Exploring the Meta-Theoretical Traditions of Research on Organizational Contradictions, Paradoxes, and Tensions

• In Event: Theorizing the Research on Organizational Paradoxes, Contradictions, and Dialectics

Abstract

This presentation focuses on similarities and differences in the meta-theoretical approaches that underlie organizational communication research on contradictions, paradoxes, and tensions. It begins with a brief history of this work, provides definitions of key constructs, draws some conclusions based on literature surveys, and mentions four traditions of work: systems theories, structuration studies, dialectics and critical management studies, and relational dialectics. Thus, it sets the stage for the four presentations on this panel. It concludes by raising questions regarding how the growth of this line of work challenges modernist and post-Fordist assumptions about classic dualities in the field, especially notions of order, complexity, and boundaries.

Authors

• Linda L. Putnam, U of California - Santa Barbara

• Scott G. Banghart, University of California, Santa Barbara