A Contingency Theory of Organizational Response to Paradoxical Requirements: A Study of Emergency Response Organizations

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Organizations often face paradoxical demands, dualities, and tensions, such as the need for stability versus the need to change and adapt, the need for employee participation versus the need for management control, and the need for proactive planning versus the need for reactive responsiveness to external conditions. Traditional organizational structures and processes are often not effective in promoting organizational responses to paradoxical demands, and a large literature on paradox has developed in an effort to grasp paradox, its impacts, and possible responses. This project advances a general contingency theory of organizational response to paradoxical demands. The theory posits that it is not paradoxes per se, but rather the organization's response to paradoxes that determines their impacts, positive or negative on organizational effectiveness. The theory defines six distinct responses organizations may take when confronted with paradoxical demands, none of which is always the best response to paradoxical situations. The degree to which each of the various responses is likely to effectively deal with the paradox depends on four contingency variables: (1) press, the strength and urgency of the paradoxical demands; (2) the balance between the two poles of the paradox; (3) collaborative climate; and (4) the organization's level of experience in dealing with the paradox. The contingency theory is investigated in the context of the Netherlands emergency management system. Emergency management is fraught with paradoxes, in particular the integration-differentiation paradox and the paradox of professionalism. We investigate how regional emergency management centers within the Netherlands system respond to these two paradoxes and evaluate whether the resulting responses are consistent with the predictions of the contingency theory. This project contributes through basic research that develops a more general theory of paradox and response. The research also has the potential to ground the development of more systematic instruments for assessing paradox, moderating contingencies, and responses. The project also contributes to our understanding of emergency response organizations, an important type of organization that is representative of networked organizations and fluid organizational forms. Emergency response is a critical function in society. By furthering our understanding of emergency response the project can yield practical advice on how to cope with conflicting demands in emergency situations. This can inform design of structures and processes for emergency response organizations.