When paradox has no structure: The evolution of paradox in emerging organizations

Scholars have turned to the notion of paradox to understand how to effectively manage persistent contradictory and interdependent forces that organizations need to pursue if they want to succeed in increasingly complex and dynamic environments. Paradox theory has been helpful to advance our understanding of paradoxes of organizing which manifest in presence of competing structures and processes; for example the exploration and exploitation paradox. However little is still known about the paradoxes of belonging that arise from issues of membership; for example competing identities. While recent studies have started to explore the paradoxes of performing which manifest in the presence of competing goals, the lack of focus on paradox of belonging leaves open important question on the nature of their relationship. This thesis addresses these oversights by adopting a practice-theoretical view to the study of paradox. Paradoxes of belonging are likely to be particularly prevalent in emerging organizations due to their unique characteristics, which make the experience of paradox more salient, are also likely to have a critical effect on how paradox manifest overtime. Using a qualitative single in-depth case study, this thesis explores the process of emergence of a start-up using a rich data set. An iterative analytical process emerged three main findings. First, the organizing paradox – exploration and exploitation – was largely expressed at the belonging level. Second, actors constructed the paradox of belonging in a nuanced way by embedding into the dominant membership its opposite. Third, the analysis revealed a misalignment between the paradoxes of belonging and performing, which influenced how the paradox of belonging manifested over time, and outcomes at the organizing level. In particular, findings indicate that a change in the direction of the firm was possible when actors were shifting the way in which they constructed the belonging paradox. Building on these findings, this thesis makes important contributions to paradox theory. It extends our yet limited understanding of the paradox of belonging by uncovering new dynamics in the way actors construct and respond to this type of paradox, and a new type of relationships between paradoxes across levels