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The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Paradox

Online ISBN:
9780191815966
Print ISBN:
9780198754428
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Paradox

Wendy K. Smith (ed.),
Wendy K. Smith
(ed.)
Lerner School of Business and Economics, University of Delaware
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Wendy K. Smith earned her PhD in organizational behavior at Harvard Business School, and is associate professor of management at the Lerner School of Business, University of Delaware. Her research on the nature and management of strategic paradoxes has been published in journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Harvard Business Review, Organization Science, Management Science, and Academy of Management Learning and Education. Wendy is co-founder of the blogsite http://www.leveragingtensions.com, which seeks to connect scholars and practitioners interested in paradox, dualities, and dialectics.

Marianne W. Lewis (ed.),
Marianne W. Lewis
(ed.)
Management, City, University of London
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Marianne W. Lewis is professor of management and dean of the Cass Business School, City, University of London. Her research explores leadership and organizational paradoxes, appearing in such journals as Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Human Relations, and Harvard Business Review.

Paula Jarzabkowski (ed.),
Paula Jarzabkowski
(ed.)
Management, City, University of London
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Paula Jarzabkowski is a professor of strategic management at City, University of London. Her research focuses on strategy-as-practice in complex and pluralistic contexts such as regulated infrastructure firms, third-sector organizations and financial services, particularly insurance and reinsurance. She has conducted extensive, internationally comparative audio and video ethnographic studies in a range of business contexts. Her work has appeared in leading journals including Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Science, Organization Studies, and Strategic Management Journal. Her first book, Strategy as Practice: An Activity-Based Approach was published by Sage in 2005 and her most recent book, Making a Market for Acts of God, was published by Oxford University Press in 2015.

Ann Langley (ed.)
Ann Langley
(ed.)
Management, HEC Montréal
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Ann Langley is Professor in the Department of Management and Chair in Strategic Management in Pluralistic Settings at HEC Montréal.

Published online:
6 September 2017
Published in print:
14 September 2017
Online ISBN:
9780191815966
Print ISBN:
9780198754428
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

Organizations are rife with paradoxes. Contradictory and interdependent tensions emerge from and within multiple levels, including individual interactions, group dynamics, organizational strategies, and the broader institutional context. Examples abound such as those between stability and change, empowerment and alienation, flexibility and control, diversity and inclusion, exploration and exploitation, social and commercial, competition and collaboration, learning and performing. These examples accentuate the distinctions between concepts, positing their potential opposition; either A or B. Yet the social world is pluralistic, and comprises multiple, interwoven tensions, in which the relationship between A and B persists in a dynamic, ever-changing relationship. In the last thirty years, the depth and breadth of paradox studies in organizational theory has grown exponentially, surfacing new insights and applications while challenging foundational ideas, and raising questions around definitions, overlapping lenses, and varied research and managerial approaches. In this book, renowned organizational scholars draw from diverse lenses, theories, and empirics to depict paradox within organizational studies and provide a range of lenses and tools with which to understand and conduct research into such phenomena. In doing so, we hope these chapters re-energize continued insight on organizational paradox, plurality, tensions, and contractions.

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