The role of the managers in the New Ways of Working - Focus on Small and Medium Organizations promoting participative management

In the context of changing environment, new generations at work and a decrease of employees’ engagement and productivity, “new ways of working” seems to be an interesting path to explore. This thesis gives a broad view on the emergence of different “new ways of working” with a specific focus on participative management and the changing role of managers in Small and Medium Organizations. Participative management promotes the involvement of each and every member of a given organization in the decision-making process in order to share responsibilities. Participative management results in increased productivity, job satisfaction, innovation, etc. Nevertheless, there are some limitations to this management style; for instance, the resistance to the change of some members who don’t want to lose their power or change their habits. Therefore, it is crucial to carefully prepare and implement participative management and to understand the changes in the manager’s role and his relationships with other members. Indeed, the manager evolves from a traditional role being controlling, inflexible, responsible, setting objectives, planning, supervising; to a participative role being flexible, innovative, a figurehead, an inspirational leader with interpersonal competences, sharing decisional power and responsibilities.