Balancing Contradictions: Hybrid Organizations between Logics, Paradoxes, and Power

This cumulative dissertation examines how hybrid organizations, embedded in multiple and often competing institutional logics, perceive and respond to the tensions that arise from this plurality. Drawing on institutional logics and paradox theory, organizations are conceptualized as arenas in which social, economic, and professional values interact and, at times, conflict. Rather than seeing hybridity as an anomaly, the program treats it as a defining characteristic of contemporary organizational life, particularly within sectors such as nonprofit and healthcare, where competing logics coexist persistently. The research explores how hybrid organizations interpret and manage tensions across structural and individual levels and how contextual and relational factors shape these processes. A specific emphasis lies on the role of power dynamics in shaping responses to paradoxical demands and the ways in which certain institutional logics become reinforced or suppressed. By integrating perspectives on logics, paradoxes, and power, this program contributes to a more nuanced theoretical understanding of how hybrid organizations sustain both stability and change while n