Performing Organizational Paradoxes

Gail T. Fairhurst is a Distinguished University Research Professor of Organizational Communication at the University of Cincinnati, USA. She specializes in organizational and leadership communication processes, including those involving paradox, dialectics, problem-centered leadership, framing, communication constitutes organization, and organizational discourse analysis. She is the author of four books, including The Art of Framing: Managing the Language of Leadership (with R.A. Sarr), Discursive Leadership: In Conversation with Leadership Psychology, The Power of Framing: Challenging the Language of Leadership, and Performing Organizational Paradoxes (with L. Putnam). She has also published over 100 articles and chapters in management and communication journals and books, including The Academy of Management Annals, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Organization Studies, Human Relations, Communication Monographs, and Management Communication Quarterly. She is a Fellow of the International Communication Association, Distinguished Scholar of the National Communication Association, and Fulbright Scholar. Linda L. Putnam is a Distinguished Research Professor Emerita in the Department of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research interests include paradoxes and contradictions, negotiation, organizational conflict, communication constitutes organization, and organizational discourse analysis. She is the co-editor of 13 books, author of Performing Organizational Paradoxes (with G. Fairhurst), and author of over 180 articles and book chapters. Her articles appear in such journals as Management Communication Quarterly, Communication Monographs, Academy of Management Review, Human Relations, Organization Studies, and Negotiation Journal. She is a distinguished scholar of the National Communication Association, a fellow of the International Communication Association, the recipient of life-time achievement awards from the International Association for Conflict Management and Management Communication Quarterly, and the recipient of honorary doctorates from the University of Montreal in Canada and Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland.

1. Introduction 2. Theoretical Perspectives 3. Multiple Paradoxical Tensions 4. Responding to Paradox 5. Paradox and Process Outcomes 6. Paradox and Power 7. Narrating Paradox, Bodies, and Emotions 8. Paradox Category Work 9. Possible Futures for Paradox Research