Paradox Mindset Research Articles

The Effect of Paradox Mindset Diversity on Team Innovativeness

Innovation projects include periods of simultaneous engagement in exploratory and exploitative activities. The conflicting nature of these tasks leads teams to experience greater levels of paradoxical tensions. Prior research has shown that these tensions can be either beneficial or detrimental to innovation, and that the ability to think paradoxically is essential to unlocking their potential. In this study, we examined how the distribution of paradox mindsets within teams plays a role in leveraging paradoxical tensions for greater innovativeness. Using data from 42 teams working on junior consulting mandates, we found that the diversity – rather than the absolute level – of paradox mindsets within a team has a positive moderating effect on the otherwise negative impact of paradoxical tensions on innovativeness.

Paradox versus dilemma mindset: A theory of how women leaders navigate the tensions between agency and communion

A wealth of literature documents that women leaders can face simultaneous and yet conflictual demands for both agency and communion, due to the incongruence of their leader role and gender role demands. However, we still know little about why some women cope with the tensions between agency and communion better than others and what implications are involved. Using a paradox perspective, we develop a theoretical model to explain how women leaders experience and respond to agency-communion tensions, which impacts their intrapersonal and interpersonal outcomes. Specifically, we propose that in response to experiencing tensions fueled by the dual demands for agency and communion, women leaders can adopt a paradox mindset that simultaneously embraces agency and communion, or a dilemma mindset that dichotomizes agency and communion. The paradox mindset helps women leaders build psychological resilience, identity coexistence, and leadership effectiveness, whereas those who adopt a dilemma mindset experience depleted resilience, identity separation, and lowered leadership effectiveness. Further, our model highlights individual, interpersonal, and organizational conditions that shape women's experience and stimulate a paradox mindset versus a dilemma mindset. We conclude by discussing theoretical and practical implications of our model.

Microfoundations of Organizational Paradox: Paradox Mindset, Limited Resources and Tensions

Competing tensions and demands pervade our work lives, and accumulating research examines organizational and leadership approaches to leveraging these tensions. But what about individuals within fi...

Microfoundations of Organizational Paradox: The Problem Is How We Think about the Problem

Competing tensions and demands pervade our work lives. Accumulating research examines organizational and leadership approaches to leveraging these tensions. But what about individuals within firms? Although early paradox theory built upon micro-level insights from psychology and philosophy to understand the nature and management of varied competing demands, corresponding empirical studies are rare, offering scarce insights into why some individuals thrive with tensions while others struggle. In response, we contribute to the microfoundations of organizational paradox with a theoretical model and robust measures that help unpack individuals' varied approaches to tensions. Following rigorous scale development in Study 1, including samples from the US, UK, Israel, and China, we test our model in a large firm in the US using quantitative and qualitative methods. We identify resource scarcity (i.e. limited time and funding) as a source of tensions. We also demonstrate that a paradox mindset - the extent to which one is accepting of and energized by tensions - can help individuals leverage them to improve in-role job performance and innovation. Our results highlight paradox mindset as a key to unlocking the potential of everyday tensions.

Culture, Conditions and Paradoxical Frames

Organizational contexts establish conditions that seem paradoxical, but it is unclear when and why individuals notice and respond to paradoxes. This paper examines how culture and conditions interact to shape whether individuals adopt paradoxical frames. We used cooperation and competition among American and Chinese people as an empirical setting. Using lay categories as a theoretical framework, we predicted that specific types of conditions, colleagues’ outperforming and out-helping each other, can be interpreted as instances of both cooperation and competition. Study 1 found that Chinese people were more likely than Americans to adopt paradoxical frames in just these types of conditions and that the cross-cultural difference was attributed to differences in paradox mindset. Study 2 found that in just these types of conditions, Chinese people were more likely to engage in simultaneously cooperative and competitive behavior and this was attributed to differences in the use of paradoxical frames. Thus, culture and conditions interact to influence when people invoke and apply paradoxical frames.