Academy of Management Journal· 2012Q1
Navigating Paradox as a Mechanism of Change and Innovation in Hybrid Organizations
- 1,238citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2012year
Short summary
Hybrid organizations can transform institutional logics and foster innovation by navigating paradoxes of performing, which create ambiguity about success and failure.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Hybrid organizations face 'paradoxes of performing' that blur the lines between success and failure.
- Sensemaking about these paradoxical outcomes can lead to transformation of organizational logic.
- This transformation can result in oscillation among existing logics or novel synthesis between them.
- The capacity for innovation in hybrid organizations is partly dependent on successfully navigating these paradoxes.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Hybrid organizations combine institutional logics in their efforts to generate innovative solutions to complex problems. They face unintended consequences of that institutional complexity, however, which may impede their efforts. Past scholars have emphasized conflicting external demands, and competing internal claims on organizational identity. Data from an in-depth field study of the public-private Cambridge Energy Alliance suggest another consequence: paradoxes of performing (Smith & Lewis, 2011) that generate ambiguity about whether certain organizational outcomes represent success or failure. This article develops a process model of navigating such paradoxes: in sensemaking about paradoxical outcomes, actors grapple with definition of success and can transform the organizational logic. The result can be oscillation among logics, or novel synthesis between them when outside perspectives enable a clearer view of the paradox. Hybrid organizations' capacity for innovation depends in part on the results of this change process.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Academy of Management Journal, 2012 · DOI ↗
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Field: Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
Organizational Behavior and Human Resource ManagementBusiness, Management and Accounting