Paradox is defined as persistent contradiction between interdependent elements. The ability of leaders to frame these paradoxes as “both – and”, rather than “either – or” by identifying how they reinforce each other is crucial for organisations to thrive in complexity. As a segment within leader roles, middle management has been highlighted as being particularly vulnerable to tensions arising from contradictory demands as middle managers often have the responsibility of translating organisational mandates defined by senior executives to team members. Prior action research by Luscher and Lewis (2008) has focussed on the process of paradoxical inquiry, which helps leaders to cope with the tensions, which are inherent in the communicative patterns embedded in an organisation’s systems, roles, and relationships. While this prior research has focussed on how leaders could develop increased acceptance and comfort with paradoxical tensions, current research aims to understand how leaders’ ability to not only accept but actively transcend paradoxical tensions can be developed by applying the construct of job crafting using a mixed methods intervention design.
This study used a qualitative methodology of semi-structured interviews of 12 middle managers to understand how leaders craft their own roles to respond to paradoxical tensions in people management.
This research addresses three important gaps in the existing literature. First, it establishes the link of paradoxical leadership with job crafting, which is a construct that has not been linked to paradox research before; second, it proposes ways to respond to tensions, which extend beyond acceptance and confrontation of the tension to transcending it through job crafting; third, it explores job crafting in the leader role, which is a relatively unexplored area in job crafting literature. It also has important practical implications by opening avenues for the use of job crafting in leadership development interventions in organisations by encouraging leaders to redefine their roles in response to paradoxical tensions. Limitations and directions for further research have been discussed in detail.
