Transcendence through Rhetorical Practices: Responding to Paradox in the Science Sector

Organizations are often required to meet contradictory but interrelated objectives. An important response to such paradoxes is transcendence: the ability to view both poles of the paradox as necessary and complementary. Despite the centrality of transcendence to existing frameworks within the parado...

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Veröffentlicht in:Organization studies Jg. 38; H. 1; S. 77 - 101
Hauptverfasser: Bednarek, Rebecca, Paroutis, Sotirios, Sillince, John
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: London, England SAGE Publications 01.01.2017
Sage Publications Ltd
Schlagworte:
Organization theory
Organizational behavior
Organizational behaviour
Oscillation
Rhetoric
Transcendence
science organizations
paradox
rhetoric
transcendence
ISSN:0170-8406, 1741-3044
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Zusammenfassung:Organizations are often required to meet contradictory but interrelated objectives. An important response to such paradoxes is transcendence: the ability to view both poles of the paradox as necessary and complementary. Despite the centrality of transcendence to existing frameworks within the paradox literature, we still know little about its practice. We address this gap by surfacing and analysing rhetorical practices across three science organizations. We outline four rhetorical practices that constitute transcendence (Ordering, Aspiring, Signifying, and Embodying) as well as the underlying features of these practices that explain how they construct a response to paradox. In particular, we show that transcendence entailed balancing the enabling features of focus (paradoxical content/context), time (stability/change) and distance (maintaining/reducing). Finally, we develop a dynamic view of transcendence as a process of oscillation, showing how these practices are bundled together and interrelate to construct moments of transcendence.
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ISSN:0170-8406
1741-3044
DOI:10.1177/0170840616655486