Conflictual sociability? A paradoxical approach to politicized street theatre

In Agonistics (2013), Chantal Mouffe highlights sociability and notes its potential for artists in devising agonistic counter-hegemonic performances. However, sociability as an isolated factor is unlikely to produce politicized dissent. Instead, therefore, a politicized form of conflictual sociability is created by applying Mouffe’s notion of a ‘conflictual consensus’ (an agreement between opponents to disagree) to art practice. By applying paradoxical thinking to the performance of dissent in the public realm, the article argues for sociability in service of politicized critique. The potential of conflictual sociability is examined through guerrilla street theatre performances, an artform with the capacity to generate unauthorized and participatory incursions into the urban public realm. Firstly, via autoethnographic reflections upon a practice-based research project, The Wizard of Oz (2015) performed in London, United Kingdom; and secondly, in analysis of Dread Scott’s Money to Burn (2010) performance in Wall Street, New York, United States. Conflictual sociability offers a novel methods-led process of engaging agonistically with passers-by (publics) and transforming them into activated participants. Because it is engaging, conflictual sociability creates spaces of public dialogue that antagonistic conflict potentially shuts down. This reveals an effective pedagogy for facilitating agonistic politicized dissent through performative practices in the public realm.

The identity and self-perception of artists-managers

Manager’s and artist’s professional identities seem to be opposite, but there are many indications that this understanding is not justified in reality. Despite the contradictions, these two identities can intersect. The paper aims to define the characteristics of the artists-managers’ identity. The object of the study was qualitative research (n = 22) conducted in the form of in-depth interviews with key informants from the international environment. The practical objective was to verify common and contradicted features of the artist’s and the manager’s identities among artists-managers to understand the possibilities of reducing the intra-psychic tensions and ways of fruitful paradoxical thinking among managers and negative consequences for personalities and organizations. The study reveals common characteristics between the artist’s and manager’s identities and describes artists-managers’ identity. Although artists-managers experience diversity between both identities, they do not see them as contrary; they use paradoxical thinking, being experts in using personal seemingly contradictory characteristics to achieve outstanding performance. Acting in paradoxical contexts and focusing on the positive aspects of seemingly contradictory personal qualities, they find nonstandard creative solutions. By trying to understand and implement their self-construction, there is the possibility to reduce the intra-psychic tensions and negative consequences of seemingly opposite identities or goals among individuals in organizations. There is a synergy between the manager’s and artist’s identities. Understanding the nature and attributes of artistic creativity, aesthetic theories and the phenomenon of artist-manager’s identity can be a valuable contribution to the practice of management and organizational life.

Ledelse av profesjonalisert velferd i et paradoksteoretisk perspektiv

Despite an increased focus on the professionalisation of welfare leadership, leadership challenges in the healthcare sector and child welfare services are an unexplored area. This chapter deals with welfare leadership, and attention is directed at the nature of these challenges and how paradox theory can be used to describe and explain them. This chapter shows that the framework and conditions of welfare leadership are often contradictory and that demands and expectations are often characterised by paradoxes. Major reforms have been implemented in Norway in recent years, and increased quality, expanded expertise and stronger leadership have been among the focus areas. Many leaders in the healthcare sector and child welfare services increasingly experience conflicting and intersecting governance requirements, and everyday leadership is characterised by complexity, uncertainty and stress. Leaders in complex, contradictory and quotidian conditions experience challenges in the areas of managerial discretion and broader leadership competence. Finally, the author discusses the need for leaders to develop competence in handling dilemmas by acquiring training in paradoxical thinking and handling complexity.

Tensions within the sales ecosystem: a multi-level examination of the sales-marketing interface

Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand one portion of the sales ecological system. This paper focuses on the mesolevel or intra-organizational system that includes the sales and marketing functions. This paper examines distinct tensions at three levels of the firm’s hierarchy and the mechanisms used to manage the tensions. Design/methodology/approach The authors use a qualitative data collection. A discovery-oriented process is used to understand the interconnections that exist among marketing-sales dyads at three organizational levels across several firms. Findings This paper uncovers distinct tensions and defenses exhibited by managers at each hierarchical level and this paper presents mechanisms that can are used to reduce the tensions. Research limitations/implications The multi-level perspective demonstrates the value of examining the intra-organizational aspect of the sales ecosystem. This paper uses a qualitative approach to highlight that sales-marketing tensions are unique to each of the hierarchical levels. This paper demonstrates that the tensions are a function of the unique roles each sales and marketing executive has within the organization. Practical implications To make the sales and marketing interface more effective, managers need to view tensions across the sales-marketing interface as complementary versus opposing forces. Managers must balance these tensions, rather than fight them and/or select one of the alternatives over the other. This paper suggests that paradoxical thinking may be a valued skillset for managers at each level of the organization. Originality/value The study uses a unique qualitative data set that examines the sales-marketing interface across three levels of an organizational hierarchy. Through this approach, this paper delineates specific tensions between marketing and sales within each level of the firm. This paper also describes mechanisms to manage the tensions common within the sales-marketing interface.

Exploration of stakeholder marketing orientation and its impact on business performance in Indian pharmaceutical marketing companies

Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand the concept of stakeholder marketing orientation (SMO), its dimensionality and the development of an SMO scale. Further, the study also aims to analyze the impact of SMO on business performance (BP) in Indian pharmaceutical marketing companies. The moderating role of organizational culture between the study variables (i.e. SMO and BP) is also evaluated. Design/methodology/approach The data regarding SMO are gathered from 93 owners/managers of pharmaceutical marketing companies operating in North India. The underlying dimensions of the scale are identified through exploratory factor analysis. Further, the reliability and validity of the scales are also checked. Further, the partial least square (PLS) technique is used to analyze the study variables. Findings SMO is established as a multi-dimensional scale comprising system thinking (personal consideration of stakeholder, the relationship of stakeholder, systematic problem-solving and interdependence), paradoxical thinking (decision control and autonomy, uniformity and individualization and distance and closeness) and democratic thinking (ease for the stakeholders to share their voice, involvement in decision-making, the existence of participatory culture in the organization). The SMO showed a positive and significant impact on BP (market growth, return on investment, return on asset and market share). Further, the results also indicated the moderating role of organizational culture between SMO and BP relationship. Research limitations/implications This study primarily focuses on the measurement of SMO, exploring its dimensions (system thinking, paradoxical thinking and democratic thinking) and validating using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and PLS techniques. Further, the sample size of the study is small (n = 93), and hence confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and covariance based-SEM could not be applied. It is suggested that future research needs to be undertaken with a bigger sample in the pharmaceutical sector and later in other sectors to validate the results of the study. The impact of moderating variables such as organizational culture, industry size, type and owner experience can also be explored between the study variables in the future. The study is limited to the measurement of SMO from owners/managers’ perspectives, other internal (employees) and external stakeholders such as suppliers, distributors, chemists and hospitals were not contacted because of time constraints. Future research needs to consider the perspectives of these stakeholders in grounding the conceptual framework of SMO. Originality/value This research contributes to the development of the SMO scale. It is identified as a practice, based on system thinking, paradoxical thinking and democratic thinking, which provides an organization with better performance. The study results help in strengthening SMO and BP in pharmaceutical marketing industries.

How social entrepreneurs’ attention allocation and ambidextrous behavior enable hybrid organization

Purpose This paper aims to explore the social entrepreneurs’ attention allocation and their resource action that lead to hybrid organization using the paradox theory. Paradox theory deepens understandings of the varied nature, dynamics and outcomes of entrepreneurial tensions. This study explores the systematic effects of internal and external attention on both economic and social performance. Design/methodology/approach First, theoretically, hypotheses linking different attention allocations to ambidextrous behavior and entrepreneurial performance were formulated. Subsequently, the empirical studies based on Chinese social entrepreneurship were conducted to test the hypotheses. Findings The study provides support to the hypotheses showing that external attention is linked to resource acquisition and social performance, while internal attention is linked to resource acquisition and strategic human resource management and thus these ambidextrous behaviors promote both social and economic performance. Furthermore, normal pressure moderates the relations between internal attention and strategic human resource management only. Research limitations/implications The research measures entrepreneurs’ attention with questionnaire rather than psych test. Also, static data rather than longitudinal research is designed to test the hypotheses. Practical implications Deeper understanding of the attention of social entrepreneurs and resource action can help entrepreneurial outcomes and can potentially contribute to paradox and tension management by entrepreneurial practitioners in China. Originality/value Social entrepreneurs’ different attention allocation and related entrepreneurial ambidextrous behavior processes are linked to paradoxical thinking for the first time. The findings of this research can potentially enhance social entrepreneurship paradoxical thinking aimed at preventing mission drift.

The paradoxical thinking ‘sweet spot’: The role of recipients’ latitude of rejection in the effectiveness of paradoxical thinking messages targeting anti-refugee attitudes in Israel

The current research examined whether for a message that is based on the paradoxical thinking principles—i.e., providing extreme, exaggerated, or even absurd views, that are congruent with the held views of the message recipients—to be effective, it needs to hit a ‘sweet spot’ and lead to a contrast effect. That is, it moderates the view of the message's recipients. In the framework of attitudes toward African refugees and asylum seekers in Israel by Israeli Jews, we found that compared to more moderate messages, an extreme, but not too extreme, message was effective in leading to unfreezing for high morally convicted recipients. The very extreme message similarly led to high levels of surprise and identity threat as the extreme message that was found to be effective. However, it was so extreme and absurd that it was rejected automatically. This was manifested in high levels of disagreement compared to all other messages, rendering it less effective compared to the extreme, paradoxical thinking, message. We discuss these findings’ practical and theoretical implications for the paradoxical thinking conceptual framework as an attitude change intervention, and for social judgment theory.