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Your topic: Research Paper: A company that uses paradoxical thinking
Your desired style of citation: APA
Your educational level: Premium
Referencing Style:
Number of page: 6
Words: 1500
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Starbucks Coffee Company
[Writer’s Name]
[Institute’s Name]
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Contents
1.
Major Components .................................................................................................................. 4
1.1.
Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 4
1.2.
Starbucks Coffee Company showing paradoxical thinking ............................................. 4
1.3.
Learning paradoxical thinking ......................................................................................... 5
1.4.
Paradoxical thinking is the least used intelligence. .......................................................... 6
1.5.
Management and leadership using paradoxical thinking for improvement in
organization ................................................................................................................................. 7
2.
Illustration showing the paradoxical thinking structure .......................................................... 8
References ....................................................................................................................................... 9
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1. Major Components
1.1. Introduction
The word paradoxical means apparently illogical or self-contradictory. Paradoxical
thinking means switching to the opposite of what is conventional. This skill forces an individual
to think beyond the possible situations. The concept of ‘OR’ is included in this skill which means
that out of the two situations, one has to be chosen which will define paradoxical thinking. The
research paper will discuss about a company that uses paradoxical thinking and has been
successful about it. Furthermore, whether paradoxical thinking can be learned or not will be part
of the research paper. It is said that paradoxical thinking is one of the least used skills from the
eight skills of intelligence. The question why it is the least used skill will be discussed and in the
end, how paradoxical thinking in management and leadership can be utilized to improve the
organization will be discussed.
1.2.Starbucks Coffee Company showing paradoxical thinking
Starbucks Coffee Company was founded in 1971 as a Starbucks Coffee, Tea and Spice in
Seattle, Washington. The main reason that the owners of the company Gordon Bowker, Jerry
Baldwin and Zev Siegl started Starbucks Coffee was their love for coffee and their desires for
Seattle to have access to the best of it. The company grew slowly and by the year 1981 arrived,
the company had a roasting plant and four retail stores that sold whole bean coffee in Seattle
(Westenholz, 1991, #18-22).
The paradoxical thinking that Starbucks Coffee had was to introduce various types of
coffee drinks. Not the kind of coffee that was already in the market, but something different.
They had the plan of mixing different ingredients and creating a new taste, in other words
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creating a new kind of coffee. There were reactions from employees who taught that such an idea
would not work because people were use to a particular taste and they would not accept a new
kind of coffee.
The brains behind the idea of creating such coffees were sure that such ideas would work,
as there are people who keep looking for different taste in coffee and will definitely try the new
taste. Initially they were met with slow reaction from the customers but gradually, people started
accepting new tastes. The brains that were behind the invention of this coffee realized that they
had succeeded in making an impossible task a success and gave it the face of reality. Some of the
various kind of coffee that are available at any Starbucks Coffee franchise are Ethiopian
Impanema Bourbon, Starbucks Breakfast Blend, Zimbabwe Coffee, Caffe Verona, and many
others.
1.3.Learning paradoxical thinking
Any one can learn paradoxical thinking. To learn paradoxical thinking, one just needs to
have an open mind in thinking. Openness, courage and curiosity are the three essential parts that
are required for having a paradoxical thinking. One has to be aware of the absurd ideas that are
floating in the mind. Once the absurd ideas or ideas that one think is impossible to take place
starts entering the mind, one should start to note them down, dwell on them, play with them and
refine them (Woolf, 2003, #121-129).
Openness also means that one is open to learning new subjects unconnected with the
profession. One has to listen, explore and be curious about things. There are many things that
people ignore on a day to day basis, one should start paying attention to those things which have
been ignored or the things that have been taken for granted. When looking at a gadget, let the
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mind explore and start to visualize that how it would look and function it the gadget was made in
a different way of shape, size, color and etc. One should ask himself if he has the ability to
change the gadget into complete opposite of what it actually functions? One should ask
questions such as looking at the rug on the floor, one may think of that how would it look if rugs
were designed for the roof? Looking at the lights on the roof, start to think that how would it
look if there were lights on the floor. One has to keep in mind that such products exist and people
actually adapt them into their daily lives (Fletcher & Olwyler, 1997, #150-159).
The basic concept of paradoxical thinking is that one has to be skeptical. The more the
skeptical the person is, the better the paradoxical thinker he/she will be. One has to examine
customs, practices, rituals, conventions, fashions and many other things in order to become a
paradoxical thinker. Paradoxical thinking pushes the individual to explore things beyond limits.
Once an individual starts thinking stuff that cannot really take place that is when he will be able
to reach new heights of success. People who start to think out of the box or out of the ordinary,
they are the ones who are more likely to succeed and gain new heights in corporate world.
1.4.Paradoxical thinking is the least used intelligence.
The eight skills of intelligence are memory, logic, judgment, perception, intuition, reason,
imagination and paradoxical thinking. Paradoxical thinking is the least used skill in all the eight
skills of intelligence. This skill involves the ability to reverse, manipulate, combine, and
synthesize opposites. It is the least used skill because it requires an individual to go beyond the
reality. It forces the individual to think about issues that do not exist or that are practically
impossible to take place (Clarke, 1998, #191-206).
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The issue with paradoxical thinking is that it requires holding two seemingly
contradictory statements. Paradoxical thinking involves the word “OR”. This means that you
either do one thing or you do the other thing. For example, it is either boldness OR humility,
short term OR long term, urgency OR importancy, and so on. Paradoxical thinking challenges
the individual to accept the possible and impossible.
The new leadership challenge of the paradoxical thinking is the strategic flexibility.
Many corporate board rooms have been infiltrated by paradoxical thinking such as globalization
and localization, core competencies and dynamic capabilities, competition and co-operation,
control and chaos, stability and innovation, profitability and responsibility, fit and stretch,
learning and unlearning, incremental and radical change.
1.5.Management and leadership using paradoxical thinking for improvement in organization
The use of paradoxical thinking in management and leadership can bring the organization
profit as well as loss. It all depends on how the paradoxical thinking is used in the management
and leadership area. As discussed above, paradoxical thinking means going beyond possible
things and trying to make impossible things happen. An organization’s management can start
with hiring those people who have the ability of exploring things. People who are willing to
explore new aspects of business such as inventing a new product, designing a product differently,
or including a new strategy to do business in a better way. This can work in the favor of the
management which will bring success to the organization.
To improve the organization further, leaders in the organization have to think out of the box.
An organization is improved when its employees are working with complete confidence in the
management and are not worried about the security of their jobs. The leadership in the
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organization can start with developing strategies that will enhance the confidence of the
employees working in the organization (Lewis, 1997, #937-944).
Furthermore, if management wants to start a new product, they need to have paradoxical
thinking. Here, paradoxical thinking can be used in the form of imagination. The management
has to think what the pros and cons will be of the product that they are planning to launch and if
the product will be a success or not, if the product will be accepted by the customers or will they
reject it immediately and so on. If the management does not have any paradoxical thinking, the
chances of product being a success will not work and the reaction that they would get from the
customers would not be satisfactory either.
2. Illustration showing the paradoxical thinking structure
The illustration represents how paradoxical thinking takes place. It is a three way process that
keeps on continuing. Paradoxes of performing have two branches which are paradoxes of
belonging and paradoxes of organizing system. Paradoxes of belonging have paradoxes of
performing and paradoxes of organizing system.
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References
Clarke, M. (1998). Can specialists be general managers?: Developing paradoxical thinking in
middle managers. Journal of Management Development , 191-206.
Fletcher, J. L., & Olwyler, K. (1997). Paradoxical Thinking: How to Profit from Your
Contradictions. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 150-159
Lewis, B. P. (1997). Thinking about Choking? Attentional Processes and Paradoxical
Performance. Sage Journals , 937-944.
Westenholz, A. (1991). Paradoxical Thinking and Change in the Frames of Reference.
Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School, 18-22
Woolf, N. H. (2003). Paradoxical Thinking in Managers of Organizations. Iowa: University of
Iowa, 121-129