Paradox

Rebecca Bednarek and Jane Lê

Chapter 2.23 in Elgar Encyclopedia of Strategy as Practice, 2025, pp 190-193 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: During the late 1980s scholars drew insights from diverse interdisciplinary fields, such as philosophy, Eastern theology, and psychology, to introduce the concept of paradox into organizational and management studies. Paradox theory presented an alternative perspective on the competing demands organizations face, suggesting that these could and should co-exist. Hence, instead of perceiving demands – such as exploration-exploitation, profit-social responsibility and autonomy-control – as trade-offs that require resolution by choosing one alternative over another (‘either-or’), paradox-enabled ‘both-and’ thinking. Paradoxes became construed are foundational to organizational life rather than problems to be solved. The concept of paradox, thus, has been used to explore a wide array of different organizational phenomena. Strategy-as-Practice (SAP) research has played a crucial role in exploring ‘strategic paradoxes’, including those ‘performing’ paradoxes relating to objectives and ‘belonging’ paradoxes relating to roles and identities.

Keywords: Paradox; SAP; Tensions; Contradictions; Duality; Strategic paradoxes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035315956
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