Time:10:00 - 11:30 AM,26 June, 2024

Speaker: Josh Keller is a Professor in the School of Management and Government at the University of New South Wales. He is the founder of the Paradox Studies Education and Practice Community, which provides a platform for scholarly exchange among scholars of paradox theory worldwide. His papers have appeared in numerous top international management journals, including Academy of Management Journal, Organisation Science, Organisation Studies, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision He studied Chinese philosophy at Peking University and Nanjing University, and has worked in China's telecommunications and Internet industries.

Abstract:

Contradiction theory has recently emerged as an important conceptual and empirical framework for examining persistent, interrelated contradictions in organisations, with levels of analysis spanning individuals, teams, organisations and even societies. Unlike most scholars of modern organisational theory, scholars of contradiction theory have long emphasised that classical Chinese philosophy, particularly Taoism, is a foundational element of the theory. However, integrating Chinese and Western perspectives on paradox theory in practice is itself a paradox. Some of these challenges reflect the differences between indigenous perspectives (i.e., perspectives from within the culture) and cross-cultural perspectives (i.e., perspectives from outside the culture). Other challenges reflect fundamental contradictions within particular theories, such as the relationship between the normative and descriptive features of a theory. Still others reflect the challenge of studying contradictions from an empirical perspective. In this seminar, Professor Josh Keller will introduce the theory of contradiction and its application to research organisations and related disciplines, discuss the ways in which the theory has been studied in China and the West, integrate these perspectives, and give suggestions on how to proceed with future research. This seminar is not only for scholars interested in paradox theory, but also for other scholars interested in how to integrate Western and non-Western organisational theories.