Safar, Mostafa Hossameldin; (2023) Towards a Cross-level View of the Management of Organizational Contradictions: How the Mutual Influence between Approaches taken at the Collective and Individual Levels Determines the Overall Organizational Response to the Contradiction. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Organizations are rife with multiple contradictory demands – for example, control and autonomy, exploration and exploitation, and so on – that managers have to constantly deal with for successful performance. These demands seem logical when considered in isolation, but they appear illogical when addressed together simultaneously. Extant literature has identified different approaches to the management of contradictions, but scholars have studied such approaches by focussing on one level of analysis at a time (e.g., individual, team, and firm level), missing the interplay between organizational levels and its impact on how the organisation as a whole responds to the contradiction. Such a focus on single levels of analyses has led to oversimplifying organizational responses and has not enabled current research to attain a complete understanding of the management of contradictions by organisations. In the first part of this research, theoretical elaboration, extension, and refinement are performed to develop an integrated framework for the management of contradictions in organisations. The framework shows how approaches adopted across different levels within the organization (individual and collective) shape organizational responses to contradictions. It also highlights the viability of different approaches in different contexts. In the second part of the research, a multiple-case study of the interactions between collective and individual levels is conducted. Interview and document data are used to identify patterns of mutual interaction between approaches taken at the individual and collective levels. Three patterns of mutual influence emerged from the analysis, which are labelled as ‘confrontational’, ‘assimilative’, and ‘integrative’. The first contribution of this study is to provide a deeper look into cross-level dynamics in organisational responses to contradictions. The second contribution is to put forward a distinction between strong and soft forms of collective either/or approaches, whereby soft either/or approaches have been found to enable the development of individual bottom-up practices which supported integration.

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