Since the beginning of the 1980s two convergent processes can be identified: the widespread implementation of "new production concepts" has brought about the need for a new "holistic" utilization of labour. As a result the scope for the enforcement of personal interests and con-cerns in the enterprises increased - particularly for highly qualified employees. On the other hand social changes led to an increase of those individual interests and concerns which have their origin in private life, e.g. concerning the compatibility of work and family, the democ-ratic quality of work-related participation or the ecological and social responsibility on the job. As a consequence private life and work seem to interpenetrate more and more. Like all changes these developments also cover many social risks, which today arise as mass unem-ployment or overwork stress, missing future prospects or childlessness. But they also open new chances for self-realisation and participation, which can be seized individually and col-lectively, in order to shape the individual life-course and the working sphere. In the long run active co-designing and co-decision-making could become the basis of a new work culture. These considerations lead to the concept of "reflexive organisation of work", which is based on the analyses and interpretations of the interdependencies of current changes in the spheres of work and private life. Whether this indicates a general development and how it might in-fluence the formal and informal mechanisms of labour regulation is discussed.