Dr. Stefan Meisiek will be presenting:
"A Dialectic Approach To Material-Discursive Interactions In Paradox Management: Evidence From An Airline In Crisis During Covid-19"
Abstract: Organizational paradoxes are assumed to be both materially grounded and socially constructed. While the discursive part of this assumption has been widely studied, few researchers have considered materiality. Extant findings show that materiality can explain why paradoxes become and remain salient, how paradoxes span organizational hierarchies and work settings, and how paradox framings might change over time. However, the dynamic interplay of discourse and materiality at the micro-level remains opaque. To address this gap, we analyze observational data and trace the material-discursive malleability of a visual artifact at the center of daily meetings of airline operations managers over a one-year period during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our dialectic analysis shows how the relational materiality produced by sayings, doings, and relatings leads to pronounced changes in paradox framings over time. Our findings suggest that relational materiality influences the continuous development of paradox framing under changing environmental conditions of plurality and scarcity. By considering the role of malleable artifacts in managing paradox, we identify a material-discursive relationship between individual cognition and system-level contradictions, thereby linking micro-level phenomena with meso- and macro-level dynamics.
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