Quantum Approach to Organizational Paradox: A Copenhagen Perspective

Li comments on Tobias Hahn and Eric Knight's quantum approach to the ontology of organizational paradox. By addressing the problems of their application of quantum physics to organizational paradox research, he aims to move the mainstream thinking on organizational paradox beyond the dominant "both/and" toward a "neither/nor" approach that is the essence of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum theory. He posits that embracing the "neither/nor" thinking, just like the shift from "either/or" to "both/and," affords management scholars a much broader cognitive space in which resolving paradox may not be, as the mainstream organizational paradox scholars currently consider it impossible. In his alternative quantum approach to organizational paradox, any paradox or paradoxical tension is caused by the asymmetry between one's capacity and expectation, and the principle of paradox resolution is then the reduction of the asymmetry through either increasing one's capacities or decreasing one's expectations, or by doing both simultaneously.