This paper summarizes the elements of agility listed in contemporary scientific literature and aligns them to the four different forces described by the acronym VUCA. There is a general consensus that organizational resilience and agility are crucial elements to gain sustainable competitive advantage especially since the arresting economic changes during the pandemic year 2020. There is little agreement though how precisely organizational agility responds to volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA). By systemization of frameworks and models from the literary sources the aim is to create a combined model. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to develop a model that can practically be employed to evaluate the agile status quo of an organization. It should support practitioners to distinguish between the different requirements each part of the VUCA acronym requires. The design of this study is a conceptual paper which proposes a new corporate agility model with direct linkages to the requirements of VUCA forces. It derives from, and builds on, existing scientific literature while integrating a comprehensive set of existing agile frameworks. The result of this research is a model which defines distinct enablers, sensing capabilities, agile practices, and responses as answers to VUCA forces. It highlights that certain elements reinforce and link to each other to transform an entire organization agile. Surprisingly, leadership and strategy are not incorporated as elements but rather seen as conditions that subordinate the iterative learning approach of this model. Originality is given as the created model provides a set of elements leaders can implement or use to assess organizational agility. Furthermore, it supports how to deal with strategy and leadership in the transitional process. Relevance is given as during the worlds COVID-19 crises the economic and governments changes in terms of volatility and uncertainty were especially challenging for organizations.

The occupation of insurance agent involves establishing a relationship of trust with the customer and providing personal and customized advice as a prerequisite for successful sales. This paper summarizes the scientific discussion about the occupation of an insurance salesperson. Coronavirus disease 2019 restrictions have limited face-to-face meetings and complicated large parts of this occupation. The main purpose of the research is to analyze the impact of these restrictions on the sales of 130 insurance branches, comparing the sales of 2019 and 2020 separately by insurance type. This period was chosen because it allows for the usual seasonal volatility to be taken into account. To differentiate according to the type of insurance sold is therefore of interest, because large differences with regard to demand generation and the use of existing customer relationships are to be expected. It shows that consulting-intensive new contracts in the life insurance segment declined noticeably, while the upselling of existing contracts in the non-life insurance segment increased significantly. The research empirically confirms and theoretically proves the importance of personal contact with the customer in the sale of life insurance and pension plans as well as the value of technical tools in upselling non-life policies. The insights from this exceptional coronavirus disease 2019 episode can also be useful in normal times for sales managers in managing insurance premiums to be sold. Further research as well as practitioners should concentrate on shock-resistant consulting approaches and techniques.

Employee motivation is a key driver of organizational performance and employee retention. An increasing shortage of skilled workers forces companies to think of ways to motivate and retain their employees. Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation provides an insight which factors are relevant for motivating employees. The theory founded on research carried out in the 1960’s. Since then, the practical and theoretical tenet of supervision and management has shifted to a different leadership approach. Additive the economic environment is found to be more volatile, unpredictable, complex and ambiguity. VUCA has made its way into organizational science resulting in a focus on agile working methodologies. To add up a generation of millennials demanding for feedback, open communication and team-based workplaces starts to integrate into labour market. Does Herzberg’s theory persist in this new economic environment? Can it be adapted or is a completely new approach inevitable? This organizational psychology related study is aimed to test Herzberg’s theory in a contemporary environment by applying the theory of personal constructs as an investigative method. 61 qualitative repertory grid structured interviews elicited n = 782 personal constructs to investigate the theory. The personal constructs are clustered and compared to the theory of Herzberg.

The topic of self-perception within management has become a subject catching more and more attention. The necessity for leaders’ self-awareness when aiming at high employee satisfaction and productivity still bears a lot of research potential. Developing self-awareness and efficacy are paths that do not have an end or a quota to reach. It is a rather mindset like a tank that can always be filled up more. Leaders’ self-awareness is crucial to improve their abilities and much more inaccurate self-perception can become harmful for an organisations’ performance. Surprisingly, the influence of managers’ self-perception on leadership behaviour and leadership effectiveness has only been studied little in contemporary literature. The main purpose of this article is to identify organizational factors that influence leader’s self-perception and how an organization can develop this characteristic of their managers. Therefore, this paper aims at identifying corporate cultural causes for managers’ distorted self-perception. This task leads evidently to the topic of organizational silence, which is understood as the absence of upward-directed feedback of employees’ input of ideas. Consequently, a corporate culture inherited by organizational silence impacts a manager’s self-perception. Additionally, the contextual literature research on self-perception guided to the subject of error management. It becomes evident that error management functions as a link between organizational silence and managers’ overestimation. Summarizing the article studies the interlinkages of these three research areas and combined them with a new research and hypothesis model tested on a repertory grid data set consisting of 782 personal constructs of a specific corporate culture. Individual construct psychology was chosen as an investigative methodology to ensure unbiased qualitative results. This psychologically grounded methodology is proven to make socially desirable results unlikely due to the intuitive interview structure. The results of this research give practitioners advice for developing corporate culture and self-perception and efficacy of people in leadership positions.

This paper analyses insurance companies’ online communication to potential occupational changers into sales by a qualitative content analysis of corresponding online job advertisements. Since the addressees do not know this job in detail, a realistic job preview was expected. In the structuring part of the content analysis, the main categories of the online job advertisements were determined first, after which the summarizing part shows the contents in a first and second reduction. It turns out that neither the tasks nor the requirements or compensations are described sufficiently to enable potential candidates to assess their interest or suitability.