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Abstract: Attention to the subject of organizational paradoxes has been increasing in the last several years as organizational scholars have extolled the opportunities offered by tensions, contradictions and oppositions in understanding organizations, organizing and the organized. This paper demonstrates the theoretical and empirical value of applying a paradox lens on family businesses that undergo a fundamental process of change by discussing three interrelated paradoxes: the paradox of ownership, the paradox of consultancy and the family business paradox.
Key words: family business, paradox, owners, consultants, organizational change.
1. Introduction
The complex nature of organizational life has led to an abundance of tensions, contradictions and paradoxes in the organizational literature (Putnam, 1986; Lewis, 2000; Stohl & Cheney, 2001; Smith & Lewis, 2011). It seems that there is no need for a fine tooth comb in finding paradoxes in organizations and organizing. This paper adds to the provocative diversity of ironies, contradictions and paradoxes present in organizational life by introducing three types of paradoxes encountered in a case study of a Romanian Fish Company.
Similar to previous research on paradoxes, I consider them to be "contradictory yet interrelated elements" (Smith & Lewis, 2011), or underlying tensions, which are based in interaction (Stohl & Cheney, 2001), reflect back on each other and sometimes trap each other and become a double bind. Paradoxes imply competing goals that undermine each other (Stohl & Cheney, 2001) and sometimes paralyze organizational members.
Unlike such research however, this paper tries to demonstrate that although some organizational paradoxes are constructed and reproduced in local interactions through the use of language and discourses as means to create reality, most organizational paradoxes have historical and cultural roots and can be established, composed, designed and sustained by social, economic and political discourses or ideologies that exist outside organizations.
2. Case and Methodology
The Fish Company, which was born through the privatization of the former state owned County Fish Enterprise, is a middle sized enterprise in Romania. During the last decade, the company tried to enlarge its operational basis by adding other divisions tightly connected to its core activity. Presently, the company has three operational divisions: the original fish division, which encompasses 400 ha of lakes where fish are grown, one processing unit and seven directly owned fish...