Paradox mindset for individual well-being & societal impact

At the center of addressing grand societal challenges, such as global poverty and climate change, leaders in social purpose organizations struggle with tensions. One tension unfolds between their own well-being and societal well-doing, where well-being is often sacrificed for the larger purpose. A paradox mindset, defined as the individual ability to embrace tensions and leverage them into beneficial outcomes, helps to deal with such tensions. Assuming that a paradox mindset can enhance the well-being of leaders and followers, i.e., employees who directly report to the leader, the PM4IWSI project asks the overarching research question: How can leaders in social purpose organizations develop and sustain a paradox mindset, and (how) does it influence their own and their followers’ well-being? In answering this question, we take a multi-method, multi-wave approach, conducting three interlinked studies that combine quantitative surveys and a field experiment with qualitative diary and interviews methods. PM4IWSI builds theoretical insight for the literature streams on leadership in social purpose organizations and paradox theory, by studying the dynamics and development of a paradox mindset and by assessing a paradox mindset’s impacts on well-being of leaders and followers. Implemented by a pan-European and inter-disciplinary team of PIs from management studies and psychology and supported by networks of European social purpose leaders and top international scholars in the fields of paradox theory and social psychology, PM4IWSI enables comparative studies and outcomes as well as impacts and interventions that enhance well-being in social purpose organizations, which also impacts the (often vulnerable) groups they are working with. The project cuts across Themes 1 and 2 of the call, as the enhancement of leader and follower well-being through paradox mindset development (1) enables better crises handling, and (2) improves the social environment (particularly workplaces).