The city’s operations are managed in accordance with the city strategy in the strategic management process. With the help of the strategy, the city’s resources and operations are developed to respond to the constant changes in the operating environment. Knowledge and expertise have become a significant strategic resource for current organizations, and evidence-based management is central to all stages of an organization’s strategy process. Changes in the operating environment require strategic evidence based management at all levels of management. The core of evidence-based management is that decision making is based on verified knowledge.

The right decisions based on information at the middle management level are a prerequisite for achieving the strategic objectives of the organization. The strategically significant role of middle management has been widely identified, but the strategic management of middle management from the perspective of evidence-based management has not been studied. The aim of this study was to determine what factors are required in the strategic evidence-based management of middle management in an urban organization.

The study was conducted as a qualitative case study. The primary material was obtained through thematic interviews with eight middle management representatives in the case organization. The theoretical framework of the study on the process of strategic evidence-based management guided the topic from the interview body to the conclusions. The process includes defining strategic information needs, acquiring information, organizing information, sharing and analysing information and knowledge, and finally utilizing knowledge in strategic decision making.

According to the results, the role of a mid-level strategic manager is supported by multidimensional competence, personal strategy thinking, clear strategic responsibilities and the dialogue of the strategy process. Strategic evidence-based management requires strategically significant, reliable, real-time, aggregated, visually presented and socially processed information by area of responsibility. Middle management utilizes information in strategic decision-making, the objective of which is to plan strategies together with strategic management, implement planned strategies, create emergent strategies, and reformulate strategies.