “flattening” hierarchies. Middle management was bloated, organisations said. Fewer layers would mean faster decisions,
leaner costs and more empowered teams.
But in 2026, managers may be disappearing from organisational charts, but management itself has not gone away. Instead, it has given birth to the ‘megamanagers’.
Fresh workforce data from late 2025 shows that the average manager today oversees significantly more people than they did just a year earlier. A growing share now manages teams of 12.1 or more. Nearly all are also expected to perform individual contributor work alongside people management.
As contrast, managers had an average of 8.2 people reporting to them in in 2013, and this number had increased to around 9 by 2019, as per a Gallup survey.
While this trend has been widely discussed in the US and Europe, its implications for India’s workforce, deeply integrated into global companies, delivery centres and remote teams, are only beginning to surface.
What ‘Flattening’ Really Meant
The “great flattening” was never about removing bosses altogether. It was about removing layers.
Over the past two years, companies across technology, consulting, retail and finance have cut large swathes of middle management. For example, titles have disappeared, reporting lines have been merged, teams that once had a manager, a senior manager and a director are collapsed into a single layer.
“Flattening today is less about eliminating managers and more about removing layers. Organisations are reducing hierarchical depth while increasing spans of control. Information no longer needs to move step-by-step up the ladder because AI provides instant visibility into performance and progress. As a result, managers oversee broader teams directly, with fewer intermediaries. The structure becomes flatter, faster, and more outcome-driven, even though leadership accountability remains very much intact,” said Taru Shikha, Founder and CEO, HiredNext, a Mumbai-based HR consulting firm.
On paper, this looked efficient. In practice, the work of those removed roles did not vanish. It was redistributed upward and outward.
Managers who survived now oversee wider spans of control, often across geographies and time zones. They are expected to coach, review performance, approve budgets, manage conflict, handle attrition, and still meet their own individual targets. Flattening, in other words, did not reduce management. It concentrated it.
Why This Shift Matters More In India
India is uniquely exposed to the megamanager era for three reasons.
First, a large share of Indian professionals works inside global organisations where restructuring decisions are made abroad but felt locally. When a US or European firm cuts middle management, Indian delivery teams often inherit wider reporting structures overnight.
Second, India’s workforce is younger and more hierarchical in expectation. Many professionals still rely heavily on managers for guidance, feedback and career navigation. When one manager suddenly oversees 20 or 30 people, those touchpoints quietly disappear.
Third, India has absorbed multiple shocks at once: post-pandemic hybrid work, AI adoption, hiring slowdowns and role consolidation. The megamanager phenomenon does not arrive in isolation, it compounds existing pressure.
“Across IT, finance, and media sectors, what we are seeing is not random cost cutting but a structural reset. AI is rapidly absorbing large parts of traditional middle-management work such as reporting, MIS, coordination, performance tracking, and first-level decision support. As information flows become automated and real time, organisations no longer need multiple managerial layers to manage visibility or execution. This is pushing companies to simplify hierarchies, reduce redundancy, and redesign roles around decision-making and outcomes rather than information control,” added Shikha.
How Megamanagement Shows Up at Work
In offices, megamanagement rarely announces itself. It creeps in. Team meetings become transactional, one-on-ones are shorter or postponed, feedback arrives only during appraisal season, and mentorship becomes optional rather than expected.
Meanwhile, managers are stretched thin. Many now juggle operational delivery with people leadership across multiple projects. Some manage teams they rarely meet in person. Others supervise employees doing work they themselves no longer have time to fully understand.
This creates a paradox. Employees are told they have more autonomy, but decisions are slower. Managers are given more authority, but less time to exercise it meaningfully. The result is not empowerment. It is diffusion.
How Does This Impact Employees?
For employees, the most immediate impact of megamanagement is reduced support. Career development often suffers first. With fewer managers and larger teams, informal coaching disappears. Junior employees who once learned by shadowing or regular feedback now rely on self-direction. High performers may thrive; others quietly stall.
Performance evaluation also changes. Managers with 25 direct reports cannot deeply assess everyone’s work. Reviews become outcome-driven rather than growth-oriented. Visibility, not development, begins to matter more.
There is also a rise in what workplace researchers call “responsibility inflation”. Employees take on more coordination, mentoring and decision-making, without corresponding title changes or pay increases. It feels like trust, but it is often unpaid management work.
Over time, this erodes morale, particularly among mid-career professionals who expected management to be the next step up.
Why Are Managers Burning Out Too?
Megamanagement does not benefit managers either. Late-2025 data shows that nearly all managers now perform individual contributor work alongside people leadership. This dual load creates constant context switching, from technical problem-solving to emotional labour to administrative oversight.
In India, where managers often bridge global teams, the strain is sharper. Time zone overlaps stretch workdays, cultural mediation becomes an unspoken responsibility, and attrition management replaces long-term team building.
Burnout among managers is rising, but it is less visible. Managers are expected to absorb stress downward and deliver results upward. Few have the bandwidth to admit they are struggling.
Ironically, flattening was meant to remove stress from organisations. Instead, it has compressed it into fewer roles.
“To prevent overload and burnout, forward-looking companies are redesigning work itself. They are using AI copilots for planning, reviews, forecasting, and resource allocation; shifting roles from headcount management to outcome ownership; and introducing dual career tracks where deep specialists can grow without managing large teams. This benefits high-skill individual contributors, domain experts, and decision-capable managers while reducing dependency on administrative layers that add limited strategic value,” explained Shikha.
Why Promotions Are Getting Harder
One of the most consequential effects of the megamanager era is the shrinking of traditional promotion ladders.
When organisations remove layers, there are simply fewer rungs to climb. Many Indian professionals still equate success with becoming a people manager. But with fewer managerial slots available, competition intensifies.
Some employees find themselves “acting managers” for years, leading work without formal recognition. Others are told that growth now means impact, not title, without clarity on what that translates to in pay or authority.
This creates a quiet mismatch between expectations and reality. Employees feel stalled not because they lack skills, but because the structure above them has flattened.
How AI Fits Into The Picture
Companies argue that technology will offset the pressures of megamanagement. AI tools now assist with scheduling, performance tracking, documentation and workflow monitoring.
In theory, this frees managers to focus on human leadership. In practice, it often adds another layer of oversight. Dashboards replace conversations. Metrics substitute mentorship.
In Indian workplaces, where trust and relationship-building are culturally significant, this shift can feel impersonal. AI may help managers manage more people, but it does not solve the core problem: time.
What Are The New Skills That Matter In 2026?
As megamanagement reshapes workplaces, the skills that define success are changing. For employees, upward mobility may depend less on managing people and more on owning outcomes. Deep expertise, cross-functional influence and the ability to work independently are becoming critical.
For managers, success increasingly hinges on prioritisation. Those who learn to delegate ruthlessly, communicate clearly and set boundaries will survive. Those who try to do everything will burn out.
For Indian professionals raised on visible hierarchy, this requires a mental shift. Authority may no longer come with a title. Growth may look lateral rather than vertical.
“For Indian professionals, the shift demands a fundamental mindset change. Career growth can no longer be measured by the number of people managed. As organisations flatten and AI absorbs coordination work, value comes from scarce skills, domain depth, and measurable impact. The future belongs to professionals who can solve complex problems, build expertise, and drive outcomes whether or not they manage large teams. Leadership will be defined by influence and impact, not hierarchy,” Shikha clarified.
