Leading in the age of paradox: optimizing behavioral style, job fit and cultural cohesion

Abstract

Organizations benefit from workforce diversity and also benefit from cultural cohesion. Individuals benefit from job/person fit. However, not only do individuals with diverse behavioral styles often have differing values and interests, they also tend to prefer different types of job assignments and work cultures. Thus, the simultaneous optimization of behavioral style diversity, job/person fit and cultural cohesion would seem to be impossible. This article explores this leadership dilemma and suggests that the skill of quantum thinking can be used to create quantum organizations where seemingly opposite conditions co‐exist. Contemporary organizational development practices such as Future Search, Appreciative Inquiry and Dialogue provide concrete methodologies for embracing paradox and, thus, creating quantum organizations.

Organisational culture: pursuing a theoretical foundation within the Finnish public oral health‐care context

“…In the case of consistency, the members of an organisation are understood to share the same values and promote a shared sense of loyalty and commitment (Martin, 1992;Shelton et al, 2002). Consistency is produced by integrative communication that often is precise, goal-oriented and reactive.…”

Opposites attract: organisational culture and supply chain performance

“…Deconstructing culture into its constituent parts is the first and most important stage in helping supply chain partners to understand the significance of differing dimensions on performance outcomes (Baird et al, 2011;Gregory et al, 2009;Prajogo and McDermott, 2011). Equipped with this understanding, firms can make better judgements on the strategic direction of the firm (Prajogo and McDermott, 2011) coupled with staff training and development, and organisational design (Shelton et al, 2002). Whilst, this study is a useful first step in providing a linear relationship between differing cultural elements, future studies could expand and develop these findings by assessing culture over a period of time and adding mediating variables which may impact the supply chain outcomes such as socialisation, relational capital, trust and communication.…”

Diversity as Polyphony: Reconceptualizing Diversity Management from a Communication-Centered Perspective

“…For instance, as Freeman (2014) reports, some corporations have taken measurements to diversify their workforce with respect to dynamic and alterable criteria such as work styles or value orientations. This development in organizational practice corresponds with a more general trend in the academic literature to draw on more fine-grained conceptualizations of diversity and to investigate the effects of diversified value orientations (e.g., Eastman and Santoro, 2003), work styles (e.g., Shelton et al, 2002), or educational backgrounds (e.g., Kearney et al, 2009) on organizational performance. We consider these works as useful first steps towards a reconceptualization of diversity management based on alterable and dynamic criteria of diversity.…”