The “Intensification-Quality Paradox” in ICT Organizations

Abstract

Paradoxes and system contradictions in organizations may expose employees to tensions and contradictions, which they can only partially resolve, and from which they may only partially escape. Exposure to double-bind situations leads to stress, anxiety, and other symptoms of behavioral, affective, and cognitive disturbances. When employees are caught between paradoxical injunctions and organizational defensive routines hinder metacommunication, some employees develop dysfunctional coping strategies and end up being burned out. During a phenomenological PhD research on the burnout experience of 14 ICT employees in France and Norway, a stress-inducing pathological communication pattern was discovered and named the “intensification-quality paradox.” The research participants had experienced two conflicting demands as a double bind: “do more with less” and “be excellent.” The employees with high standards and ideals spent excessive personal energy to do more with less while keeping the quality constant. They got increasingly exhausted, ineffective, and finally burnt out.