Chauhan, Trishna (2021) Oscillating between vicious and virtuous cycles : navigating and responding to multiple, interrelated knotted paradoxes. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

Multiple paradoxical tensions are a persistent and pervasive feature of organisational life. Existing research on paradox has examined paradox at organisational and individual levels (Andriopoulos & Lewis, 2009; Battilana et al., 2015; Hahn et al., 2014; Jay, 2013; Kreiner et al., 2006, 2014; Miron-Spektor et al., 2011; Sheep, Fairhurst, et al., 2017; Smith, 2014; Zhang et al., 2014). More recently, research has examined the concept of nested paradoxes (Andriopoulos & Lewis, 2009; Putnam et al., 2016; Schad et al., 2016; Smith & Lewis, 2011), where paradoxes at one level influence another. While these studies hold promise in understanding multiple tensions across different levels of analysis, to date, no study examines the impact of multiple tensions at a single level of analysis – where ‘paradoxes of paradoxes’ may emerge. Therefore, I ask two key research questions. First, how and in what way do paradoxes co-exist within an overarching paradox? Second, how are individual actors navigating and responding to such paradoxes?

In order to address this research gap, I focus on an organisational role that is paradoxical in nature. This group of actors are known as Peer Support Workers (PSWs), and their paradoxical role means they are required to represent both the organisation and the service-users. These differing representations are indicative of multiple competing tensions. Drawing on 69 semistructured interviews, several informal conversations and observations, I provide new insights into how multiple paradoxes emerge within this overarching paradox PSWs embody. From the findings, I identified four distinct paradox states: ‘challenging the tension’, ‘mitigating the tension’, ‘struggling with the tension’, and ‘protecting the tension’. Each of these paradox states consisted of interwoven, knotted, and complementary paradoxes of voice, experience, and identity that differed through their weighted constellations of each of the paradoxes. Drawing on the analysis, I develop a typographic model of different embedded processes resulting in virtuous, vicious, and a newly identified neutral cycle as patterns of responses to multiple knotted paradoxes. I contribute to the paradox literature by showing how multiple paradoxes can be embedded within an overarching paradox, with theoretical progression in depicting knotted paradoxes, that can become unknotted. Second, I demonstrate how drivers of oscillation can cause an ongoing oscillating multi-directional shift between vicious and virtuous cycles, moving beyond existing research that depicts a unidirectional shift (Huq et al., 2017; Lewis, 2018; Pradies et al., 2020).

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Paradox, Social conflict, Peer counseling, Organizational behavior
Official Date:	September 2021
Dates:	Date Event September 2021 UNSPECIFIED
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Warwick Business School
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Croft, Charlotte
Sponsors:	National Institute for Health Research (Great Britain). Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care West Midlands
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	x, 315 leaves : illustrations
Language:	eng

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