Studies on organizational paradoxes often explain paradox salience exogenously, as a state of latency awaiting detection. Based on social systems theory, this process study develops an explanation of paradox salience and latency beyond an actor’s cognitive ability to think paradoxically. Such an explanation lies endogenously within the interactions of actors coping with paradox. Analysing the discussions of a hospital executive board during a change initiative reveals how factual, social and temporal references surface and submerge contradictory tensions. The proposed model for visibilizing and invisibilizing paradox explains salience and latency – even if individuals are aware of paradox – as integral to coping with paradox. As a paradox invisibilizes in an interaction it resurfaces somewhere along the line and thereby transforms within an organization.

Although scholars have begun theorising the social notion of collective reflection in organisations, empirical studies illustrating these often neat theoretical conceptualisations are still rare. Based on a longitudinal case study (the introduction of lean production at an emergency care unit), we address this need by applying a practice approach. Collective reflection in the present empirical case is manifold: it is characterised by several activities, each serving a specific purpose and enacted according to different temporal rhythms. Our inductive theorising broadens the theoretical conceptualisation of collective reflection in organisations. We propose value creation as a ‘point of reference’, in order to account for what exactly actors step back from when collectively reflecting. We found that collectively reflecting in organising means creating multiple local co-presences. We suggest that the current conceptualisation of collective reflection as a discursive practice itself calls for empirical substantiation.

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Der Tradition der St. Galler Management-Modelle folgend wird in diesem Lehrbuch Management als Funktion und Tätigkeit behandelt. Dabei werden zentrale Konzepte des Managements, der Entscheidungstheorie, der Strategie, der Führung, der Organisation und der Governance aufgegriffen. Im Vordergrund stehen zentrale Spannungsfelder des Managements und die Vermittlung modellhafter Überblicke.