A new orientation to deal with uncertainty in projects

This paper argues that uncertainty is a general feature of projects, occurring in technological, organizational, and social contexts. In situations of uncertainty, rational plan-oriented action is only practicable and successful to a limited degree. Based upon empirical research of project work, forms of experience-based action to deal with uncertainty will be presented. This kind of work action has only marginally been investigated by scientific research and has been widely disregarded in practice. This is essentially due to the fact that plan-oriented rational action is a deeply rooted guiding principle for professional work and management in Western cultures and societies. For this reason, this paper first outlines from a sociological perspective that dealing with uncertainty in projects has to be seen in a comprehensive societal context. Thus, a new way to deal with uncertainty requires fundamental re-orientations concerning the understanding and investigation of work and organization. Empirical findings in this field are presented and discussed, and the concept of a dual uncertainty in project work is exposed.