Organizational Paradoxes Research Articles

The role of mean item ratings, topic distance, direct leadership, and voice climate in action planning after employee surveys

This study contributes to the literature on employee surveys as a tool for organizational development and, specifically, the post-survey action planning process by examining key variables that affect this process. Using data from one large company in Germany, this study investigates team-level action planning in three consecutive years of 5,875 organizational units [OUs] in 2016, 5,673 OUs in 2017, and 5,707 OUs in 2018. Ratings per item on the employee survey and topic distance, which refers to the extent to which a survey topic can be addressed within the boundaries of the OU, predicted choice of topics for action planning. Furthermore, direct leadership and voice climate did not predict whether OUs conducted action planning. However, consistent with hypotheses, results showed that direct leadership and voice climate were associated with significantly less action planning in comparison to other topics of the employee survey. Direct leaders and OU members that experience shortcomings in direct leadership or voice climate need to improve on these topics. However, at the same time, these deficits could hinder leaders and members in planning actions in general and for these specific topics, as they represent important requirements for conducting effective action planning in the first place. This creates an organizational paradox. Based on the findings, it is recommend that organizations take topic distance into account when designing questionnaires that entail action planning expectations and consider offering additional resources and support to OUs and direct leaders to enable effective action planning.

A paradox‐constitutive perspective of organizational gossip

AbstractWe review cross‐disciplinary research on gossip and integrate it with two streams of theoretical scholarship: paradox theory and the communicative constitution of organization (CCO) perspective. In doing so, we develop what we label a paradox‐constitutive perspective of organizational gossip. Our perspective holds that gossip does not merely reflect or reveal organizational paradoxes but contributes to constituting them. Drawing on an extensive narrative literature review (N = 184), we conceptualize organizational gossip as a socially constructed category of interpersonal communication that, paradoxically, is regarded as both an exceptionally reliable and exceptionally unreliable source of social information. In turn, we illustrate how this contradictory view of gossip engenders paradoxical tensions when gossip surfaces in organizational life, and we illuminate two specific tensions to which gossip contributes: resistance‐authority tensions and inclusion‐exclusion tensions. Our work has important implications for research on organizational gossip, paradox, and communication and suggests intriguing directions for future investigations.

Organizational Paradoxes and Metamorphosis in Collective Action

This paper addresses the subject of organizational paradoxes through the lens of complexity theory. The first part of the study focuses on the formalization of the key elements in order to better understand the concept of organizational tension through the presentation of related constructs, i.e., dilemmas, dialectics and paradoxes. The second part of the paper introduces the key to interpreting complexity theory, highlighting how the characteristic of emergence in complex systems makes it possible to identify two different levels: that of organizational elements and that of organizational forms, both of which are impacted by tension. That reflection leads the authors to postulate that metamorphosis is the process by which organizations, constantly crossed by tension, regenerate the organizational forms’ level on the basis of evolving tensions between organizational elements.

Tension and Paradox in Women-Oriented Sustainable Hybrid Organizations: A Duality of Ethics

AbstractThe pursuit of social goals and ethics in business creates challenges. Sustained efforts to address poverty, environmental degradation or health/wellbeing require meaningful and transformative responses that impact across multiple levels—individual, community and the global collective. Shifting predominant paradigms to facilitate change entails a renegotiation of business strategy—between organizations, their purpose(s), individual and collective stakeholders and ultimately with society at large. Hybrid organizations such as social enterprises are positioned to affect such change. However, in balancing divergent goals such organizations encounter tensions and paradox, creating a duality of ethics. Utilizing in-depth interviews to develop a case within the sustainable fashion industry, we identify tensions and paradox within women-oriented hybrid organizations. Significantly, managing these tensions and paradox results in multiple dualities of ethics, often with a wider impact on organizational founders/managers. We find three interrelated ethical dualities: business strategy and personal values; financial sustainability and holistic sustainability; and business, employee, societal wellbeing, and personal wellbeing. This insight is noteworthy when looked at within the broader context of sustainability and highlights the importance of sustainability in women-oriented hybrid organizations.

Deparadoxification and value focus in sharing ventures: Concealing paradoxes in strategic decision-making

This study investigates how sharing ventures address the paradox of doing good versus doing harm in their strategic decision-making. The doing good versus doing harm paradox refers to the difficulty of sharing ventures to balance the aim to benefit society and the environment while minimizing potential adverse effects. Understanding and addressing this paradox is crucial for promoting sustainable and responsible decision-making. Our thematic content analysis of 38 in-depth interviews with founders and senior managers of sharing ventures in four European countries finds that these ventures align along three distinct value focus types in their decision-making and use five mechanisms to conceal paradoxes related to balancing social/environmental and economic contradictions. By surfacing the importance of sharing ventures’ value focus and resultant mechanisms to deparadoxify, our findings provide insights into organisational paradox and the sharing economy, specifically the purposeful concealment of paradox as a counterintuitive choice for remaining actionable in decision contexts.

Analysis of Structural Theory in Economic and Social Tensions: Guatemala Country Case Study

One of the relevant issues in the field of studies into not-for-profit organizations is to understand the singular characteristics of this organizational phenomenon. In this work we have turned to the basis of the Structuration Theory for analyzing such organizatiosn. We propose that its contribution to the advance of knowledge in this field is its use of the concept of structural processes, prepared from work originally done by British sociologist, Anthony Giddens. The conceptual framework identiefis and analyses the ideas contained in the main theoretical perspectives found in academic works on Social Economics and not-for-profit organizations (NPO). This work makes a double contribution: by means of a case study, it offers empirical experience that takes a structuration analytical approach, and moves forward the discussion on singlaur characteristics of not-for-profit organizations as an organizational phenomenon, which increased during the last two decades of the XXth century. The concept of structuration processes allows for the analysis of organizational paradoxes and conflicts, taking the structure not as a stiac object that defines the restrictions to action or limits the scope of authority, but as an abstraction that reveals how the rules and resources oaf social system relate with each other in a process defined by Giddens as the duality of structure.

Decolonizing internationalization initiatives in Brazilian universities

ABSTRACT Universities across the globe are implementing internationalization programs. These programs often focus on language development, study abroad programs, and developing the international reputations of professors. In this paper, we present data from interviews and ethnographic observations of university internationalization trainings in Brazil. We asked: How (do) professors in Brazil make sense of the national/organizational internationalization initiative? Drawing on decolonial theories and scholarship about organizational paradoxes, we found two primary paradoxes arise in internationalization directives: the paradox of relying on the English language and the paradox of mobility. Ultimately, we argue that university internationalization is a highly political communicative act, which perpetuates systems of oppression and dominance and can cultivate discursive and material violence. We suggest that internationalization projects must take perspectives from a variety of global locations into account in order to roll out decolonized programs that are more equitable and attainable across the globe.

Transparência nas dispensas de licitação em governo locais em situações de emergência

ABSTRACT Using the organizational paradox perspective, the study discusses how a context of national emergency modifies the propensity for transparency in tender waivers in municipalities. The empirical analysis indicates that there are tensions in the transparency of the public procurement process and that the public control literature should consider emergency and normal contexts differently. Emergency situations, in which budgetary funds are urgently allocated to emergency contracts, require greater transparency and control to reduce the risk of misuse of funds. Paradoxically, there is a reduction in transparency and a weakening of social control. The level of transparency of local governments under the same legislation varies according to the political support and understanding of the authorities in different legislatures and mandates, and between periods of emergency and normality. It is desirable for supervisory agencies and civil society to be aware of possible regressions in transparency practices in times of emergency, even for municipalities that are examples of transparency in times of normality. A content analysis was conducted on 1,528 tender waivers in 32 small municipalities in São Paulo State from 2019 to 2020. The level of transparency of the tenders was compared before and during the first year of the pandemic. Interviews were then conducted with public officials with experience in transparency practices in these municipalities, as well as with journalists and leaders of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to validate the analysis on the transparency of the procurement process during the pandemic. Emergency situations can alter practices related to fiscal transparency in local governments when national authorities relax procurement rules. The study shows that the COVID-19 pandemic emergency led to reduced transparency in the procurement of supplies in some municipalities, particularly in contracts for supplies and services to cope with the pandemic crisis.

Paradox, Dialectics or Trade‐Offs? A Double Loop Model of Paradox

AbstractParadox literature is emerging as one of the most vital streams in management studies, but it is affected by some growing pains. First, the concept of paradox is still too fuzzy, which impacts empirical research and hinders communication with other literatures. Second, the assumption that paradoxes are always best met with acceptance and search for balance is problematic because it limits the heuristic potential of a paradox lens, because it constrains the range of sustainable responses to contradictions, and because it may induce to appeasement in face of injustice. In this paper we propose to strengthen paradox theory by incorporating the contributions of two alternative perspectives on organizational tensions: trade‐offs and dialectics. We thus present a model which expands organizational paradox theory by: (1) clarifying the concept of organizational paradox; and (2) offering a model that better describes the varied phenomenology, causes and consequences of organizational tensions and paradoxes.

“We will not pay you, but God will remunerate”: the paradox of volunteer transcendental rewards in faith-based organizations

ABSTRACT In the slim body of literature on the paradoxes of volunteer management, this study explores how transcendental rewards generate a paradox in faith-based organizations (FBOs). Instead of providing monetary rewards, FBOs promise their volunteers transcendental rewards. Based on four Indonesian FBOs, we introduce this specific paradox by juxtaposing volunteer retention and volunteer rewards management. At the individual level, the logics of both material and transcendental rewards exist side by side. These two different logics also interact at the organizational level between volunteers and managers. In turn, volunteers perceive two contradictory self-images: as sincere or as materialistic persons. Relatedly, FBO practices can be regarded as either nurturing individual spiritual development or are sometimes framed as exploiting the transcendental for material gain. We find that religious volunteers appear to accept the paradox, living with its consequences, and FBOs navigate the paradox as a tool to retain their volunteers.

CREATING BALANCING SPACES FOR DIGITAL AMBIDEXTERITY: IDENTIFYING DIVERGENCE AND COMPETING DEMANDS IN HEALTHCARE TRANSFORMATION INITIATIVES

Digital transformation is crucial for the healthcare sector, yet research shows that it also possesses a series of challenges at system-, organisational-, and individual levels, which require balancing. In this study, we adopt paradox theory to understand the balancing practices and requirements for digitalisation in healthcare. Based on gaps in previous research and practice, this paper aims to explore what characterises the different kinds of tensions and organisational paradoxes related to digital transformation. Also, this paper discusses how balancing practices in digital transformation are constrained and enabled. The paper is based on a project run in co-production between researchers at the Mälardalen University and project partners at a healthcare Region in Sweden. In the findings, two kinds of tensions are identified in digital transformation initiatives: Divergence at different organisational levels and competing demands between past, present and future needs. The divergent views are characterised by being latent while the competing demands are characterised by being salient to the organisation. This is followed by a discussion about balancing practices enabling digital ambidexterity and spurring virtuous cycles.

Paradox as an Interactional Resource: An ethnomethodological analysis into the interconnectedness of organizational paradoxes

In this paper, we demonstrate how performing and belonging paradoxes act as triggers, mitigators and amplifiers for each other in moment-by-moment interaction. We show how expressing a performing paradox as part of group practice triggers belonging tensions, particularly when there is a strong expectation towards a uniform value-base. We further demonstrate how a familiar performing paradox at the organization level is constructed to mitigate the belonging tensions through latency. This leads to an amplification dynamic where a paradox that is more socially appropriate is reinforced in order to cope with a more interactionally problematic one. Our results speak to research on the intertwined nature of paradoxical tensions and the relationship between latency and salience in working through paradox. Our study advocates for developing a more systematic approach for studying the interactional foundations of organizational paradox and offers ethnomethodological conversation analysis as one means to achieve improved understanding in this domain.

Character-enabled improvisation and the new normal: A paradox perspective.

The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified and exacerbated organizational paradoxes felt by individuals largely because of the nostalgia individuals feel for the “old” normal while facing the need to let go in order to create a “new” normal. We position improvisation as a synthesis-type approach to working through the paradoxes of the pandemic. Furthermore, we look at individual differences that underpin the ability to improvise, and identify that it is the strength of character and character-based judgment of the individual that enables the enactment of a focal context, the choice to improvise, and the act of effectively improvising to work through paradoxes. Linking character to improvisation, and, vice versa, improvisation to the development of character, reveals the importance of dimensions such as courage, humility, temperance, transcendence, humanity, and collaboration in the practice of improvisation.

Paradoxes and Paradoxical Leadership at Multiple Levels of Analysis.

In this presenter symposium, we introduce the Paradox Theory of Leadership, a leadership model for dealing with complexity and paradox in organizations. Four researchers from four different disciplines and cultures will present their research linking concepts at the individual level (vertical development, cultural intelligence), inter-individual level (paradoxical leadership and political skills), team level (team paradoxes and motivation), and the cross-cultural level (cultural paradoxical dimensions) with leadership paradoxes. In the first paper, Mo Chaara looks at the stages of vertical development in humans and A.I. that would allow dialectic cognition, necessary for paradoxical reasoning. Second, Tiffany Taylor presents her research of political skills in managers and how they relate with paradoxical leadership behaviors. Third, Lluís Rosés looks at the influence of multiple paradoxes in teams on team meetings behaviors and motivation. Fourth, Sabrina Duijnisveld (NL), analyzes cultural intelligence and paradoxical leadership as a way to navigate different cross-cultural dimensions when collaborating internationally. Finally, Wendy Smith, professor and widely cited author on organizational paradoxes will discuss the different presentations and open for interaction with the audience. PARADOXES AND PARADOXICAL LEADERSHIP AT MULTIPLE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS Presenter: Steven Poelmans; U. of Antwerp/ Antwerp Management School

Paradoxical yet Consistent: How Leaders Maintain Behavioral Integrity When Pursuing Paradoxical Obj

Leaders are under increasing pressure to recognize, attend to, and ultimately reconcile paradoxes in organizations. This creates the need to balance and simultaneously pursue priorities that reflect different values. While the extant literature suggests that it can be beneficial for leaders to pursue paradoxical objectives, our paper highlights an underappreciated challenge: when leaders are paradoxical, they may send conflicting signals about what they value. When observed by followers, these conflicting signals can lead to the perception that the leader is low in behavioral integrity, causing followers to experience conflict in their own values in the workplace. Furthermore, we propose that these negative implications are mitigated when leaders reduce their own values conflict. Our predictions are supported by two complimentary empirical studies. The first study features a multi-level field study with a sample from executive MBA students, and the second is a survey study featuring multi-wave, multi-level data from a retail company.

Recent Research on Paradox Theory: Emerging Themes and Mechanisms

Paradox theory is a bourgeoning area of interest among organization and management scholars. In this paper, we explore two overlapping research questions: (a) What are the major emerging issues in research on paradox theory; (b) What are the fundamental mechanisms that individuals and groups use to navigate paradoxes. From the reviewed literature, first, we delineate six major research themes and highlight important issues that researchers have addressed in their studies. Second, we propose a 2 × 2 × 2 matrix to categorize the mechanisms examined in the studies, and identify eight broad categories of mechanisms to navigate paradoxes in organizations. We hope our review will help integrate research findings and encourage theory testing in the future.

Crafting Your Way Out of Paradoxes: How and Why Paradoxical Tensions Influence Job Crafting

Individuals constantly live in contradictory yet competing roles, values, and demands at work. Tensions arise and accompany individuals’ everyday work practice, sparking destructive or constructive responses. While previous studies have offered some insights on how individuals experiencing paradoxical tensions perform their job, the empirical evidence is rare and limited to in-role performance and creativity. How individuals take ownership and exert agency to shape, mold, and redefine the paradoxes within their work boundaries remains uncovered and urges exploration. In a three-wave study of 256 employees, we followed the job demands-resources approach of job crafting to examine why and how employees’ experience with organizational paradoxes influences their avoidance and approach crafting behavior. Results showed that employees’ experiencing tensions has positive effects on both avoidance resource crafting and approach resource crafting, showing a double-edged sword effect. Furthermore, ego depletion and proactive motivation mediated employees’ experiencing tensions on avoidance resource crafting and approach resource crafting respectively. We also found that paradox mindset (i.e., individuals’ general propensity to be comfortable and embrace the paradoxes) negatively moderated the tensions-ego depletion-avoidance crafting path, so that the mediated relationship is mitigated among employees with a high paradox mindset.

Salience and Time: The Existential Ground of Organizational Paradox

The experience of organizational paradox, interdependent contradictions persisting over time, has been studied from cognitive, psychological, and discursive perspectives. In all these cases, experience is described in terms of the actual presence of paradox. However, the existential ground of organizational paradox lying beyond its presence remains undertheorized. I mobilize Heidegger’s existential analytic to unpack the experience of organizational paradox that is revealed in our modes of being, which, in turn, temporalize the experience. First, I explore the intimate relationship between paradox and tension by unpacking how we encounter them in the world. Then, I explain the meaning of to be experiencing paradox by showing the role played by the modes of the actual and the possible. Finally, I unpack the temporality of organizational paradox. The existential understanding of paradox uncovers how tensions and paradoxes gain their paralyzing and productive nature, and they reveal distinct ways in which the potential of paradox is disclosed.

“Senator, We Run Ads!”: On The Persistence of Facebook’s Paradoxical Tensions

Despite the ongoing interest in studying organizational paradoxes, we still lack knowledge of how and why these paradoxes persist over time. Based on a critical discourse analysis of video data of Facebook’s Congressional hearings in 2018, we develop a process model of the dynamic persistence of paradoxical tensions. We argue that CEO Mark Zuckerberg mobilized embodied four discursive practices—conforming, rejecting, transcending, and generalizing—in an attempt to create complexity to conceal Facebook’s strategic tensions. As a result, these practices led to circles of resolving, exposing, and concealing tensions, giving rise to the persistence of the paradox of the company’s business model. Based on Luhmann’s systems theory, our study contributes to the theoretical advancement of the dynamics of the persistence of paradoxes that showcases the evolvement of tensions over time. Doing so, our study advances the knowledge of the persistence of paradoxes and extends the literature on paradoxes in system theory.

Someone Must be Mindful: Trait Mindfulness as a Boundary Condition for Paradoxical Leader Behaviors

Despite increased interest in the role of paradox in organizations, our understanding of paradoxical leader behavior (PLB) remains limited. We analyze PLB through the lens of cognitive dissonance theory and argue that trait mindfulness represents an important boundary condition shaping the effectiveness of PLB as a leadership style. This research sheds light on mindfulness and PLB, by investigating whether leader and follower trait mindfulness changes the impact of PLB on follower performance. Our analyses of multilevel, multisource, and multiphase data from 561 employees working in 54 teams show that PLB is positively related to follower performance when followers have high trait mindfulness. Furthermore, when followers and leaders are both low on trait mindfulness, PLB hurts follower performance. We thereby advance research on managing paradox, trait mindfulness, and the effectiveness of paradoxical leader behaviors for promoting follower performance.