Thinking Beyond Dualities: Leadership in the Age of Organizational Paradoxes
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https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10459335Keywords:
Abilene paradox, Icarus paradox, duality, power, organizational paradox, paradoxical leadershipAbstract
Leadership practices in Turkey reflect a balanced combination of seemingly contradictory cultural elements such as individualism versus collectivism, relationship orientation versus performance orientation, and uncertainty avoidance versus high levels of uncertainty. Understanding this tension between contradictory elements requires the theoretical framework of paradox theory. This study aims to provide a framework for understanding paradoxes in the field of organizations based on the elements of paradox theory. Organizations today are far from being defined by simple environmental dynamics. The increase in environmental dynamics affecting organizations increases the complexity of organizational systems. The level of complexity in the system is closely related to the variety and multiplicity of paradoxes that may arise. In this study, the paradoxes that can be encountered in organizations such as the Icarus paradox, the Abilene paradox, the power paradox, and the success paradox are presented, in which areas they may arise, and how they can be overcome. In the study, the importance of leadership in the face of paradoxical situations, the cognitive and behavioral qualities of the leader that should be different from traditional leadership, and the possible consequences of paradoxical leadership style in terms of employee behaviors and organizational culture are discussed. Considering that there are very limited studies on the subject in the literature, it is thought that the study will be useful for future research.
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