A figure is worth a thousand words: The role of visualization in paradox theorizing

Visualization (i.e., the use of figures and images to represent findings and conceptual models) is central to theorizing. Yet, by focusing solely on the textual content of papers, analysis has inadvertently marginalized the graphic representations of key ideas. We review the paradox literature not just in terms of what authors have written but also how they have visualized models concisely. An analysis of figures in paradox articles captures the essential role that visuals play in our understanding of competing tensions, leveraging the power of imagery. We explore paradox visually, searching for the figurative materialization of paradox; more particularly, we seek visual signs that render abstract ideas more saliently and concretely. We contribute to paradox theory in three ways. First, we show how visuals constitute the lynchpin between convergent and divergent forces, allowing scholars to simultaneously reinforce and challenge current understanding. Second, we offer a tool for scholars to theorize competing demands based on three key antinomies, or dualities, that define the terrain of research in our field. Third, we reveal the performative effect of figures by identifying the ongoing dominance of certain classes of paradox visuals, which allows us to point to uncharted territories for paradox research.

Positive leadership action framework: Simply doing good and doing well

This article presents the Positive Leadership Action Framework (PLAF) to structure Positive Leadership (PL). The novelty of the PLAF is that it incorporates the connections of PL to positive outcomes (financial and economic performance and social well-being) and organizational virtuousness. Also, it acknowledges its conditional nature on the virtues to achieve flourishing within the organization and society at large. We argue that the leader's actions function as the engine for positive change within the organization, bridging the gap between individual virtues and organizational virtuousness and creating a feedback loop among both. To develop a positive organization, a leader needs to create positive assumptions among (and about) coworkers, positively impact the personal and professional development of employees, and balance positive formal and informal conditions at work. To do so, it is a sine qua non condition that the positive leader fosters his/her personal development by exercising the virtues and developing practical wisdom. In this way, the positive leader automatically provides followers with a vision of the final end towards the common good and achieves to set his/her organization on a pathway towards excellence.

Becoming a Fraternal Organization: Insights from the Encyclical Fratelli Tutti

We uncover fundamental dimensions of the process through which organizations embed the practice of fraternity through embarking on an organizational journey in the direction of the common good. Building on the latest encyclical of Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, about fraternal and social friendship, we offer insight into the understanding of what it means to become a fraternal organization and reflect on the key ethical and paradoxical challenges for organizations aiming at collectively contributing to the common good. We add to previous work by characterizing this journey as a process involving unique ethical challenges that emerge from the paradoxes associated with this process and how this might change the nature of the relationships between organizations and others within the organizational landscape.

The paradox of the peasantry in management and organization studies

Purpose

Burrell (2020) challenged management and organization studies (MOS) scholars to pay attention to a topic they have mostly ignored: the peasantry, those 2 billion people that work in the rural primary sector. This paper aims to address the topic to expand Burrell’s challenge by indicating that the peasantry offers a unique context to study a paradoxical condition: the coexistence of persistent poverty and vanguardist innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors advance conceptual arguments that complement the reasons why researchers should pay more attention to the peasantry. They argue that continuation of past research into field laborers, transitioning from feudalism to industrial capitalism, still has currency, not just because of the good reasons listed by Burrell (enduring relevance of the phenomenon in developing countries; sustainability concerns; acknowledgment of common heritage) but also because some seemingly archaic practices are evident in the economically developed countries where most management and organizations scholars live.

Findings

The authors show that in advanced economies, the peasantry has not disappeared, and it is manifested in contradictory forms, as positive force contributing to sustainable productivity (in the case of digitized agriculture) and as a negative legacy of social inequality and exploitation (as a form of modern slavery).

Originality/value

The authors discuss contrasting themes confronting management of the peasantry, namely, modern slavery and digital farming, and propose that a paradox view may help overcome unnecessary dualisms, which may promote social exclusion rather than integrated development.

Theorizing compassionate leadership from the case of Jacinda Ardern: Legitimacy, paradox and resource conservation

During times of suffering such as that inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, compassion expressed by leaders helps to ease distress. Doing so, those in a position to provide resources that might facilitate coping and recovery are attentive to the situations of distress. Despite an abundance of leadership theorizing and models, there still is little academic literature on compassionate leadership. To address this limitation, we present an exploratory case study of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, someone widely recognized for her compassionate leadership and frequently described in paradoxical terms (e.g. ‘kind and strong’; embodying ‘steel and compassion’). We address her compassionate leadership through the lenses of paradox theory, legitimacy theory and conservation of resources theory. We contribute a heuristic framework that sees various types of legitimacy leveraged synergistically to build resources and alleviate suffering – providing further legitimacy in an upward spiral of compassionate leadership.

Non-naïve organizational positivity through a generative paradox pedagogy

Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS), with positivity as a core conceptual component, is a major innovation in recent decades in management and organizational studies. Just as organization is an inherently paradox laden process, so too, we argue, is positivity. Yet in classrooms and in practice, POS is mostly taught in a manner that accepts only one side of the paradox, that which, at first glance, appears positive. Against such linear approaches we propose another possibility: teaching positivity through a pedagogy of generative paradoxes emergent from creatively harmonizing the energy of competing and interdependent positive and negative tensions. In the process we extend the notion of generative paradox as discussed in paradox literature by embracing the notion of generativity as discussed in POS theorizing where it is associated with organizational processes that facilitate outcomes of collective flourishing, abundance, wellbeing, and virtue. Our proposed three-part generative paradox pedagogy contributes to the literature on POS, organizational paradox, and management learning.

Speaking truth to power: The academic as jester stimulating management learning

The jester embodies an ancient social institution, which serves a paradoxical purpose: to mitigate the excesses of power, while serving and supporting the ruler through a license to jest. The metaphor of the jester, used constructively, offers a unique window on the contradictions of organizational studies and their paradoxical role in relation to corporate practices. We explore how jesting may inform academic work through using humour and laughter to deconstruct organizational taboos and convey truth to power. We suggest that academic jesting constitute a wise and undervalued way in which management learning can occur.

Stewardship as process: A paradox perspective

Long-term stewardship is usually represented as a stable structural condition and portrayed as a source of competitive advantage to firms (including family businesses) that use it as a mode of governance. Less is known about how organizations engage with stewardship as a process. We embrace a process approach to report a case study about the unfolding of stewardship in a multi-business family group. We conclude that stewardship is a process marked by critical tensions and paradoxes; by exploring the nature of these we uncover further dimensions and responses to the paradoxes of stewardship.

P766 Elegibility for CLOSE and REDUCE trials of real world patients with Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA) or Acute Ischemic Stroke (AIS) and Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO)

Introduction

In the last decade there has been an intense discussion in which therapeutic option is most suitable for patients with TIA or cryptogenic AIS and a PFO. Recently two randomised studies (CLOSE and REDUCE) have been published tackling this question. Both have showed preference in lower recurrence rates in the group assigned for PFO closure. The eligibility criteria of these types of studies frequently are very restricted, becoming difficult to ascertain the best therapeutic option for a large number of patients.

Goal

Analyse a real world cohort of patients with TIA or cryptogenic AIS with PFO and identify the eligibility of these patients for the inclusion in the CLOSE and REDUCE trials.

Methods

We made a retrospective observational analysis of a cohort of patients discussed in a multidisciplinary meeting (Cardiology and Neurology departments) of our Hospital in which is made the decision of PFO closure vs conservative management between November 2017 and November 2018. We included all the patients with probable TIA or AIS and PFO. Demographic, clinical, image and therapeutic data was registered. The inclusion and exclusion criteria used in CLOSE and REDUCE trial were applied.

Results

25 patients were analysed, 56.0% (n = 14) were male. Median age of 47 years. Median RoPE score 7. The commonest cardiovascular risk factors were hypertension (36.0%, n = 9) and smoking (28.0%, n = 7). Eight patients met criteria for cortical cryptogenic AIS, three had lacunar strokes, two had TIA with findings in cerebral imaging and twelve presented with TIA without findings in cerebral imaging. Transesophagic echocardiography was performed in 92.0% (n = 23) of patients, transthoracic echocardiography with bubble study was performed in two cases. At the time of data collection, six patients were waiting completion of the workup. PFO closure was performed in three cases. Closure was proposed in other two. When applying the eligibility criteria of CLOSE and REDUCE the main reasons for exclusion in the REDUCE trial were TIA without cerebral imaging (48.0%, n = 12), incomplete antiphospholipid antibody syndrome screening (36.0%, n = 9) and age greater than 59 years (28.0%, n = 7). The main reasons for exclusion in the CLOSE trial were TIA without cerebral imaging (48.0%, n = 12), age greater than 60 years (28%, n = 7) and failing to meet the designated echocardiography criteria (20.0%, n = 5).

Conclusion

2 real world patients met eligibility criteria for the REDUCE trial and 3 for CLOSE. The main reason for exclusion in both REDUCE and CLOSE was TIA without cerebral imaging (48.0% n = 12). Older patients, and patients with a prothrombotic condition were also excluded. Multidisciplinary meetings are essential to ascertain the most beneficial therapeutic option for these patients. It is our believe that the management of risk factors should be similar in a TIA and a AIS and also that the presence of a prothrombotic condition should favor the closure of PFO.

Why does performance management not perform?

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to ask why poor performance management practices persist in Portugal, in the middle of claims to increase productivity.

Design/methodology/approach

An inductive micro-practice analysis is used to understand barriers to management practice that do not require massive institutional changes.

Findings

The practice of performance management in Portugal typically displays three weaknesses: (1) insufficient planning (2) process and integrity issues, and (3) a non-meritocratic logic.

Research limitations/implications

The paper discusses the important topic of persistence of bad practices, showing how institutionalized patterns might be difficult to eradicate even they are suboptimal.

Practical implications

The authors identity key issues in the functioning of performance management, therefore helping managers in developing remedies to improve the quality of their practice.

Originality/value

The paper explains the persistence of bad management practice whose continuity hinders not only organizations’ effectiveness but also that of their members.

Mission impossible? The paradoxes of stretch goal setting

Stretch goal setting is a process involving multiple and nested paradoxes. The paradoxical side of stretch is attractive because it holds great promise yet dangerous because it triggers processes that are hard to control. Paradoxes are not readily managed by assuming a linear relation between the here and now and the intended future perfect. Before adopting stretch goal setting, managers should thus be prepared for the tensions and contradictions created by nested or interwoven paradoxes. Achieving stretch goals can be as difficult for the managers seeking to direct the process as for designated delegates. While the increasing popularity of stretch goal setting is understandable, its unexpected consequences must be taken into account. The inadequate use of stretch goals can jeopardize the social sustainability of organizations as well as their societal support systems.

Pressure ulcers or moisture lesions: the theatre perspective

Pressure ulcers continue to be a cause for concern in the healthcare industry (IHI 2015). Unfortunately older patients are at a greater risk of developing pressure ulcers (Kottner et al 2013); moisture lesions and the presence of other comorbidities could have long term effects on the patient's health and recovery.

Atitudes perante os Trabalhadores mais Velhos: A Perspetiva dos Estudantes Universitários

RESUMO Procuramos compreender (a) se a estrutura pentadimensional (dimensões: adaptabilidade; valia dos mais velhos para a organização; conscienciosidade e lealdade; capital social e generosidade; desempenho) do instrumento de medida das atitudes dos gestores perante os trabalhadores mais velhos anteriormente desenvolvido é replicada em uma amostra de estudantes universitários e (b) se essas atitudes ajudam a explicar as decisões dos estudantes. A amostra envolveu 278 estudantes universitários portugueses. Os principais resultados são os seguintes: (a) a estrutura pentadimensional obtida com gestores portugueses e brasileiros replica-se na amostra de estudantes; (b) apesar de os estudantes reconhecerem qualidades nos trabalhadores mais velhos, revelam inclinação para práticas discriminatórias relativamente a esses trabalhadores, e essa inclinação parece ser mais acentuada do que a identificada em gestores.

Reflexive work and the duality of self-leadership

The concept of self-leadership is known and accepted, but still under-researched. By considering the reflexive work involved in the process of self-leadership, we seek to understand what factors are relevant for managers to be effective in a sustainable and productive way. We ask how managers engage in self-leadership. Empirically, we find that self-leadership is a process that can be translated into the capability of handling and sustaining four dualities: challenge and routine; self and others; nonwork and work; mind and body.

Powers of Romance

Problematic organizational relationships have recently been at the core of highly visible media coverage. Most analyses of sexual relations in organizations have been, however, simplistic and unidimensional, and have placed insufficient systematic emphasis on the role of governmentality in the social construction of organizational romance. In this article, we proceed in two theoretical steps. First, we elaborate a typology of organizational romance that covers different manifestations of this nuanced process. We think of these as organizational strategies of governmentality. Second, we elaborate and identify liminal cases that fall into the interstices of the four predominant ways of managing sexual relationships in organizations. We think of these as vases of liquid love and life that evade the border controls of regulation by governmentality. Finally, we relate these issues to debates about the nature of the civilizational process and suggest hypotheses for future research.

Tales of the unexpected: Discussing improvisational learning

Improvisation has been treated largely as if it were a conceptual monolith: all improvisations are similar. We challenge this theorizing by distinguishing forms of improvisation in organizations (semi-structured, episodic, subversive, resistive) and by exploring ways in which these forms interrelate in improvisational sequences. Improvisation is not just something individuals do; it is a learned capacity that organizations can manage. We introduce the dimension of improvisational formality and informality, adding a political dimension to the study of the topic. By combining forms in process sequences, we organize the existing literature under a systematic perspective facilitating theory development via an integrative understanding of how improvisation produces learning.

Lessons for leaders: Positive organization studies meets Niccolò Machiavelli

Machiavelli should be a central and canonical text for management education, even in the age of positive organizational literatures. We give it this role by considering the case of the virtuous leader. Our proposition is simple: virtuous leaders live and act, like anybody else, in the power circuits that are constitutive of reality. Therefore, they participate in power dynamics that sometimes make them face the need to decide in ways that do not correspond to normative positive precepts. Machiavelli shows that even virtuous leaders must do what needs to be done, while trying to preserve one’s values and move in the direction of noble, high purpose goals.

The Theory and Practice of Utopia in a Total Institution: The Pineapple Panopticon

Genocide has been a constant presence in the history of humanity throughout the ages. Recently, calls to study the organization of genocide and genocidal organizations have been increasing. In this paper we study the functioning of the S-21 extermination camp, an instrument of Ângkar, ‘The Organization’, which imposed genocide on the Cambodian people in the 1970s. We analyse the conditions that enable the organization of genocide, showing that three pillars seem to play essential roles: a utopian vision; support of this vision by total institutional spaces, and the control commitments of the people caught in the utopian vortex. Genocide appears as a potential outcome of the particular type of organization combining these three processes.

Mundane Objects and the Banality of Evil

In this article, we study one organization that played a pivotal role in the Cambodian genocide of the 1970s: the S-21 extermination center. We analyze, in particular, how processes of sociomateriality in the death camp contributed to create order and normalcy in an extreme and abnormal organization. A more nuanced view of agency ensues from this analysis, one that helps the understanding of how the creation of material spaces critically influences organizing, including the organizing of genocide.

Biomechanical evaluation of proximal tibia behaviour with the use of femoral stems in revision TKA: an in vitro and finite element analysis

BACKGROUND

Recognized failure mechanisms after revision total knee arthroplasty include failure of fixation, instability and loosening. Thus, extended stems have been used to improve fixation and stability. In clinical cases where the stem is only applied in the femur, a question concerning the structural aspect of tibia may arise: Does a stemmed femur changes the structural behaviour of proximal tibia? It seems, that question has not yet been fully answered and the use of stems in the opposite bone structure requires further analysis.

METHODS

Proximal cortex strains were measured with tri-axial strain gauges in synthetic tibias for three different types of implanted femurs, with two constrained implants. To assess the strains at the cancellous bone under the tibial tray, it was considered a closest physiological load condition with the use of finite element models.

FINDINGS

No significant differences of the mean of the tibial cortex strains for the stemmed femur relatively to the stemless femur were observed. The R(2) and slopes values of the linear regressions between experimental and finite element strains were close to one indicating good correlations. The strain behaviour of cancellous bone under the tibial tray is not completely immune to the use of femoral stem extensions. However, the level of this alteration is relatively small when compared with the strain magnitudes.

INTERPRETATION

The main insight given by the present study could probably lie in the fact that the use of femoral stems does not contribute to an increase of the risk of failure of the tibia.

Do the opportunities for learning and personal development lead to happiness? It depends on work-family conciliation

The study shows how the perceptions of opportunities for learning and personal development predict five dimensions of affective well-being (AWB: pleasure, comfort, placidity, enthusiasm, and vigor), and how this relationship is moderated by the perceptions of work-family conciliation. A sample comprising 404 individuals was collected. The findings show the following: (1) both the perceptions of opportunities for learning and personal development and perceptions of work-family conciliation predict AWB, the happier individuals being those who have high perceptions on both variables; (2) both variables interact in predicting AWB, in such a way that perceptions of high opportunities for learning and personal development may not lead to higher AWB if work-family conciliation is low. Post hoc analysis also suggests that the relationship between the perceptions of opportunities for learning and personal development and AWB tends to be nonlinear for individuals with perceptions of low work-family conciliation.

Exploring the Role of Leader—Subordinate Interactions in the Construction of Organizational Positivity

In this article we discuss individual implicit theories of how positive and negative organizing unfold. The discussion is grounded in data collected from 89 individuals working in different organizational contexts. An inductive logic was followed, based on critical incidents of positive and negative processes and outcomes presented by participants, according to how they viewed their professional situation. Through a dialectical process of analysis, we extracted six dimensions that were present in different combinations among narratives provided by the participants: recognition/indifference, communication/silence, interaction/separation, confidence/ distrust, loyalty/betrayal, and organizational transparency/organizational secrecy. We then analysed how these dimensions fit together and discovered that they could be organized around four major patterns combining the clarity/secrecy of organizational rules and the considerate/detached behavior of leaders. We assert that positive leaders are essential in the creation of patterns of organizing, regardless of the features of the external context.