---
id: "claim-manager-resistance"
type: "claim"
source_timestamps: ["§ Reskilling Is a Change-Management Initiative"]
tags: ["middle-management", "resistance-to-change"]
related: ["concept-talent-hoarding", "action-tie-reskilling-to-performance"]
confidence: "high"
testable: true
speakers: ["Jorge Tamayo", "Leila Doumi", "Sagar Goel", "Orsolya Kovács-Ondrejkovic", "Raffaella Sadun"]
sources: ["reskilling"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-reskilling"
originDay: 10
articleStem: "hbr-edu-34-reskilling-in-age-of-ai"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2023/09/reskilling-in-the-age-of-ai"
sourceTitle: "Reskilling in the Age of AI"
---
# Middle managers actively resist reskilling due to talent hoarding

**Claim (confidence: high, testable).** Middle managers are often the primary bottleneck in reskilling initiatives.

They resist because (1) they fear their reports will drop in productivity during training and (2) they fear losing their best talent to other departments once reskilled — the two drivers of [[concept-talent-hoarding|talent hoarding]]. They also exhibit **bias against hiring reskilled workers** compared with traditionally credentialed ones. This resistance must be countered by making talent development an explicit metric in managerial performance assessments — see [[action-tie-reskilling-to-performance]].

**Enrichment note.** Anecdotally and conceptually strong; not directly quantified in OECD-type sources, but consistent with change-management and organizational-behavior research identifying middle management as a recurring bottleneck in digital transformation.