Paradox Management Research Articles

Zhong-Yong as dynamic balancing between Yin-Yang opposites

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to comment on Peter Ping Li’s understanding of Zhong-Yong balancing, presented in his article titled “Global implications of the indigenous epistemological system from the East: How to apply Yin-Yang balancing to paradox management.” Seeing his understanding of Zhong-Yong balancing being incorrect and incomplete, the author proposes an alternative perspective on Zhong-Yong as dynamic balancing between Yin-Yang opposites.Design/methodology/approachThe author first explain why Peter P. Li’s “asymmetry” and “superiority” arguments are flawed by referring to the original text of the classical book of Zhong-Yong (中庸) and a comparison between Zhong-Yong and Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean. The author then propose an alternative approach to Zhong-Yong balancing that is embedded in the original text Zhong-Yong but somehow has been neglected by many Chinese scholars. The author concludes the commentary by unifying the two alternative approaches to Zhong-Yong balancing under the inclusion-selection-promotion-transition (ISPT) framework of Zhong-Yong balancing.FindingsThere are three main findings. First, as the original text of Zhong-Yong does not prescribe asymmetry, Peter P. Li’s notion of “Yin-Yang balancing” is ironically unbalanced or anti-Zhong-Yong due to his emphasis on asymmetry to the exclusion of symmetry. Second, due to the equivalency between Zhong-Yong and Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean, Peter P. Li’s assertion that “Yin-Yang balancing” is superior as a solution to paradox management is flawed. Third, his “Yin-Yang balancing” solution is only (the less sophisticated) one of two alternative approaches to Zhong-Yong balancing, i.e., ratio-based combination of Yin-Yang opposites. What Peter P. Li and many other Chinese have neglected is another approach to Zhong-Yong that is embedded in the original text of Zhong-Yong, which I call “analysis plus synthesis.”Research limitations/implicationsAs it is a commentary there are no specific limitations except for what can be covered in the space available.Practical implicationsThe “analysis plus synthesis” approach to Zhong-Yong can be adopted by practitioners who are demanded to balance between opposite forces in daily life and work.Social implicationsThe rejection of the “Yin-Yang balancing being superior” assertion facilitates reduction of friction and non-cooperation between intellectual traditions.Originality/valueThis commentary contributes to the “West meets East” discourse by debunking Peter P. Li’s assertion that Yin-Yang balancing is superior as a solution to paradox management and his prescription that balancing between Yin-Yang opposites must be asymmetric. It also contributes to the Chinese indigenous management research by identifying a largely neglected approach to Zhong-Yong balancing (i.e. “analysis plus synthesis”) that is alternative to the commonly understood ratio-based combination approach (e.g. “Yin-Yang balancing”). In addition, it contributes to the management literature by proposing the ISPT framework of Zhong-Yong balancing.

Caged for Protection: Exploring the Paradoxes of Protecting New Zealand's Dactylanthus taylorii

Abstract Emerging from an ethnographic encounter with the conservation efforts to save an enclave of Dactylanthus taylorii in Tongariro National Park, the article discusses some of the paradoxes of conservation management by interdisciplinary tracing of the research and conservation history of the plant. First, the article examines how our efforts to protect native species contribute to transforming the very environment of which they are part. Furthermore, by tracing the plant's history of decline and the following rise of conservation, the article addresses the role of native species in relation to notions of belonging and the creation and maintenance of a national heritage.

In search of paradox management capability in supplier–customer co-development

Companies increasingly involve their customers in development and innovation activities (i.e. co-development). This happens particularly in business-to-business markets, where customers provide the requisite knowledge for the development of complex product and service systems that help to solve customers' problems. Existing literature indicates that co-development involves inherent challenges, contradictions and tensions in the relationship between suppliers and their customers. Many of these take a form of paradox – a persistent contradiction between different alternatives in the co-development context. However, suppliers' capability to manage such paradoxes remains poorly understood. To address this gap, the framework proposed here elucidates paradox management capability in terms of two key dimensions — polarizing and juxtaposing — that occur in temporal and spatial contexts. Polarizing means focusing on one side of the paradox; juxtaposing addresses both sides simultaneously. We empirically analyze three co-development paradoxes related to 1) contractual and relational governance, 2) knowledge sharing and protection and 3) customer-specific and general development goals, and suggest specific management approaches that help solve these paradoxes via polarizing and juxtaposing. The results provide theoretical and practical insights for managing paradoxes that occur in co-development.

The paradoxes of asthma management: time for a new approach?

Poor adherence to maintenance pharmacotherapy is a reality in asthma. Studies confirm that when symptoms worsen, most patients increase short-acting β2-agonist (SABA) use, instead of using controller medication. This behaviour might be attributable to several paradoxes in the current treatment approach. These paradoxes include the recommended use of a SABA bronchodilator alone at Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) step 1, despite the fact that asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease. At step 1, the patient has autonomy and their perception of need and disease control is accepted, but at higher asthma treatment steps a fixed-dose approach is recommended, irrespective of symptom severity. The unintended consequence is the establishment of a pattern of early over-reliance on SABA. New approaches that avoid these paradoxes are needed, such as patient-adjusted therapy, in which patients adopt a symptom-driven approach using a combination reliever/controller. We propose that SABA reliever monotherapy should be replaced by a combination of inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) and formoterol, or similar rapid-onset bronchodilator, as reliever therapy for patients at GINA steps 1 or 2.This will ensure early and more regular administration of a controller medication. However, a significant body of clinical data will be needed before this approach can be approved by regulatory authorities.

LEADERS AS PARADOX NAVIGATORS

Leadership can seem confusing and complex because there aren't easy answers much of the time, and we must confront polarities. Ulrich and his co‐authors present a table of six stages of paradox management, beginning with ignorance and denial and ending with making small adjustments and transcending paradox. That final stage can be attained by methods such as seeing others' points of view, defining best outcomes, and finding common ground. They believe that “the first step is to recognize the importance of paradox in being an effective leader, then to assess both the stage of organization and skills of individual leaders in navigating paradox.”

The Routinization of Paradox Management: Managing Recurrent Tensions in Dual Business Models

The objective of our study is to uncover the micro-processes of managing repeated episodes of tensions occurrence between product and service business model. By contrasting 10 national subsidiaries, we find that whereas the unsuccessful subsidiaries pursue a bargaining process to tension management that preserves the dualism between the two business models, the successful subsidiaries upgrade from an initial synergistic process to a subsequent routinized process of tension management, which allows them to move towards a duality. Rather than bargaining for compromises between diverging interests, the successful subsidiaries engaged in promoting common overarching goals, resolving the conflict of interest, and promoting the identification of synergies. As trust in the success of the synergistic process grows, organizational members begin to learn how to resolve conflicts without their leader’s active mediation. They jointly generate and implement routines for the proactive identification of latent tensions, which enables them to identify further synergies, reinforce the mutual trust, and increasingly maintain duality between the dual business models. Our main contribution to the business model literature is a process perspective of managing dual business model tensions, which (a) shifts the literature's focus from the prior solution perspective to a process perspective; (b) replaces the one-off solutions by longer-term evolutionary processes including the emergence of routines to address recurrent tensions; and (c) shifts the focus from formal structural (and reactive) solutions to managerial (and proactive) actions required to address business model tensions. This routinization of paradox management can lead to less salient tensions and long periods of duality.

Abstract 998: OPeN: the oncology precision network data sharing consortium

Abstract Background: The advent of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS), and other molecular diagnostic technologies, has enabled the use of genomic information to guide targeted treatment in cancer patients. While this precision oncology approach can yield exciting clinical outcomes, the innumerable genomic variants identified in individual tumors effectively establishes each case as a unique N=1 clinical presentation. This scenario is contrary to a basic dogma of medical practice where historical cases and treatment outcomes guide future management and therapeutic decisions. Aggregation of large data sets, on a multi-institutional basis, has the potential to overcome the N=1 paradox and yield management insights in the implementation of precision oncology. Methods: We have formed the Oncology Precision Network (OPeN), an oncology data sharing consortium, to aggregate big data sets consisting of clinical, genomic, pharmacological, and treatment response data from diverse patient cases. Data from Intermountain Healthcare, Stanford University, and Swedish Cancer Institute-Providence St. Joseph Health, as well as other institutions, comprises the database and is derived from 79 hospitals, over 800 physician clinics and more than 50,000 annual cases. Results: The OPeN database can be interrogated by variant type, specific therapeutics, clinical outcomes, and by grouped variables, in a structured data format. The overarching IT platform is a cloud based, open source, triple store precision oncology solution, Syapse. These data are yielding valuable insights, including tumor mutational burden (TMB) scores and their correlation to immunotherapy response, clinical response in various drug-gene combinations, and therapy-specific adverse events. Conclusions: We anticipate this resource will be used by the Molecular Tumor Boards of contributing institutions for clinical interpretation, and by treating providers to overcome the N=1 challenge associated with precision oncology. Citation Format: Lincoln Nadauld, Derrick Haslem, Paul D. Tittel, Mariko Tameishi, Thomas Brown, James Ford. OPeN: the oncology precision network data sharing consortium [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 998. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-998

Analysis of ISO 9001 Paradox of Knowledge Codification Using the Activity System Model

This article analyses the ISO 9001 standard as a generic management tool grounded on three interdependent elements: an artefact of abstract requirements to implement (ostensive routines); a management philosophy that instruments its implementation; and a simplified vision of the organization's relations and knowledge (performative routines). Its two functions are paradoxically oriented to exploitation of codified good practices and to exploration of new knowledge to innovate, create tensions during its implementation in the organization. By applying the activity system model on the French multinational food Groupe (Danone), this research analyses the tensions, learning and innovation outcomes that emerge during the implementation of the knowledge codification requirement in the company. The objective of this article is to illustrate how Danone used the paradox of knowledge codification to create distinctive innovations. It argues that the management of paradoxes depends on the manager's philosophy and competencies to manage cognitive and emotional tensions in organizations.

Keep the expert! Occupational expertise, perceived employability and job search

PurposeIn the current war for talent employers are concerned about the idea that the best employees are more likely to leave the organization for another employer (i.e. the management paradox). This study tests this management paradox. The purpose of this paper is to advance our understandings of how employees’ occupational expertise is associated with job search intensity, through its assumed relationships with perceived internal and external employability in the internal and the external labor market. The authors thereby tested the research model across three different age groups (young, middle-aged, and senior employees).Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a survey among 2,137 professional workers and applied multi-group structural equation modeling.FindingsPerceived internal employability negatively mediated the relationship between occupational expertise and job search intensity, whilst there was a positive mediational effect of perceived external employability. Age had a moderating effect on the association between perceived internal employability and job search intensity.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings contribute to the scholarly literature on the management paradox, and the empirical work on employability and age.Practical implicationsOrganizations can recoup their investments in expert workers’ employability and enhance their retention by providing opportunities for internal career development.Originality/valueThis study is original by including both internal and external employability. By doing so, the authors thereby shedding new light on how occupational expertise might explain job search and how this relationship differs depending on employee age, thereby using a large sample of respondents.

Clarifying the Interplay between Social Innovation and Sustainable Development: A Conceptual Framework Rooted in Paradox Management

Social innovation and sustainable development have become key concepts in addressing the multiple interrelated crises that our societies face. However, both suffer from a lack of theoretical foundations and their interplay remains unclear. Drawing on a transdisciplinary literature review, we propose a conceptual framework to fill this gap. We propose that sustainable development corresponds to a combination of micro‐quality of life improvement and macro‐quality of life sustainment, the latter requiring continuous identification and positive addressing of institutional paradoxical tensions of inclusion. We explain that such tensions can give rise to various types of responses, which contribute together to institutional change. We argue that social innovations correspond to one specific type of such responses, that is, agent‐driven positive responses. We suggest that societies in which culture naturally leans towards awareness and acceptance of paradox tend to be more socially innovative. Finally, three theoretical contributions and one methodological one are highlighted and discussed.

THE WAVE-PARTICLE DUALITY: TOWARDS AN INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK FOR INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

THE WAVE-PARTICLE DUALITY: TOWARDS AN INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK FOR INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

Casual academics: a new public management paradox

ABSTRACTLike most management ideologies, New Public Management, is paradoxical in practice. In the case of universities, New Public Sector Management (NPM) practices have led to a core academic workforce that is tightly controlled in conjunction with a peripheral workforce of casual academics paid on hourly contracts. We examine this paradox through the experiences of academic managers responsible for casual academic employment at an Australian university. The line management of casual academics is informally delegated to subject coordinators. We conclude that the management of casual academics not only highlights the contradictions between efficiency and effectiveness in NPM practices, but, given the increased reliance on casual academics, also threatens the future of tenured academics and the ‘idea of a university’.

The paradoxes of creativity management

Creativity is a very important aspect of market economy. Creativity is an ambivalent and contradictory phenomenon that covers both positive and negative aspects. As a result, management of creativity faces some paradoxes. The paper deals with 10 paradoxes of creativity management including one grand paradox (GP) and nine minor paradoxes (MP). By stimulating creativity, the managers risk to provoke the disobedience for their instructions including an instruction to develop creativity (GP). Successful period of an organization is an obstacle to develop the creative ideas (MP1). A radical implementation of creative ideas threatens the identity of organization (MP2). Creativity provokes the con fl icts in organization (MP3). Every inventor or innovator tries to negate his (her) social environment that has educated and stimulated him (her) (MP4). Although hard management kills creativity, the latter needs sometimes very hard decisions (MP5). The worse the results are, the more creative the decisions in organization are (MP6). Organizations should manage both quantity and quality (MP7). Organization needs not only management of knowledge but also management of ignorance and naivete (MP8). The managers should forget the past success of organization and think about future end of it (MP9). The main aim of this paper is to describe these paradoxes. Another aim is to present the different approaches towards creativity management. Finally, the paper seeks to dethrone a naive attitude that creativity in economy solves all possible problems. The biggest challenge to the management is the very creativity.

Enforcement encourages participation in resource management: explaining a fisheries management paradox in Hawaii

AbstractThis paper uses a case study of fisheries co‐management in Hawaii to explore barriers to community participation in resource management and the reasons for these impediments. Our study suggests that while fishers may disobey regulations to maximise personal gain, they may also understand the necessity for regulations and desire more stringent enforcement. This seeming paradox reflects the tension between a recognised need to conserve resources through restricting harvests and competitive pressure among individual fishers. When fishers observe insufficient enforcement on the part of government agencies, this may fuel an already present sense of disrespect for and distrust of the government, inhibiting community participation in co‐management efforts. This study suggests that rather than attempting to directly encourage community members to participate in co‐management efforts, managers should instead focus on enhancing enforcement to alleviate communities' frustration and disrespect. Thus, enhanced enforcement efforts may boost participation in management activities and lead to a more sustainably managed resource.

Being versus becoming ontology of paradox management

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss the theoretical contribution of Li’s (2016) “Yin-Yang balancing” approach of paradox management, as well as its future development to guide paradox management research across the east and west contexts.Design/methodology/approachIt begins by recognizing the importance of paradox management research, especially the indigenous epistemological approach as Li (2016) has followed. The authors take “being” and “becoming” ontology toward social reality as the basic premise in this commentary, and summarize the knowledge that the study has contributed to existing literature.FindingsThe “Yin-Yang balancing” approach can extend the knowledge about paradox management phenomena at least from four aspects: the “either/and” frame to view a paradox system, the importance of “seed” or “threshold” in defining moderate rather than extreme groups, duality map as a novel tool for paradox management, and comparison of being and becoming ontology.Originality/valueBased on the comparison of “being” and “becoming” ontological view, the authors suggest to further develop this “Yin-Yang balancing” approach by emphasizing the following issues: eastern culture does not have exclusive ownership of the “becoming” ontology toward the world, elaboration of alternative theoretical explanation to win out the identity approach about organizational existence, the linkage between the “Yin-Yang balancing” epistemological system and process research method, and boundary condition of the “Yin-Yang balancing” approach.

Helping Yourself to Help Others: How Cognitive Change Strategies Improve Employee Reconciliation with Service Clients and Positive Work Outcomes

ABSTRACTThis qualitative study examined the paradox of difficult, yet meaningful, helping as part of employees’ jobs in a social services organization. Incorporating an emergent design using employee interviews the study identified how employees alter their understanding of workplace challenges, such as emotional distress and unsafe client behaviours, in order to find new meaning in the other-oriented value of their work. The resulting framework of employees’ experiences through challenging, yet meaningful, helping extends the research in customer service by proposing the reconciliation process, achieved through cognitive change strategies (i.e. visualization techniques, cognitive reframing and mindfulness of experience) serves as a conceptual bridge that helps the management of this apparent paradox. We first describe the workplace challenges and then outline the distinct cognitive change strategies that engendered the reconciliation process. Implications for practice and future researchers are then discussed.

The paradoxes of risk management in the banking sector

This paper uses empirical evidence to examine the operational dynamics and paradoxical nature of risk management systems in the banking sector. It demonstrates how a core paradox of market versus regulatory demands and an accompanying variety of performance, learning and belonging paradoxes underlie evident tensions in the interaction between front and back office staff in banks. Organisational responses to such paradoxes are found to range from passive to proactive, reflecting differing organisational, departmental and individual risk culture(s), and performance management systems. Nonetheless, a common feature of regulatory initiatives designed to secure a more structurally independent risk management function is that they have failed to rectify a critical imbalance of power - with the back office control functions continuing to be dominated by front office trading and investment functions. Ultimately, viewing the 'core' of risk management systems as a series of connected paradoxes rather than a set of assured, robust practices, requires a fundamental switch in emphasis away from a normative, standards-based approach to risk management to one which gives greater recognition to its behavioural dimensions.

Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the Luxury Industry

The mass marketization of the luxury industry obligates the industry to be mindful of the social and environmental consciousness of nouveau luxury consumers. To meet complex stakeholder expectations, luxury brands have to manage the dual goals of maintaining their elite branding while staying socially and environmentally responsible. These oppositional endeavors unleash uneasy tensions encapsulated in the notion of the corporate social responsibility (CSR)–luxury paradox. Using theoretical frameworks in paradox management and CSR communication, this study examined how luxury brands discursively navigated the CSR–luxury paradox on their websites. Qualitative content analysis conducted across 43 luxury brand websites revealed two discursive strategies used to manage CSR–luxury tensions: (a) harmonious coexistence of paradoxes and (b) convergence of paradoxes. These active, both-and strategies and corresponding substrategies show specific ways in which CSR–luxury tensions are managed and sustained. The findings are instructive not only for the luxury sector but also for organizations faced with oppositional goals in general.

The Invisible Negotiator in the Land of Paradox Management

The Invisible Negotiator in the Land of Paradox Management

Competing in Complex Cross-Cultural World: Philosophical Insights from Yin-Yang

Purpose – The purpose this paper is to comment on the “Global Implications of the Indigenous Epistemological System from the East: How to Apply Yin-Yang Balancing to Paradox Management” (Li, 2016), which is a timely and important piece. Li (2016) offers epistemological insights into what Yin-Yang is, why Yin-Yang can serve as a guiding frame of thinking and how to apply this frame of thinking to paradoxical issues to organizations that compete in a complex cross-cultural world. Western management philosophies and perspectives have dominated the mainstream theories in organization and management around the world over the past five decades, paying very limited attention and appreciation to Eastern philosophies that exist already for over 2,500 years (e.g. 551-479 BC’s Confucianism). In this commentary, the authors added more explanations, suggesting that given intensified complex and competing needs to fulfill for today’s businesses, the indigenous Eastern epistemological wisdom of Yin-Yang balancing is an ...