How organizational actors live out paradoxical tensions through power relations: The case of a youth prison

Matthias Wenzel, Jochen Koch, Joep P. Cornelissen, Wasko Rothmann and N. Natalie Senf

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2019, vol. 155, issue C, 55-67

Abstract: Drawing on a critical discursive analysis of qualitative data gathered at a juvenile detention facility, this study explores how organizational actors live out paradoxes through enacting power relations. Based on our analysis, we elaborate a theoretical framework that conceptualizes (1) individual, role-based responses to paradox through which actors construct positions of control and resistance; (2) collective responses to paradox through which organizational members enact these power positions; and (3) the macro-level effects of such dynamics. Our findings demonstrate how micro-level power struggles keep paradoxical tensions in play. Furthermore, our study shows how, ironically, such struggles participate in the macro-level reproduction of the status quo.

Keywords: Paradox; Power; Control–resistance dialectics; Discourse; Prison (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:155:y:2019:i:c:p:55-67

DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2019.03.001

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