Paradoxes and Creativity in Organizations: A Theoretical Exploration

Following the expansion of innovation as a research topic, scholars have discussed or proposed new approaches and theories. Within the field of public sector innovation, the hypothesis about the positive impact of collaboration (or co-creation) on public sector innovation has been studied or advocated. Within the field of diversity management, the positive influence of different types of diversity on innovation is explored. Within the field of organizational paradox studies, several have argued for a positive link between adopting paradoxical frames and generating creative or innovative solutions (Smith and Tushman, 2005; Miron-Spektor, Gino and Argote, 2011; Lewis and Smith, 2022). Although all three examples could be topics of theoretical exploration, the focus of this paper will be on the third example. While several refer to the idea of working with paradoxes (paradoxical frames) and Albert Rothenberg’s idea of janusian thinking as a central reference, few studies have focused on this idea per se and its cross-disciplinary travel and use in organization and management studies. Motivated by this observation, this paper asks: What are the empirical and theoretical arguments behind the theoretical idea—and how is it relevant to contemporary organizations? To answer this question, this paper focuses on the sources, development, diffusion, use, and relevance of the idea of paradoxical frames. The theoretical discussion is based on a selection of publications in two areas: (i) publications that cover the spread of theoretical ideas of paradoxical thinking and (ii) literature from the field of organizational paradox studies that discuss the idea. The discussion could be of interest to those interested in creativity and/or organizational paradoxes.