Studies on culture, change and social processes within organizations have been historically organized around orthogonal approaches. While the literature on change has focused on creating pragmatic, generally simple methodologies that bypass the complexity of the data in order to emphasize the possibility of intervention, literature aimed at truly understanding of the firm and its processes has emphasized the ambiguity of organization and the difficulties involved in reaching a unitary view of its processes, let alone creating a single theory of change. Finally, the literature on family businesses has been restricted to limited views of the field, disregarding the rich insights brought by psychology, sociology or anthropology. The result of these trends has been a gap in the creation of knowledge, with a paucity of studies that link theory with practice and ground change on a comprehensive view of the social reality of the firm. This book addresses both the specific need of family businesses and the broader demands of any organization in which the issue of culture is seriously considered. Drawing on the notions and scholarship on organizations and sociology, the author proposes new concepts and tools for the change agents interested in working with the instrumental rules of the firm with the cohesive tone of the family. Organizational Culture and Paradoxes in Management will be of value to students at an advanced level, academics and reflective practitioners. It addresses the topics with regard to management and organizational studies and will be of interest to organizational scholars, consultants and leaders interested in fostering a meaningful culture within organizations and family businesses.

Paradox — the simultaneous existence of two inconsistent states — has become orthodox. The orthodox is now the paradox. The orthodox world of ordering, controlling and organizing is increasingly opposed to a normalizing world of disordering, disrupting and disorganizing. And organization studies cannot avoid changing its conceptions of reality as that reality changes. In the future, organization studies will be the study of paradox, how to understand it, how to use it. In this book of original contributions addressed to management and organization paradoxes the authors address the new state of the field in terms of representations — representing paradoxes — and materialisations — materialising paradoxes. The themes — although varied, ranging from dialectics to internal tensions; from collaborations to ethics and value conflicts; from resistant labourers and wharfies to cartoon characters such as The Simpsons; from the irrationalities of finance to the psychoanalytic rationalities of auditing, and from issues of governance in Asian and international business to the composition of the new knowledge work force in the business professions — cohere around core aspects of paradoxicality. Overall, the contributions to Management and Organization Paradoxes are diverse and challenging. Each contribution takes a different angle on the central theme. All of the chapters illuminate diverse aspects of contemporary paradoxes in management and organization theory. The book provides, in each of its chapters, a challenge to the still overwhelmingly rationalist views of theory and practice that dominate the field and provides new directions for understanding organizations and management.The contributors are drawn from leading European, Australian and Latin American contributors.

The reality of everyday organizational life is that it is filled with uncertainty, contradictions and paradoxes. Yet leaders and managers are expected to act as though they can predict the future and bring about the impossible: that they can transform themselves and their colleagues, design different cultures, choose the values for their organization, be innovative, control conflict and have inspiring visions. Whilst managers will have had lots of experiences of being in charge, they probably realise that they are not always in control. So how might we frame a much more realistic account of what’s possible for managers to achieve? Many managers are implicitly aware of their messy reality, but they rarely spend much time reflecting on what it is that they are actually doing. Drawing on insights from the complexity sciences, process sociology and pragmatic philosophy, Chris Mowles engages directly with some principal contradictions of organizational life concerning innovation, culture change, conflict and leadership. Mowles argues that if managers proceed from the expectation that organizational life as inherently uncertain, and interactions between people are complex and often paradoxical, they start noticing different things and create possibilities for acting in different ways. Managing in Uncertainty will be of interest to practitioners, advanced students and researchers looking at management and organizational studies from a critical perspective.

The notion of paradox dates back to ancient philosophy, yet only recently have scholars started to explore this idea in organizational phenomena. Two decades ago, a handful of provocative theorists urged researchers to take seriously the study of paradox, and thereby deepen our understanding of plurality, tensions, and contradictions in organizational life. Studies of organizational paradox have grown exponentially over the past two decades, canvassing varied phenomena, methods, and levels of analysis. These studies have explored such tensions as today and tomorrow, global integration and local distinctions, collaboration and competition, self and others, mission and markets. Yet even with both the depth and breadth of interest in organizational paradoxes, key issues around definitions and application remain. This Handbook seeks to aid, engage, and fuel the expanding interest in organizational paradox. Contributions to this volume depict how paradox studies inform, and are informed, by other theoretical perspectives, while creating a resource that enables scholars to learn about and apply this lens across varied organizational phenomena. The increasing complexity, volatility, and ambiguity in our world continually surfaces paradoxical dynamics. Thus, this Handbook offers insights to scholars across organizational theory.

"A truly extraordinary book! The range of knowledge revealed by the author is quite astonishing and the material presented is done so in a clear and unambiguous writing style."The book includes astonishingly varied perspectives on issues that will impact the hoped-for positive consequences of globalization. I felt I was being informed by an expert who grasps the complexity of the issues involved in ways that make them clear and useful. If I was teaching a course that had anything to do with globalization and/or culture, I would assign this book—and if I knew of someone who was being assigned to another country, I would require him or her to read this book." —Benjamin Schneider, Valtera Corporation and Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland What is a paradox? Why are cross-cultural paradoxes essential for understanding the changes that are occurring because of globalization? Encompassing a wide variety of areas including leadership, cross-cultural negotiations, immigration, religion, economic development, and business strategy, Paradoxes of Culture and Globalization develops cross-cultural paradoxes essential for understanding globalization. Key Features Highlights over 90 paradoxes structured in a question/discussion format to actively engage readers and provide an integrative overview of the book Presents key issues at a higher and integrative level of analysis to avoid stereotyping particular cultures Facilitates class discussions and the active involvement of class members in the learning process of culture and globalization. Enlarges individuals' conceptual understanding of cross-cultural issues Focuses on both traditional and controversial topics including motivation and leadership across cultures, communicating and negotiating across cultures, immigration, religion, geography, economic development, business strategy, and international human resource management Intended Audience This is an excellent text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in International Management, International Business, Comparative Management, World Business Environment, Cross-Cultural Management, Cross-Cultural Communications, and Cultural Anthropology in the departments of business and management, communication, and anthropology. Meet author Martin J. Gannon! www.csusm.edu/mgannon Martin J. Gannon is also the author of the bestselling text Understanding Global Cultures (SAGE, Third Edition, 2004) and Cultural Metaphors: Readings, Research Translations, and Commentary (SAGE, 2000).

“Shows how humans have brought us to the brink and how humanity can find solutions. I urge people to read with humility and the daring to act.” —Harpal Singh, former Chair, Save the Children, India, and former Vice Chair, Save the Children International In conversations with people all over the world, from government officials and business leaders to taxi drivers and schoolteachers, Blair Sheppard, global leader for strategy and leadership at PwC, discovered they all had surprisingly similar concerns. In this prescient and pragmatic book, he and his team sum up these concerns in what they call the ADAPT framework: Asymmetry of wealth; Disruption wrought by the unexpected and often problematic consequences of technology; Age disparities--stresses caused by very young or very old populations in developed and emerging countries; Polarization as a symptom of the breakdown in global and national consensus; and loss of Trust in the institutions that underpin and stabilize society. These concerns are in turn precipitating four crises: a crisis of prosperity, a crisis of technology, a crisis of institutional legitimacy, and a crisis of leadership. Sheppard and his team analyze the complex roots of these crises--but they also offer solutions, albeit often seemingly counterintuitive ones. For example, in an era of globalization, we need to place a much greater emphasis on developing self-sustaining local economies. And as technology permeates our lives, we need computer scientists and engineers conversant with sociology and psychology and poets who can code. The authors argue persuasively that we have only a decade to make headway on these problems. But if we tackle them now, thoughtfully, imaginatively, creatively, and energetically, in ten years we could be looking at a dawn instead of darkness.

Become a next generation leader—rich in emotional and social intelligence and orchestrating outstanding collaborative results—by mastering these eight status quo-shattering paradoxes. The Eight Paradoxes of Great Leadership unpacks the fresh strategies and new mindset required today from a next generation leader. Author Dr. Tim Elmore helps leaders of all kinds navigate increasingly complex, rapidly changing environments, as well as manage teams who bring a range of new demands and expectations to the workplace that haven’t been seen even one generation prior. After working alongside John C. Maxwell for twenty years, Tim offers counter-intuitive paradoxes that, when practiced, enable today’s leader to differentiate themselves and better connect with their team and customers. The book furnishes ideas that equip leaders to inspire team members in a way a paycheck never could. Having trained hundreds of thousands of young professionals to develop into leaders—Dr. Elmore shares the secrets of next generation leaders who have practiced the unique paradoxes outlined in this book and inspired their team members in a way that a paycheck never could. In The Eight Paradoxes of Great Leadership, readers will: Learn how today’s team members require a combination of different qualities from their leaders than they did in even the recent past; Grasp the importance of eight key paradoxes that are critical for next generation leaders to put into practice right now; Be inspired by historic and modern-day leaders who lived the eight paradoxes; and Understand how they too can lead with the eight paradoxes, guiding them to emotional and social intelligence that resonates with their teams and leads to outstanding collaborative results.