Abstract
The complexity and oftentimes incompatibility of competing demands that are often inherent in a volatile, uncertain, and ambiguous business environment necessitate an approach to the study and management of organizational tensions. This hallmark strategic challenge puts a premium on what management scholars note as a movement away from either/or solutions toward understanding and developing ways to manage competing demands simultaneously. For instance, leaders are asked to “to increase efficiency and foster creativity, build individualistic teams, and think globally while acting locally” (Lewis, 2000, p. 760). A paradox lens—both in theory building and practice building—opens opportunities for understanding the contradictions and absurdities present in organizational dynamics (Eisenhardt, 2000), helping facilitate new insights (Eisenhardt & Westcott, 1988) and overcome limits to logic (Van de Ven & Poole, 1988). These insights can positively affect the performance of individuals, teams, and organizations (Murnighan & Conlon, 1991; Smith & Lewis, 2011; Tushman, Smith, Wood, Westerman, & O’Reilly, 2010). No surprise, then, that managing paradox is seen as an increasingly important skill for managers and leaders in organizations (e.g., Cameron & Quinn, 1988; Clegg, Cuhna, & Cuhna, 2002; Smith & Tushman, 2005; Sturdy & Grey, 2003).
Since paradox and its application to the fields of management and organization is a young field of study, no rigorous or collectively accepted definition of paradox has yet emerged. However, the growing literature on paradox suggests an apparent opportunity for more scholarship on the topic. The forces of paradox still frequently trip up individuals, groups, and organizations. For example, when needing to confront the conundrum of opposing forces, people tend to react with simplified thinking, adopting more categorical and linear forms of processing (Van de Ven & Poole, 1988). Also, when facing paradox individual and organizational defenses (Lewis, 2000) can often get evoked to mask the challenge and anxiety associated with a seemingly no-win scenario (Schneider, 1990; Vince & Broussine, 1996). Such habitual reactions hamper the potential for more creative theory building, in the case of researchers, and creative management and organization, in the case of leaders/managers.
The aim of this special issue is to publish a collection of high-quality articles that stem from a variety of management disciplines. The editors invite submissions that are empirically rich, methodologically rigorous, and theoretically insightful on the subject to better explain organizational phenomena that consider one or more levels of analysis. In this special issue, the editors welcome submissions that explore the different ways scholars and practitioners construct and apply the concept of paradox to the predicaments of modern management and organization, the role of creative tensions within organizational life, and how a paradox lens informs organization change and development. We are particularly interested in papers that actively contribute to organizational scholarship and to the practice and process of organization change. Papers could include but are not restricted to
Research that informs theory development: The goal of these conceptual papers is to derive new ideas, new theoretical models, and/or new propositions.
Empirical work and the use of paradox as a theory building method: The goal of these empirical papers is to describe a study that extends previous work, examines a theoretical question, measurement approach, or perhaps a qualitative or quantitative research study of a practical matter.
Paradox as a form of practice and a teaching method: The goal of these applied papers is to lead to a better understanding of practice by showing how theory and research inform practice and/or how practice can inform the relationship between theory and practice, which may vary across consultative, industry, and educational domains.
Cross-disciplinary and international dimensions: The goal of these cross-disciplinary and international papers is to introduce a perspective from authors from all over the world in order to advance theoretical, empirical, and applied understanding of the interplay between paradox and different dimensions of global context.
To be considered for publication, papers must be electronically submitted as an e-mail attachment (Microsoft Word files only) to Claudy Jules (