Editorial: Organization and Management Paradoxes

• Date: 01 April 2019
• Author: Adam Lindgreen,François Maon
• Published date: 01 April 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12204

International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 21, 139–142 (2019)

DOI: 10.1111/ijmr.12204

Editorial: Organization and Management

Paradoxes

Adam Lindgreen and Franc¸ois Maon1

Copenhagen Business School, Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark and, University of Pretoria’s Gordon

Institute of Business Science, 26 Melville Road, Illovo, Johannesburg, South Africa, and 1IESEG School of

Management, LEM-CNRS (UMR 9221), 3 rue de la Digue, 59000 Lille, France

Corresponding author email: adli.marktg@cbs.dk

‘One must not think slightingly of the paradoxical.’

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher, the-

ologian, poet, and social critic

Paradox-related ideas and concepts stem from

long-standing traditions, with roots in eastern and

western philosophy, rhetoric, and psychology. The

term ‘paradox’ is often taken to mean inconsisten-

cies and illogical associations, tensions or counter-

intuitive meanings. In organization and management

literature, a paradox refers to the persistent presence

of ‘contradictory yet interrelated elements – elements

that seem logical in isolation but absurd and irra-

tional when appearing simultaneously’ (Lewis 2000,

p. 760). Although ostensibly divergent and conflict-

ing, such elements essentially define each other, ‘tied

in a web of eternal mutuality’ (Schad et al. 2016,

p. 6). As two faces of the same coin, they represent

enduring, interdependent opposites.

In the past three decades, organization and manage-

ment scholars haveprogressively refined this perspec-

tive. Paradoxicaltensions and dynamics are ever more

prominent in the modern, rapidly evolving manage-

rial and organizational realm, to the point that they

constitute a ‘new normal’ (Ashcraft and Trethewey

2004; Gaim 2017), and organization and management

scholars havelittle choice but to engage with paradox-

related ideas and concepts. In turn, paradox-oriented

research is so prevalent in organization and manage-

ment studies ‘that it is difficult to use any other words

than “paradigmatic” and “pervasive” to describe the

work’ (Putnam et al. 2016, p. 66; see also Lewis and

Smith 2014; Smith and Lewis 2011). Paradoxes offer

exciting, vigorous and vibrant contemporary objects

of study,and the resulting dynamic, multidisciplinar y

research efforts have achieved interesting and impor-

tant developments. But they also provoke questions

and confusion. The success and exponential spread of

paradox-oriented research efforts have evoked some

collateral, unintended effects too, including concep-

tual imprecision and a progressive taming and reifica-

tion of the very idea of paradox. As paradox-oriented

research efforts spread across organization and man-

agement disciplines, new research opportunities also

continue to emerge, with novel research paths being

newly illuminated. Thus, paradox-oriented research

is ‘at the crossroads between institutionalizing exist-

ing knowledge and exploring new terrains’ (Cunha

and Putnam 2019, p. 103), suggesting that scholars

who rely on the ideas and elements of paradox in

their work need to take a step back, pause and reflect

(Andriopolous et al. 2014; Cunha and Putnam 2019;

Schadet al. 2018).

This special issue of International Journal of Man-

agement Reviews (IJMR) seeks to provide the space

for such necessary, timely reflections, allowing or-

ganization and management scholars to think about

paradox with appropriate levels of thoroughness, dili-

gence and nuance. Accordingly,in designing this spe-

cial issue, we started by conducting our ownthorough

appraisal of recent publications pertaining to paradox

in leading organization and management journals.

On this basis, we issued a call for papers, inviting

colleagues to submit manuscripts related to key ob-

jectives and research themes. We wanted to ensure

that the aims and scope of the special issue would

C2019 BritishAcademy of Management and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd,9600 Garsington

Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA