What sort of paradoxes do multi-platform media organizations face in managing their strategies?

What is it about?

This paper explores the tensions and paradoxical situations that middle managers need to deal with in contexts where taken-for-granted industry recipes and well-established business practices have become problematized as a result of industry-wide technological and cultural change. Based on an empirical case study, the article identifies and elaborates on three interconnected paradoxes, rooted in the history of the company and past decisions of its top-management: (1) balancing employees’ needs for stability with organizational needs for change; (2) bridging employees’ needs for security and tradition and the organizational need for learning and taking risks; as well as (3) reconciling employees’ needs to “focus on themselves” with organizational needs to collaborate for collective success.

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Why is it important?

The paper introduces the paradox perspective to the literature on strategic media management. The perspective allows us to shed new light on the dynamics and complexities of managing strategic change in the continuously changing business environments of the industry.