...A Synopsis of Paradoxical Thinking and its Utilization In an Organization Muzit Mengesha National University MGT 605 - Organization Management and Leadership Professor Carrie Noah March 1st, 2015 Table of contents I. Introduction / Definition 3 II. A Company That Demonstrates Paradoxical Thinking 5 III. Can Paradoxical Thinking be learned 7 IV. Paradoxical Thinking, One of Eight Skills Related to Intelligence 8 V. Summary 9 VI. References 10 I. Introduction / Definition The main purpose of this paper is to define paradoxical thinking and explain its importance and applicability within organizations. After indicating the traditionally utilized cause-and-effect thinking, it will be evident cause-and-effect thinking may not be the best approach to solving managerial problems. After defining and explaining cause-and-effect thinking and posturing the idea cause-and-effect thinking can actually hinder mastery, the idea of paradoxical thinking will be...
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...Paradox Therapy Paradoxes gure prominantly in this book, but most of them are purely intellectual. Paradoxical statements are apparent impossibilities that seem well supported by apparently good arguments. Interestingly, there are paradoxical commands as well as paradoxical statements. A very simple example is the command \don't follow this command!" Whatever you choose to do seems to violate the command. In order to obey it you must disobey it, but in disobeying it, you seem to obey it. Now, at rst it might seem that such a command is rather silly and easy to ignore. But suppose you are in the army and the command is given by a superior ocer, or you're a child and the command is given by a parent, or you're in love and the command is given by your lover. In short, imagine that the command occurs in a markedly unequal relationship. Second, suppose that you can't step outside the situation to point out the absurdity of the command. There is no judge that you can appeal to. Then you would be in a major bind indeed. You would be in what psychologists call a \double bind": Anything you do can and will be used against you. Thus we see the three ingredients of a paradoxical command or double bind: (1) a strong complementary or asymmetrical relationship (ocer-subordinate) (2) that can't simply be terminated (because of society, laws, and so on) and (3) an apparently meaningful but logically contradictory order. A realistic example of a double bind is described...
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...Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………… 3 Paradoxical Thinking in Organizations………………………………………………………........ 4 Apple Inc. and Paradoxical Thinking……………………………………………………………... 5 Learning Paradoxical Thinking…………………………………………………………………… 7 Paradoxical Thinking as a Skill of Intelligence…………………………………………………... 8 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………... 9 References……………………………………………………………………………………….. 10 Abstract Paradoxical thinking is looking at a problem from a different perspective and coming up with a solution. We live in an ever-changing, dynamic environment. In order for organizations to be successful, they must be willing to resolve conflict and contradiction using apparently opposite ideas and beliefs. It is vital for organizations to understand and embrace paradoxical thinking. This paper will further discuss what paradoxical thinking is, analyze how Apple Inc. has demonstrated paradoxical thinking, discuss whether paradoxical thinking can be learned, and finally review paradoxical thinking as it relates to the eight skills of intelligence. Paradoxical Thinking in Organizations Paradoxical thinking should be the cornerstone of all organizations. A paradox exists when two seemingly inconsistent or contradictory ideas are actually both true (Quinn, Faerman, Thompson, McGrath, & St. Clair, 2011). Paradoxical thinking involves, among other things, switching to the opposite of what is conventional (Ravi, n.d.). Many organizations do not take the time to learn and absorb paradoxical thinking...
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...Results May Vary: Adam Phillips’s Theory of Cloning and The Paradoxical Apotheosis of Individualism Adam Phillips’s essay “Sameness Is All” takes the form of a dialogue with two children to introduce the fantasy of cloning in which everyone is identical. Specifically, Phillips observes that cloning is a “denial of difference and dependence” which leads to a “refusal of need” (92). However, Phillip remains mindful that such fantasy of physical or psychological sameness is implausible as everyone is different - even clones. One then questions the significance of such wanting of sameness, or if the sense of sameness serves any purpose. Using the concept of Self and Other that Joanne Finkelstein examines in “The Self as Sign,” I propose that the sense of sameness that is offered by the illusion of cloning allows one to establish a sense of identity. In a final analysis, I will elaborate on Finkelstein’s arguments on the Self and Other to shed light on the question posed by Philips on whether cloning was the death or apotheosis of individualism, and suggest that cloning has the paradoxical outcome of reinforcing individualism even as one seeks uniformity. Cloning is supposed to lead to conformity and uniformity, the absolute sameness. Phillips argues that cloning is appealing to society because it seems to represent a cure for “the terrors and delights of competition” (90-91). What is interesting, however, is the eventual admission by Phillips that this...
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...edu What’s so Funny? Section 1 As depressing as Chekov’s The Seagull is with attempted and successful suicides, hopeless love triangles, and lack of healthy relationships between almost every single character; I personally enjoyed it. Don’t get me wrong, I felt the sadness and hopelessness of the characters and plot, however, it was almost the pure paradoxical mannerisms that allowed me to actually enjoy it. It was almost as if every single character set up or created their own happiness and in some alternate reality the sad ending of the play could have been avoided. This was my reaction from just reading it. Upon actually watching the play in class, all of my inhibitions and fear of being judged for my cruel sense of humor dissipated. Physically watching the play made my thoughts more apparent and clear. I really started to feel badly for Nina due to the fact that she was, in a sense, stripped of her innocence, whereas reading it made me dislike her naivety. Section 2 In Anton Chekov’s The Seagull, there can be many debate as to what the genre of the play falls into. Some argue it is pure tragedy, others argue drama, but there are others, including Chekov, that argue it is a comedy. While these are very matter of fact and binary answers, I argue that the genre is not so black and white. Due to the paradoxical characters and their tragic demise, the genre of The Seagull can be categorized as a, “tragicomedy.” The Seagull possesses many elements of tragedy such as:...
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...ARTICLE IN PRESS Long Range Planning -- (2010) ---e--- http://www.elsevier.com/locate/lrp Complex Business Models: Managing Strategic Paradoxes Simultaneously Wendy K. Smith, Andy Binns and Michael L. Tushman As our world becomes more global, fast paced and hypercompetitive, competitive advantage may increasingly depend on success in managing paradoxical strategies strategies associated with contradictory, yet integrated tensions. We identify several types of complex business models organizations will need to adopt if they are to host such paradoxical strategies. Managing complex business models effectively depends on leadership that can make dynamic decisions, build commitment to both overarching visions and agenda specific goals, learn actively at multiple levels, and engage conflict. Leaders can engage these functions through team-centric or leader-centric structures. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction By the late 1990’s, USA Today was the highest circulating national newspaper in the United States.1 CEO Tom Curley and his senior executive team had created a new category of newspapers by negotiating distribution deals with hotels and businesses to provide national news to educated and high-income business travelers, a demographic that yielded excellent advertising revenues. When widening access to the Internet and the emergence of novel news content channels such as Yahoo! and AOL promised to put the newspaper’s position under...
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...Image of Nursing Chinedu Remigius Udu ITT Technical Institute Course Number (NU100) 09/21/2015 According to the authors Rezaei-Adaryani, Salsali, Mohammadi (2012) one of the many challenges contemporary nurses would have had to overcome is the concept of the image of nursing. According to the findings of the research that was conducted in the past based on the review of retrieved integrative Internet English Literature published from 1980 – 2011, it was shown that Nursing Image is a multi- dimensional, all-inclusive, paradoxical, dynamic, and complex concept. 1. Furthermore, the image of nursing as perceived from a cultural perspective can be very challenging. According to the authors Valizada, Zamanzadeh, Fooladi, Azadi, Negarandeh, Manadi (2014) the term “Nurse” in Iranian language called “Parastar” is a word that evokes the image of a duty maid, household maid or low-income laborer. Nurses are seen as someone with limited or no educational background. This negative profiling of the nursing profession in the Iranian society has made it extremely necessary for nurses to redefine themselves in areas of specialized health care with the intent of improving their social status and public image. Another negative image of nursing is the flirtatious perception the public has of female nurses. Female nurses are stereotyped as slim, attractive and full bosomed, who wear tight knee length uniforms with high heel shoes. This readily creates the impression that female nurses are...
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...Running Head: Vulnerable population Name: Institution: Date: Definition and Identification Over the years, HIV has killed millions of people around the world. African Americans living in the United States represent one of the groups that are adversely affected by HIV. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) refers to a virus that attacks one’s immune system which represents the natural defense system of a human body. When this defense system becomes weak, the body becomes susceptible to various diseases and infections. The virus that attacks the immune system as well as the infection that affects the body as a result of the weak immune system is called HIV. In 2014 alone, 5,128 African American women were diagnosed with HIV compared to 1,483 white women and 1,350 Latino/Hispanic women in the USA (CDC, 2016). This study is going to investigate the problem of HIV among this vulnerable population. The study will also investigate the risk factors of HIV among this population. Finally, the study is going to discuss the nursing implications. Problems, Susceptibility, Exposures and Frequency An earlier report by Global-Campaign in 2006 indicated that of the total population of the United States, African Americans only account for 13 percent. However, African Americans account for more than half of all the new HIV cases in the U.S. especially the women, making them a vulnerable community (Ragsdale-Hearns, 2012). This high frequency rates among them is due to various problems and...
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...by this theory. The strategic therapy is dated back to the early 1950s and as mentioned before was developed by Don Jackson and is associated with communication theory which was developed by Gregory Bateson, who is also the leader of Palo Alto. During the mid-1980s and early 1990s strategic family therapy was sharply criticized as being covert, manipulative, and even unethical in its practice (Duncan, 1992; Held, 1992;Wendorf & Wendorf, 1985). Strategic therapy is wide spread throughout the world even though there was a lot of resistance from traditional therapists. As mentioned before Jay Haley and the Milan Group are important practitioners of this approach and focusing primarily on resolving the presenting problems in a seemingly “paradoxical” way. The strategic approach is also associated with the Mental Research Institute (MRI) which was founded by Palo. Strategic family therapy has a strong belief in systems, specifically family systems. Where they believe that the whole family should be apart of therapy and interventions. This stems from the belief that parents influence child development and family bonds play a central role of how a person develops mentally. Strategic family therapy obviously...
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...Use Clausewitz’s “paradoxical trinity” to analyze a specific war from the H100 block. Which of the three magnets of Clausewitz’s paradoxical trinity is most important for understanding that particular conflict? “The fastest runner doesn't always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn't always win the battle… It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time.” Ecclesiates 9:11 is an often cited passage of the bible used to explain the unexplainable or as an excuse for failure. I will allow that circumstances will always arise (whether in war or everyday life) that could not be predicted; however, the relative reaction to those circumstances is what separates the truly great from the merely average. I will show in this paper that the ability to creatively control ‘chance’ is the single most important factor of Carl von Clausewitz’s paradoxical trinity in understanding the greatness of Napoleon Bonapart. He called this ability in a battlefield situation, ‘military genius’ and although Clausewitz believed in the equity of the three points in his trinity, I would posit that the ability to successfully apply military ingenuity and initiative to the probabilities and uncertainties of war is what was ultimately the deciding factor in the Napoleonic Wars. A closer look at the Battles at Austerlitz, Borodino and Waterloo will demonstrate the role of chance and the military genius in victory and defeat. It is necessary first to briefly explain Clausewitz’s...
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...In “Yet Do I Marvel,” Countee Cullen expresses an ambivalence that many of us are familiar with. It is not too difficult to sympathize with the poet’s opening lines: “I doubt that God is good, well-meaning, kind,/And Did he stoop to quibble could tell why/The little buried mole continues blind.” Here, it is made plain to us that his beliefs dictate that God is ultimately good and righteous, yet, nonetheless, life has apparently given him reasons to question his. As the title indicates, Cullen is marveling at life and human beings as God’s creations and the relationship we have with Him. Although he says he is free of doubt, skepticism appears to be present in this remark. Here perhaps the rather rhetorical question of why life is the way it is is being posed. It seems, at least up until this point, that Cullen is supposing that a truly good God would not subject His creatures to such paradoxical, even cruel, situations. Upon closer analysis of the mole and its scenario (“The little buried mole continues blind”), which may function as a metaphor for the poet himself, the possibility is not ruled out that the poet is hinting to us what seems to be an inescapably bad situation may in fact be a fixable one. A mole, like all creatures, has adapted in ways that allows it to survive, and it may be that Cullen is suggesting to us that thing are not as random and as terrible as they may seem and that there is a way out of challenging situations. The following line, though, counters this...
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...Beyond Sophisticated Stereotyping: Cultural Sensemaking in Context [and Executive Commentaries] Author(s): Joyce S. Osland, Allan Bird, June Delano and Mathew Jacob Source: The Academy of Management Executive (1993-2005), Vol. 14, No. 1, Themes: Forming Impressions and Giving Feedback (Feb., 2000), pp. 65-79 Published by: Academy of Management Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4165609 . Accessed: 05/08/2013 09:54 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . Academy of Management is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Academy of Management Executive (1993-2005). http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 155.33.240.146 on Mon, 5 Aug 2013 09:54:15 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ? Academy of Management Executive, 2000, Vol. 14, No. 1 Beyond sophisticated stereotyping: Cultural sensemakingn i context Joyce S. Osland and Allan Bird Executive Overview Much of our cross-cultural training and research occurs within...
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...There is no magic pill that will get you over your ex; no quick fix that will get them out of your mind. However, this doesn't mean that you have to live with the pain the rest of your life. You may feel sad, alone, or depressed right now, but with some time and a conscious focus on your life you will be able to get over your break up and feel better about life than you ever have. Yes, it will take time, but the advice below will help ease your pain and put your mind on the future. Emotional Resilience The emotional turmoil following a break up is always intense and it is easy to lose control of yourself. You may fall into depression or desperation and feel as if you're going to die. Depending on the circumstances you may be very angry at your...
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...Postmodernism * Postmodernism: 1945-? * “Postmodernism named a shift in art, architecture,and literature away from the austere formalism and the sometimes sanctified tenor of modernism, often employing pastiche and transgressing the boundary between high and low art.” * “It also described a turn in literary theory and philosophy toward a focus on language itself, exposing the constructed news of what we had assumed were natural categories. In a word, postmodernism was meta.” * “Like ideas of the modern and the postmodern, the contemporary brings up the question of whether it simply designates a new style or more deeply captures the state of society and the feeling of our era. Key elements seem to run throughout discussions, especially the speed up of time and the reveling effects of globalization. If postmodernism was self-conscious about language, the contemporary is hyperconscious of time.” * Also referred to as contemporary literature, which is perceived as being “hyperconscious of time.” (The Sound and the Fury) * “Globalization is why many theorists set the starting date of the contemporary at 1989, because the fall of the Berlin Wall signaled the end of dividing the world between the capitalist West and the communist East. That is why postmodernism is no longer adequate.” * “That is a chief difference from previous eras, even the postmodern. Postmodernism might have responded to media like TV, but the contemporary arose with the advent of personal...
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...Basic Techniques in Marriage and Family Counseling and Therapy. ERIC Digest. The area of marriage and family counseling/therapy has exploded over the past decade. Counselors at all levels are expected to work effectively with couples and families experiencing a wide variety of issues and problems. Structural, strategic, and transgenerational family therapists at times may seem to be operating alike, using similar interventions with a family. Differences might become clear when the therapist explains a certain technique or intervention. Most of today's practicing family therapists go far beyond the limited number of techniques usually associated with a single theory. TECHNIQUES The following select techniques have been used in working with couples and families to stimulate change or gain greater information about the family system. Each technique should be judiciously applied and viewed as not a cure, but rather a method to help mobilize the family. The when, where, and how of each intervention always rests with the therapist's professional judgment and personal skills. THE GENOGRAM The genogram, a technique often used early in family therapy, provides a graphic picture of the family history. The genogram reveals the family's basic structure and demographics. (McGoldrick & Gerson, 1985). Through symbols, it offers a picture of three generations. Names, dates of marriage, divorce, death, and other relevant facts are included in the genogram. It provides an enormous amount...
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