Title: How do middle managers deal with uncertainty in the strategy process?

Authors: Hasan Aktas; Henrique Duarte

Addresses: Business Research Unit (BRU-IUL), Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Portugal ' Human Resources and Organizational Behaviour, BRU-IUL, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Lisboa, Portugal

Abstract: The current pandemic of Covid-19 manifested that uncertainty is an unavoidable dimension of organisational life. During these times, coping with uncertainty is more challenging even for the most competent managers. However, there is no comprehensive framework encompassing various forms of uncertainty coping responses used by individual managers. Thus, we examined middle managers' uncertainty responses during the formulation and implementation of the strategy process. In this qualitative article, we intended to expose the sources of uncertainty, and managerial responses, which are essential for middle managers to cope with uncertainty. We interviewed 22 middle managers in civilian and military organisations, resulting in six sources, including a new classification - international instability and disasters - and five different responses: collaborative responses, emotional responses, cognitive responses, value-based responses, and bureaucratic responses. Based on fine-grained coding, we showed how middle managers construct response patterns to uncertainty from suppressing to embracing. We exposed consistency of the uncertainty sources perceived by the manager over the years and added a new classification thanks to the increasing global challenges and instability.

Keywords: strategic process; sources of uncertainty; uncertainty management; middle managers.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMDM.2022.119576

International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 2022 Vol.21 No.1, pp.28 - 50

Received: 26 May 2020
Accepted: 20 Nov 2020
Published online: 09 Dec 2021 *

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