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Early paradox research in organization theory contained a remarkable breadth of inspirations from outside disciplines. We wanted to know more about where early scholarship found inspiration to create what has since become paradox theory. To shed light on this, we engaged seminal paradox scholars in conversations: asking about their past experiences drawing from outside disciplines and their views on the future of paradox theory. These conversations surfaced several themes of past and future inspirations: (1) understanding complex phenomena; (2) drawing from related disciplines; (3) combining interdisciplinary insights; and (4) bridging discourses in organization theory. We end the piece with suggestions for future paradox research inspired by these conversations.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate foreign executives appointed into cultural contexts distant from their country of origin and headquarters of organisations to which host-country nationals (HCNs) they supervise and HCN superiors they report to attribute a “local” national identity. Significant differences of these foreign executives in local organisations (FELOs) from other forms of expatriation, including assigned and self-initiated expatriates, are identified and discussed.

The research utilises a qualitative exploratory approach based on triangulated multiple data sources. Data are sourced from in-depth semi-structured interviews with foreign executives (n=46) from 13 countries and their host-country peers (n=25) in organisations founded and headquartered in Malaysia. Dyadic data from the two sample groups are used to triangulate findings, while non-dyadic and socio-biographical data add further insight.

The data analysis identifies issues surrounding allegiance, trust, and control, assumptions about income levels, and exposure to heightened local scrutiny as components of the distinct nature of the FELO experience.

Implications for future research on new types of international cross-cultural workplaces are discussed. While construct definitions for self-initiated expatriation (SIE) in the wider mobility and migration literature are still in flux, international management research may be at risk of neglecting local workplaces and perspectives.

The FELO phenomenon differs significantly from expatriate assignments between headquarters and foreign subsidiaries of multinational corporations, and can be viewed as a rare and specific form of SIE. Its occurrence indicates an increasingly global market for individuals with career capital and global mobility.

The findings elucidate the situation of FELOs and provide comparisons to other types of expatriates. The research contributes to extant literature on global mobility as it explores a specific cross-cultural phenomenon that has not been systematically investigated in the academic literature, but is described in the media and executive search firm publications as “fairly new, highly visible, and sometimes controversial” with demand for FELOs “likely to continue”.

Over the past decades, scholars advanced foundational insights about paradox in organization theory. In this double volume, we seek to expand upon these insights through interdisciplinary theorizing. We do so for two reasons. First, we think that now is a moment to build on those foundations toward richer, more complex insights by learning from disciplines outside of organization theory. Second, as our world increasingly faces grand challenges, scholars turn to paradox theory. Yet as the challenges become more complex, authors turn to other disciplines to ensure the requisite complexity of our own theories. To advance these goals, we invited scholars with knowledge in paradox theory to explore how these ideas could be expanded by outside disciplines. This provides a both/and opportunity for paradox theory: both learning from outside disciplines beyond existing boundaries and enriching our insights in organization scholarship. The result is an impressive collection of papers about paradox theory that draws from four outside realms – the realm of belief, the realm of physical systems, the realm of social structures, and the realm of expression. In this introduction, we expand on why paradox theory is ripe for interdisciplinary theorizing, explore the benefits of doing so, and introduce the papers in this double volume.

Interdisciplinary research allows us to broaden our sights and expand our theories. Yet, such research surfaces a number of challenges. We highlight three issues – superficiality, lack of focus, and consilience - and discuss how they can be addressed in interdisciplinary research. In particular, we focus on the implications for interdisciplinary work with paradox scholarship. We explore how these issues can be navigated as scholars bring together different epistemologies, ontologies and methodologies within interdisciplinary research, and illustrate our key points by drawing on extant work in paradox theory and on examples from this double volume. Our paper contributes to paradox scholarship, and to organizational theory more broadly, by offering practices about how to implement interdisciplinary research while also advancing our understanding about available research methods.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the experiences that people with HIV faced as they navigated through the intricate processes of trying to access adoption services in the south of England. It proposes the need to pay more attention to people living with HIV (PLWHIV) able to adopt children. The study aims to develop an increased focus on PLWHIV able to adopt.

The paper is an exploratory study using an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach. Open-ended interviews were conducted with seven participants including individuals and couples. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using IPA’s cross-case and ideographic analysis.

The paper provides empirical insights about the challenges that PLWHIV experienced with social workers. Positive experiences were in the minority. Lack of information, inadequate support, stigma and discrimination, cultural insensitivity and disempowerment were frequently reported. The paper suggests that greater understanding and better education for social workers would improve access to adoption by people with HIV.

Given the chosen approach and small sample size, results may not be generalisable.

This study increases knowledge, promotes positive attitudes and improved support for PLWHIV who are stable and able to offer permanency to adoptive children.

This paper provides new ideas in an area that is scarcely researched. It identifies the need to undertake further studies to understand how social workers assess PLWHIV and what can be done to provide adequate support.

This article presents our experiences of conducting research interviews with Australian academics, in order to reflect on the politics of researcher and participant positionality. In particular, we are interested in the ways that academic networks, hierarchies and cultures, together with mobility in the higher education sector, contribute to a complex discursive terrain in which researchers and participants alike must maintain vigilance about where they ‘put their feet’ in research interviews. We consider the implications for higher education research, arguing that the positionality of researchers and participants pervades and exceeds these specialised research situations.

This study uses Hall's (1976) theory of low/high context culture with theories of interpersonal adaptation (Gudykunst, 1985; Patterson, 1983) to test communication preferences, flexibility, and effectiveness in same‐ and mixed‐culture negotiation. Ninety‐three same‐culture low context (Israel, Germany, Sweden, and U.S.), 101 same‐culture high context (Hong Kong, Japan, Russia, Thailand), and 48 mixed‐culture mixed context (U.S.‐Japan, U.S.‐Hong Kong) dyads negotiated a 1 ½ hour simulation. Transcripts were content coded for direct and indirect integrative sequences and analyzed with hierarchical linear regression. Supporting the theory, results revealed more indirect integrative sequences in high context dyads and more direct integrative sequences in low context and mixed context dyads. Direct integrative sequences predicted joint gains for mixed context dyads.

The Looking Glass simulation was developed by behavioural scientists at the Centre for Creative Leadership, North Carolina. Looking Glass, Inc is one of the best known examples of a realistic behavioural simulation. Such simulations allow managers to be studied and trained in situations closely approximating their natural environment. A condensed version of an article which follows one manager through the simulation is presented, giving an insight into the process of self‐assessment and self‐discovery that can take place.

Scholars increasingly depict hybridity as pervasive across organizations. The authors offer insight about how paradox theory informs and expands this approach to hybridity. To do so, the authors do a deeper dive into paradox theory, comparing and contrasting a dynamic equilibrium approach with a permanent dialectics approach. Integrating these two approaches offers paradox theory insights that can enrich and expand hybridity scholarship. The authors offer suggestions for how paradox theory can help develop a future research agenda for organizational hybridity.