Dualities, Dialectics, and Paradoxes in Organizational Life

Contradictions permeate and propel organizational life - including tensions between reaching globally while focusing locally; competing while also cooperating; performing reliably while experimenting, taking risks, and learning; or granting autonomy ... Read more

Contradictions permeate and propel organizational life - including tensions between reaching globally while focusing locally; competing while also cooperating; performing reliably while experimenting, taking risks, and learning; or granting autonomy while constraining freedom. These tensionsgive organizational members pause, but also spur them to take action; they may be necessary for preserving the social order, but are also required to transform it.Drawing on the Eighth International Symposium on Process Organization Studies, Dualities, Dialectics, and Paradoxes in Organizational Life examines how contradictions fuel emergent, dynamic systems and stimulate novelty, adaption, and transformations. It uses conceptual and empirical studies tooffer insight into how process theorizing advances understanding of organizational contradictions; to shed light on how dialectics, paradoxes, and dualities fuel persistence and transformation; and to explore the convergence and divergence of dialectics, paradox, and dualities. Taken together, itoffers key insights to inform persistent, contradictory dynamics in organizations and organizational studies. Less