Impacting Grand Challenges:

A ‘Both/And’ Approach
All Academy Theme
Panel Symposium
Co-Organizers:
Natalie Slawinski
Memorial University
Wendy K. Smith
University of Delaware

August 7, 2020
Panelists

Robin J. Ely Tobias Hahn Andrew J. Hoffman Anita M. McGahan

Harvard Business School ESADE Business School Ross School of Business Rotman School of Management
Harvard University Ramon Llull University University of Michigan University of Toronto
rely@hbs.edu tobias.hahn@esade.edu ajhoff@umich.edu Anita.McGahan@rotman.utoronto.ca
@hoffmanandy @anitamcgahan

Live tweeting this session? Add @paradox_bothand; #aom2020; #SDGs

Agenda
• Overview of Grand Challenges – Natalie Slawinski
• Overview of Both/And Approaches – Wendy Smith
• Moderated Panel Discussion – Wendy Smith
• Robin Ely
• Tobias Hahn
• Andy Hoffman
• Anita McGahan
• Concluding remarks – Natalie Slawinski
A Few Reminders
• Mute your microphones when you are not speaking
• Audience participation will be via chat only
• Please use the chat for discussion and questions
• This session will be recorded and posted to the AOM
Website
• We will copy and distribute the chat after the session
We Face Unprecedented Grand Challenges
“specific critical
barrier(s) that, if
removed, would
help solve an
important societal
problem”
(George, Howard-Grenville, Joshi, &
Tihanyi, 2016 : 1881)
Credit: Pixabay
Grand Challenges
• Complex: non-linear and
interconnected (Eisenhardt, Graebner,
& Sonenshein, 2016; Oslen, Sofka, & Grimpe,
2016)

• Uncertain: difficult to
forecast consequences (Ferrero,
Etzion, & Gehman, 2015, George, Howard-
Grenville, Joshi, & Tihanyi, 2016)

• Wicked: solutions are elusive

and cause new problems (Rittel
& Webber, 1973; Slawinski, Pinkse, Busch, &
Banerjee, 2017)

• Rife with Tensions:

challenges compete with one
another (Hahn, Figge, Pinkse, & Preuss,
2018; Mair, Wolf & Seelos, 2016)
• Adopted in 2015 by 193 member countries
• 17 goals - 169 targets
• To be achieved by 2030
• Signed by companies such as Unilever,
Volvo, Coca-Cola
Which SDGs are you researching?
The Role of Management Scholars
• Responsible Research in Business Management (RRBM)
network (www.rrbm.network)
• Special Research Forum in Academy of Management Journal
on ‘Grand Challenges’ (George et al., 2016)
• Growing emphasis on sustainability issues in organizational
research, including climate change (Schifeling & Hoffman, 2019), gender
equality (Padvic, Ely & Reid, 2019), immigration (McGahan, 2020), and obesity
(Pinkse, Hahn & Figge, 2019)

• Sustainability research tends to take an either/or tradeoff

approach (Van der Byl & Slawinski, 2017)
AOM2020 theme – Broadening Our Sights
• How can management scholars impact grand challenges
and not “lament that our field is not as relevant and,
frankly, as helpful as it could be”?

• How can both/and thinking help us move beyond

“dichotomies and zero-sum propositions” and instead
focus on “synergies, increased value-added, and positive
results”?
Why use
paradox theory
to explore grand
challenges?
• Robust research stream
• Spanning levels - from individual level
(cognition, emotions, behaviors) to
organizational/institutional level
(culture, structures, practices)
• Increasingly addressing complex
systemic issues
 Sustain the human
Work within institutions that
population without
are the source of the
diminishing our natural Enable safety for people that
problem.
resources demands living in
uncertainty

Remain passionate about

Help people find better
questions, but rigorous
situations when they don’t
enough to minimize bias
want to leave their existing
situation

Produce rigorous research Companies seeking to

that is easily translatable ameliorate wicked problems
when their work exacerbates
it

• Multiple stakeholders
• Broad time horizons
• Limited resources
OR? AND?

Vince and Broussine, 1996; Lewis, 2000; Rothman, et.al. 2017

 Centralization vs.
Short term vs. long term
decentralization
Certainty vs. uncertainty

Work vs. life

Stability vs. change

Self vs. other Authority vs. democracy

• Multiple stakeholders
• Broad time horizons
• Limited resources
 Centralization and
Short term and long term
decentralization
Certainty and uncertainty

Work and life

Paradox Stability and change

Interdependent
contradictions that
Self and other
persist over time
Authority and democracy
(Schad, et.al; 2016)

• Plurality
Multiple stakeholders
• Change
Broad time horizons
• Scarcity
Limited resources
Paradox Theory … some basics

1. Competing demands as paradoxical – contradictory,

interdependent and persistent (Smith & Berg, 1989; Cameron & Quinn, 1989; Lewis, 2000; Smith & Lewis, 2011;
Fairhurst, et.al. 2016; Schad, et.al. 2016)

2. Reframing the question (OR? to AND?) invites novel creative

thinking (Rothenberg, 1979; Bartunek, 1989; Miron-Spektor, Gino, Argote, 2011; Keller, Lowenstein, Yan, 2017)

3. Paradoxes persist; we are looking for ‘workable certainties’ not

solutions (Luscher & Lewis, 2008; Smith & Lewis, 2011; Smith, 2014; Smets, et.al., 2015; Ashforth & Reingen, 2014; Stadtler, 2018)
• Creative integration
• Consistent inconsistencies (tightrope walker)
Panelists

Robin J. Ely Tobias Hahn Andrew J. Hoffman Anita M. McGahan

Harvard Business School ESADE Business School Ross School of Business Rotman School of Management
Harvard University Ramon Llull University University of Michigan University of Toronto
rely@hbs.edu tobias.hahn@esade.edu ajhoff@umich.edu Anita.McGahan@rotman.utoronto.ca
@hoffmanandy @anitamcgahan

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