How Managers Deal with Uncertainty in Times of Transformations Towards New Ways of Working

In modern organizations, it is assumed that the environment is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA). Managers in modern organizations in Germany are currently facing the challenge of creating good working conditions for their team against the backdrop of a shortage of skilled workers, high levels of exhaustion and burnout in the workforce and the pressure to innovate.

In organizations, the topic of New Ways of Working, i.e. forms of work that are associated with more flexibility, responsibility and personal initiative, is being discussed as a solution to the various challenges.

This article will focus on the ways in which leaders interpret the topic of New Ways of Working in order to make the complex reality manageable. The aim is also to trace the tensions between the interpretations and actual experiences in organizations.

The study is based on 30 semi-structured interviews with managers from different field such as social economy, insurance and finance sectors, which were conducted in Germany in 2024.

Several interpretation patterns are shown that underlie the statements of the managers. These include, for example, the interpretation pattern of the “inescapable necessity of New Ways of Working”, which contradicts the experience that the new forms of work often do not work at all in the beginning. The interpretation pattern “just do it” implies that it is easy to implement new ways of working and that all you have to do is get started. This assumption is also in contrast with descriptions of practical implementations of new ways of working such as self-organization.

The study shows that managers use patterns of interpretation of New Ways of Working to make the uncertain situation in organizations manageable, even if the reality of work shows the dysfunctionality of the assumptions.