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Article
Publication date: 8 April 2020

Donal Rogan, Gillian Hopkinson and Maria Piacentini

This paper aims to adopt a relational dialectics analysis approach to provide qualitative depth and insight into the ways intercultural families manage intercultural tensions…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to adopt a relational dialectics analysis approach to provide qualitative depth and insight into the ways intercultural families manage intercultural tensions around consumption. The authors pay particular attention to how a relational dialectics analysis reveals a relational change in the family providing evidence to demonstrate how a family’s unique relational culture evolves and transitions.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative insights from a relational-dialectic analysis on 15 intercultural families are used to illustrate the interplay of stability with instability in the management of intercultural dialectic tensions within these families.

Findings

Intercultural dialectical interplay around food consumption tensions are implicit tensions in the household’s relational culture. Examples of dialectical movement indicating relational change are illustrated; this change has developmental consequences for the couples’ relational cultures.

Research limitations/implications

This study provides qualitative insights on relational dialectics in one intercultural family context and reveals and analyses the dialectical dimensions around consumption in the context of intercultural family relationships. The research approach could be considered in other intercultural and relational contexts.

Practical implications

Family narratives can be analysed within the context of two meta-dialectics that directly address how personal relationships evolve; indigenous dialectic tensions within a family can also be identified.

Originality/value

This paper demonstrates the qualitative value of a relational dialectics analysis in revealing how food consumption changes within families are the result of reciprocal or interdependent learning, which has consequences for relational change.

Details

Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, vol. 24 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1352-2752

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 March 2012

Jeffrey G. Woods

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model that uses dialectical inquiry (DI) to create cognitive conflict in strategic decision‐makers for the purpose of…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model that uses dialectical inquiry (DI) to create cognitive conflict in strategic decision‐makers for the purpose of improving strategic decisions. Activation of the dialectical learning process using DI requires strategic decision‐makers to integrate conflicting information causing cognitive conflict. Cognitive conflict is the catalyst that stimulates the creation of new knowledge in strategic decision‐makers resulting in improved organizational performance.

Design/methodology/approach

A conceptual model is developed that explicitly links DI to the dialectical learning process of strategic decision‐makers. This model extends previous research on DI by identifying cognitive conflict as the critical component that links DI as a learning method to the process of dialectical learning in strategic decision‐making.

Findings

The major finding of the model of dialectical learning is that the model is an important resource that can be applied to create cognitive conflict in strategic decision‐makers for the purpose of expanding the strategic options of organizations.

Research limitations/implications

Empirical research on DI that focuses on the role of cognitive conflict in the dialectical learning process is lacking. It is hoped that this conceptual paper will stimulate further interest on the topic and a greater appreciation of this method of learning. Strategic decision‐makers must consider alternative ways of generating new knowledge that is crucial for organizational performance.

Practical implications

It is important that the benefits of creating cognitive conflict in the dialectical learning process are understood by strategic decision‐makers. Training for participants in a DI learning intervention is essential to help minimize any dysfunctional behaviors that could result from affective conflict.

Originality/value

This conceptual model identifies the importance of cognitive conflict in the dialectical learning process of strategic decision‐makers and the critical role of cognitive conflict rather than affective conflict in the use of this learning method.

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 19 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 July 2015

Yuntao Bai, Peter Harms, Guohong (Helen) Han and Wenwen Cheng

This study aims to introduce a new cognitive style, dialectical thinking, to demonstrate how it can influence a leader’s impact on team conflict and employee performance…

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to introduce a new cognitive style, dialectical thinking, to demonstrate how it can influence a leader’s impact on team conflict and employee performance. Specifically, this study intends to answer the research questions “whether and how leader’s dialectical thinking would influence employee performance” with conflict management perspective in the Chinese context.

Design/methodology/approach

Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to test the theoretical model with 222 employees in 43 teams from Chinese high-tech manufacturing firms.

Findings

The authors found that the leader’s dialectical thinking had positive relationships with employee creativity and in-role performance and that the relationships were mediated by the leader’s conflict management approach and team conflict in sequence.

Practical implications

Selecting, recruiting or promoting of leaders with a dialectical thinking style or providing training to enhance leaders’ dialectical thinking is important for facilitating team conflict management and employee performance.

Originality/value

This is the first empirical paper to introduce dialectical thinking into the leadership, conflict and employee performance literatures.

Details

International Journal of Conflict Management, vol. 26 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1044-4068

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2002

MARTIN KELLY, HOWARD DAVEY and NEIL HAIGH

There is evidence of discontent with contemporary university education generally, and accounting education in particular. This paper examines some reasons for the discontent and…

Abstract

There is evidence of discontent with contemporary university education generally, and accounting education in particular. This paper examines some reasons for the discontent and suggests one way to address it, namely dialectic enquiry. The process of contradiction and reconciliation is at the heart of dialectic enquiry. From two opposing positions, dialectic enquiry requires a third position, or synthesis, to emerge which allows the participants to progress their exploration of an issue. The authors describe the introduction of dialectical enquiry in a university accounting course and discuss the potential learning improvements it can offer. The authors hope this paper will encourage others to introduce dialectical enquiry into their classrooms and report their findings.

Details

Pacific Accounting Review, vol. 14 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0114-0582

Article
Publication date: 1 November 1988

Tibor R. Machan

Here Marx's philosophy is dissected from the angle of bourgeois capitalism which he, Marx, sought to overcome. His social, political and economic ideas are criticised. Although it…

1359

Abstract

Here Marx's philosophy is dissected from the angle of bourgeois capitalism which he, Marx, sought to overcome. His social, political and economic ideas are criticised. Although it is noted that Marx wanted to ameliorate human suffering, the result turned out to be Utopian, contrary to his own intentions. Contrary to Marx, it is individualism that makes the best sense and capitalism that holds out the best hope for coping with most of the problems he sought to solve. Marx's philosophy is alluring but flawed at a very basic level, namely, where it denies the individuality of each person and treats humanity as “an organic body”. Capitalism, while by no means out to guarantee a perfect society, is the best setting for the realisation of the diverse but often equally noble human goals of its membership.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 15 no. 11/12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 June 2020

Weisha Wang, Cheng-Hao Steve Chen, Bang Nguyen and Paurav Shukla

With rising globalization, Western and Eastern brands are increasingly collaborating and co-branding. Drawing on the theory of dialectical self that captures the degree of…

1290

Abstract

Purpose

With rising globalization, Western and Eastern brands are increasingly collaborating and co-branding. Drawing on the theory of dialectical self that captures the degree of cognitive tendency to tolerate conflicts, inconsistencies and ambiguities in self-concept, this paper investigates the effect of consumer dialectical self on co-branding that encompasses Western and East Asian cultural brand personality traits.

Design/methodology/approach

Two studies were conducted using Chinese participants to examine the effects of the dialectical self on co-brand evaluation under single-and dual-personality conditions and to explore the mediating role of ideal social self-congruence and the moderating role of product type (high vs low conspicuous).

Findings

The findings suggest that counterintuitive to the received wisdom, the dialectical self negatively influences one's attitude towards a co-brand in the dual-personality condition only. Further, ideal social self-congruence mediates the relationship between the dialectical self and dual-personality co-brand evaluation in the high conspicuous product condition only.

Practical implications

Important implications are offered to international marketing managers for managing the dialectical self that lead to positive co-brand evaluations. Moreover, managers should highlight ideal social self-congruence for co-branding success for particular product types.

Originality/value

This paper examines co-branding from a novel perspective of consumer dialectical self and shows the pivotal role it plays when brands carry varying cultural traits engage in co-branding. By identifying the role of the dialectical self and the important mediator and moderator, the paper fulfils an important gap in co-branding literature and offers key implications.

Details

International Marketing Review, vol. 37 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-1335

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 May 2017

Yue Cai Hillon and David M. Boje

Calls for dialectical learning process model development in learning organizations have largely gone unheeded, thereby limiting conceptual understanding and application in the…

Abstract

Purpose

Calls for dialectical learning process model development in learning organizations have largely gone unheeded, thereby limiting conceptual understanding and application in the field. This paper aims to unify learning organization theory with a new understanding of Hegelian dialectics to trace the development of the storytelling learning organization. The “storytelling learning organization” is a conceptual framework presented along with criteria to evaluate different kinds of dialectical development claims in “storytelling learning organization” work that are bona fide instances of one or another dialectical ontology ranging from Marxian, to Hegelian, to Brierian, to Žižekian.

Design/methodology/approach

Ontological evaluation and critique of a variety of “storytelling learning organization” practices posit different dialectical ontology and consequences for theory and practice. Through a case example of business process reengineering (BPR) in a “public research university (PRU)”, the storytelling of “schooling” versus “education” ideas and practices, in a place, in a period and in material ways of mattering, never achieves synthesis. The dialectical development of resistance to implementation evolves toward transcendence into irreducible oppositions of ontological incompleteness – the essence of a learning organization.

Findings

This ontological analysis focuses on the use of ideas and practices by opposing storytelling agents and actants to uncover a learning organization’s dialectical development in its own storytelling, its narrative and counter-narrative enactments, and its attempts to unpack contradictions. The PRU under study has gone through a series of financial crises, and its learning organization responses were downsizing staff and faculty positions and implementing BPR in ways that worsened the situation. The process resulted in staff and faculty leaving even before the reorganization was completed and enrollment dropped dramatically, in great part due to the negative press and the excessive standardization of the curriculum that accompanies “schooling” displacing acts of “education” practices and ideations. Meanwhile, the administrators are still trying to manage the narrative and control it so as to forestall additional attrition.

Originality/value

The theory of “storytelling learning organization” is original. The question answered here has practical value because institutions have choices to make concerning the kind of dialectical narrative and counter-narrative development that is cultivated, and there are options for transforming or moving to an alternative narrative and counter-narrative development process. The analysis of the case also illustrates a pattern of intervention that is, on the one hand, unsuccessful in developing “higher” education and, on the other hand, successful in shutting down the efficacy of a PRU by centrist use of reengineering to accomplish more schooling, more downsizing and more installation of “academic capitalism” ideas and practices.

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 24 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 September 2009

Masudul Alam Choudhury

The purpose of this paper is to study dialectical methodology as a scientific reasoning process in Islam comparatively with mainstream philosophy of science.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study dialectical methodology as a scientific reasoning process in Islam comparatively with mainstream philosophy of science.

Design/methodology/approach

Comparative discursive method of inquiry using the language of philosophy of science and abstract mathematization (limited use).

Findings

This is a theoretical paper of an intellectual category, which presents the arguments within the framework of the principle of universal and pervasive complementarities as the evidential sign of the epistemology of unity of knowledge studied through functional ontological logical formalism.

Research limitations/implications

The theoretical nature of an argumentative paper is at best a foundation one rather than an empirical one.

Practical implications

An example of the Islamic dialectical methodology of unity of knowledge is applied to socioeconomic development in Islamic perspective.

Originality/value

There is believed to be no other paper on Islam and its dialectical methodology in scientific reasoning compared to the theory of dialectics in mainstream philosophy of science in the contemporary literature.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 29 no. 9/10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2005

Adrian N. Carr

The article questions what is meant by the term critical theory and discusses some common misconceptions that have arisen about the meaning of this term. The dialectic logic that…

Abstract

The article questions what is meant by the term critical theory and discusses some common misconceptions that have arisen about the meaning of this term. The dialectic logic that was championed by the group of scholars collectively known as the Frankfurt School is outlined and a number of implications for the field of organization and behaviour are discussed.

Details

International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior, vol. 8 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1093-4537

Article
Publication date: 18 December 2020

Rodoula H. Tsiotsou

The purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth understanding of actor engagement (AE) on social media by proposing a holistic and integrative conceptual framework.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth understanding of actor engagement (AE) on social media by proposing a holistic and integrative conceptual framework.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a sample of 118 articles, the paper draws on the service-dominant logic (SDL)-based service ecosystem perspective combined with the tenets of relational dialectics as theoretical lenses to inform AE research in social media.

Findings

The paper proposes a framework of AE in social media called the TASC model, an acronym of Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis-Conflict. TASC introduces the dialectical nature of AE and discusses the contexts and levels of AE in the social media ecosystem and their evolving processes.

Practical implications

Firms can apply the knowledge provided by TASC to gather marketing intelligence and develop marketing strategies to anticipate tensions, motivate the desired AE intensity and valence and reinforce value co-creation in the social media ecosystem.

Originality/value

TASC is a comprehensive framework that, for the first time, explains engagement at all levels of the social media ecosystem by combining the SDL-based service ecosystem view with the relational dialectics perspective.

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