Conflicts of Interest and Complexity in the Context of Organizational Communication

Conflicts of interest and competing demands are a defining feature of complex, rapidly changing societies. They shape all forms of organizations, which are confronted both internally and externally with a multitude of heterogeneous and often incompatible interests and expectations. For example, companies are expected to become climate-neutral while remaining profit-oriented; politics must drive societal transformation without jeopardizing prosperity and jobs; and NGOs operate within the context of conflicting geopolitical interests.

Drawing on paradox perspectives in organizational research and employing complexity theory and assemblage theory, this study explores the social complexity of such conflicts of interest and competing demands. The focus lies on organizational communication.

Through international and interdisciplinary references, the study reveals the diversity and multidimensionality of these contradictions. Exploratory expert interviews with consultants provide insights into concrete conflicts of interest, as well as the intricate tensions that arise for organizations. The resulting model is an assemblage theory of contradictions.

Timo Lenk earned his doctorate at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Greifswald, where he also taught in the Master’s program Organizational Communication. He then joined a European research project at TU Dortmund University.