Managing dualities for efficiency and effectiveness of organisations

Purpose – The paper presents the concept of duality, which presupposes the synthesis of two apparently opposing organisation's properties. The purpose of the paper is to empirically verify whether management of dualities correlates with effectiveness and efficiency of organisations. Design/methodology/approach – The research examines 21 dualities at the normative and strategic level of organisational policy. The research was undertaken in two phases. In the first phase, effectiveness and efficiency indicators were defined by applying the analytic hierarchy process method within an expert group. In the second phase, a questionnaire was sent to 49 CEOs of mid‐size and large companies operating in the food, beverage and foodstuff production industry in Slovenia. The questionnaire applied the semantic differential scale. Findings – The fundamental research hypothesis argues that organisations that are able to transcend the so‐called duality paradox thus enhance their effectiveness or/and efficiency. The results partly confirm this fundamental hypothesis within the limitations of the research sample. In terms of future research, the findings offer a valuable starting point for studies involving a larger sample of industries and organisations. Practical implications – The research findings present enough evidence that although management of dualities does not assure effectiveness and efficiency of organisation, it is a core driver that should enhance a firm's performance relative to its competitors. This means that managers need to develop an ability to constructively face the tensions of opposing dualities, and instead of choosing one at the expense of the other, generating a creative solution of the tensions in the form of a new dynamic model that recognizes dualities as complements and not as forces facing each other. Originality/value – From a theoretical point of view, it has been observed that management and organisational research have been mainly focused on the definition of organisational dualities or paradoxes and how organisations can sustain competing demands simultaneously. The paper contributes to developing a debate on the potential of managing organisational dualities for greater organisational effectiveness and efficiency.