Paradox Management

Contradictions and Tensions in Complex Organizations

Jan Heiberg Johansen

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9783319948157
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

Paradoxes emerge everywhere in organizational theory and management practice. This book is a theoretically grounded presentation of the strategic and historical context of organizational paradoxes, exploring the paradoxes in organizational management and the available tactics to manage them. Based on 700 academic sources in the paradox literature, it presents paradox management as a nuanced and coherent perspective. In presenting and integrating the vast literature on the subject, it contributes new knowledge on how and why the paradox concept was introduced into management theory, how and why conflicting ideals of management can produce organizational contradictions, and how paradoxes can be managed.

© The Author(s) 2019

Jan Heiberg JohansenParadox Managementhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94815-7_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction: The Quest for Value

Jan Heiberg Johansen¹

(1)

Independent Scholar, Copenhagen, Denmark

Jan Heiberg Johansen

Abstract

More and more researchers and managers take an interest in organizational paradoxes, where we need to handle elements that are at once interdependent and contradictory.

Researchers claim that there is a close relationship between our responses to the paradoxes and the value we create for ourselves and others. This book is a quest for this value. It is based on the international research on organizational paradoxes, which is expanding in current years and now counts around 700 sources. The introduction frames the issue of organizational paradoxes.

Keywords

Value creationParadox management as a buzzwordOverview of the paradox literatureVaccinating against over-simplyfying organizational theory

End Abstract

You may recognize the feeling of being torn between conflicting demands on the job or have experienced tensions between life and work. If that is the case, you are not alone. More and more researchers and managers take an interest in organizational paradoxes , where we need to handle elements that are at once interdependent and contradictory.

Researchers claim that there is a close relationship between our responses to the paradoxes and the value we create for ourselves and others. This book is a quest for this value. It is based on the international research on organizational paradoxes , which is expanding in current years and now counts around 700 sources.

The book poses the following question to this expanding research:

In which way can managers and organizations create value?

The question is used as a descriptive lens to examine how and why paradoxes are introduced as a relevant perspective in organizational theory and management practice.

Paradox management is becoming increasingly relevant because a number of external trends provoke organizational tensions . Therefore, it is increasingly critical that managers, employees, and organizations are able to manage paradoxes if they want to, on the one hand, succeed in creating, and on the other hand, avoid destroying value.

Paradoxes can cause confusion. They can ignite vicious circles and have devastating effects on an organization. Managers and employees can be paralyzed by conflicting demands and lose track of their task. At the same time, the argument goes, paradoxes are necessary for value creation . They contribute to organizational dynamism in a turbulent environment, where it is crucial for most organizations to regularly renew their value offers.

The management literature offers simplistic recipes for managing paradoxical tensions . A common recommendation is to reduce complexity and provide clarity and direction, but if organizational paradoxes are a fact of life, simplification may be a risky strategy. Organizations may achieve blindness rather than clarity and tunnel vision rather than direction if contradictory aspects of value creation are disregarded. They might overlook how they can create value and prevent crises in the organization by taking paradoxical tensions seriously. It is therefore essential to strengthen the organizational sense for paradoxes as a counter to simplification of organizational theory and management practice.

The book takes the expanding research on organizational paradox as an invitation to introduce this area of research. It is the first comprehensive introduction to paradox management, and it is written for students, researchers, practicing managers, and others with an interest in organizational theory.

You may be reading the book to have an introduction to paradox theory in management and a conceptual toolbox for understanding and creating value in complex organizations. The book includes fact boxes with background knowledge on organizational paradoxes . Key points are communicated through the book’s model and three research-based case studies introducing the real-life managers Peter, Laura , and John, who are struggling to create value in complex organizations.

Understanding Organizations Through Paradox

Paradox theory or paradox management appeared as a perspective on organizations about 40 years ago. It is based on the perception that organizations are characterized by elements that are at once contradictory and interwoven.

The organizational paradox concept arose from the late 1970s as a critique and development of contemporary organizational theory. Paradoxes are, according to the most widely used definition: “contradictory yet interrelated elements that exist simultaneously and persist over time” (Smith and Lewis 2011: 382). The organizational actors experience paradoxes as cognitive and emotional tensions . They occur as manifestations , that is experiences, of embedded contradictions in the organization. Paradoxes are a defining characteristic of complex organizations.

Paradox tactics are complementary to the paradoxes and describe the arsenal of management tactics available to organizational actors. They are brought into play when actors experience paradoxical tensions (Andriopoulos and Lewis 2009; Kreiner et al. 2006). Tactical responses co-construct and reshape the experience of paradoxes, and the two aspects interact dynamically in chains of paradoxes and tactics (Jarzabkowski et al. 2013). When actors encounter paradoxes, they have always already begun to shape the interpretation and the response to them. The individual link in a paradox chain constitutes the unit of analysis in paradox theory (Fig. 1.1).

Fig. 1.1

Link in a paradox chain. The interplay of paradoxes and tactics is the key unit of analysis in paradox theory

Managers may encounter a paradox when setting the direction for the organization and at the same time needing employee autonomy to realize the vision . Other paradoxes arise between stability and innovation , quality and efficiency or when introducing matrix organizations. They occur at different organizational levels as, for instance, conflicts between management models, objectives, or ideals of management. It takes two opposites to create a paradox, but paradoxes are also experienced as knots of multiple, interwoven opposites . Actors respond to the paradoxes with more or less intentional tactics in organizational interactions (Sheep et al. 2016).

It is characteristic of paradoxes that there will be drawbacks if you overlook one pole of the paradox. This marks a key difference between management problems that call for a solution and paradoxes that cannot be unambiguously resolved but need to be continuously handled. On the other hand, researchers conclude that if there are no contradictions in your organization, then you might have dominated competing views out in the dark (Ashforth et al. 2014). The oppressed perspectives may return when it is most inconvenient, or they can produce other types of headwinds as in the case of a top manager, who experienced that certain changes went surprisingly slow (Ford 2006).

Paradoxes emerge as a number of environmental catalysts provoke embedded contradictions in the organization. Paradoxes arise in an environment where scarcity occurs, where everyday life is characterized by change, and/or where there is plurality in instit...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction: The Quest for Value
• Part I
• Part II
• Part III
• Back Matter