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

组织经常面临矛盾的需求，二元性和紧张关系，例如需要稳定与需要改变和适应，需要员工参与与需要管理控制，需要积极主动的计划与需要对外部条件做出反应。 传统的组织结构和流程往往不能有效地促进组织对矛盾需求的反应，大量关于矛盾的文献已经发展起来，以努力把握矛盾，其影响和可能的反应。 本项目提出了一个组织应对矛盾需求的一般权变理论。该理论认为，这不是悖论本身，而是组织对悖论的反应，决定了它们对组织有效性的影响，积极或消极的。 该理论定义了组织在面对矛盾需求时可能采取的六种不同反应，其中没有一种总是对矛盾情况的最佳反应。 不同的反应在多大程度上可能有效地处理悖论取决于四个偶然变量：（1）压力，矛盾要求的强度和紧迫性;（2）悖论两极之间的平衡;（3）合作气氛;（4）组织在处理悖论方面的经验水平。 本文以荷兰应急管理体系为背景，对应急理论进行了研究。 应急管理充满了悖论，特别是融合-分化悖论和专业化悖论。 我们调查如何在荷兰系统内的区域应急管理中心回应这两个悖论，并评估所产生的反应是否与应急理论的预测是一致的。 该项目通过基础研究做出贡献，发展了一个更普遍的悖论和反应理论。 这项研究也有可能为开发更系统的工具来评估悖论、缓和突发事件和应对措施奠定基础。 该项目还有助于我们了解应急响应组织，这是一种重要的组织类型，是网络组织和流动组织形式的代表。应急反应是社会的一项重要职能。 通过加深我们对应急反应的理解，该项目可以就如何科普紧急情况下相互冲突的需求提供实用的建议。 这可以为应急响应组织的结构和流程设计提供信息。

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.