Leadership Discourse · Scholar Profile

Exploring Paradox

Marianne W. Lewis · 2000

Persistent contradictions can become a lens for learning rather than a signal of failure.

The Scholar

Marianne W. Lewis is an organization scholar whose research helped consolidate paradox from a scattered metaphor into a systematic field. Her later collaboration with Wendy K. Smith developed the dynamic-equilibrium model and translated paradox research for leaders.

The Idea in Context

Lewis’s 2000 Academy of Management Review article synthesized paradox scholarship and described how defensive reactions intensify vicious cycles. Acceptance, confrontation, and transcendence offer ways to engage contradictory yet interrelated demands more productively.

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The Enduring Contribution

The big ideaThe attempt to eliminate a persistent tension can strengthen it; naming and engaging the relationship can interrupt the cycle.

Landmark Works

2000

Exploring Paradox: Toward a More Comprehensive Guide

2011

Toward a Theory of Paradox (with Wendy K. Smith)

2022

Both/And Thinking (with Wendy K. Smith)

Open Sky Lineage

This work is mapped within the Paradox lineage: relational roots → organizational tensions → exploration and exploitation → polarity management → structural ambidexterity → formal paradox theory → contemporary both/and practice.

Explore the Both/And module →

In Practice

Notice defensive splitting, projection, and either/or framing.

Create practices that repeatedly differentiate and integrate competing demands.

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Reflection

Which recurring tension triggers defensiveness in your system?

What response would make the tension discussable without pretending it disappears?

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Sources & Further Reading

Lewis, M. W. (2000). Exploring paradox: Toward a more comprehensive guide. Academy of Management Review, 25(4), 760–776.
Smith, W. K., & Lewis, M. W. (2011). Toward a theory of paradox. Academy of Management Review, 36(2), 381–403.