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 while constraining freedom. These tensions give 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 to offer 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 it offers key insights to inform persistent contradictory dynamics in organizations and organizational studies.