This article presents a constitutive approach to the study of organizational contradictions, dialectics, paradoxes, and tensions. In particular, it highlights five constitutive dimensions (i.e., discourse, developmental actions, socio-historical conditions, presence in multiples, and praxis) that appear across the literature in five metatheoretical traditions—process-based systems, structuration, critical, postmodern, and relational dialectics. In exploring these dimensions, it defines and distinguishes among key constructs, links research to process outcomes, and sets forth a typology of alternative ways of responding to organizational tensions. It concludes by challenging researchers to sharpen their focus on time in process studies, privilege emotion in relation to rationality, and explore the dialectic between order and disorder.

本文提出了一种构成性的方法来研究组织矛盾，辩证法，悖论和紧张关系。特别是，它突出了五个构成性维度（即话语，发展行为，社会历史条件，多重存在和实践）在五种元理论传统中贯穿整个文献，即基于过程的系统，结构化，批判性，后现代性和关系辩证法。在探索这些维度时，它定义和区分了关键结构，将研究与过程结果联系起来，并提出了应对组织紧张局势的其他方法的类型。最后，挑战性研究人员将重点放在过程研究的时间，与理性有关的特权情感上，并探索秩序与无序之间的辩证法。