Leading Through Conflicting Logics: Paradoxical Leadership in Academia During Times of Crisis

• In Event: Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 12: Working in Higher Education

Abstract

How do organizational leaders navigate paradoxical tensions when extreme societal conflict penetrates institutional boundaries? Drawing on organizational documentation, internal correspondence, and in-depth interviews, we examined how leaders of a university's diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) unit in Israel navigated the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack while sustaining an academic community of Jewish and Palestinian members amid escalating intergroup tensions. Our findings reveal that leaders confronted not isolated dilemmas but a sequence of interrelated paradoxes - between civil and state logics, freedom and safety, and legal and educational professional logics, continuously triggered by the collapse of virtual-physical boundaries. We identify paradox knotting as the central mechanism through which leaders maintained a multi-logic stand, addressing competing demands holistically rather than through either/or solutions. This process enabled distinct coping modes across phases: taking responsibility, building accountability, and expanding collaboration. The study extends paradoxical leadership theory by conceptualizing it as a socially situated, multi-logic stance that bridges individual, organizational, and עsocietal levels of analysis, offering implications for leading diverse organizations in polarized, digitally mediated environments.

Authors

• Yael Ben-David, New York University

• Tammy Rubel-Lifschitz, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

• Sharon Abraham-Weiss, Tel-Aviv University