The theme of organizational paradoxes has gained importance in recent studies of organizations. From a dialectical perspective of social evolution, this concept refers to a socially constructed reality where participants represent the complex systems in which they find themselves through two contradictory perceptions, that guide their attitudes. From the premisses of the Symbolic Interactionism, we discuss in this article the concept of cultural paradox in human resources management through an ethnographical study in an agro-industrial cooperative. We adopt the idea that an organization is a complex cultural context formed by a group of systems of meanings. In such a context, we analyze the conflicts that occur because of distinct interpretations of social practices, result of different cultural repertories, causing contradictory perceptions of the social system. We discuss these conflicts in terms of their influence in the evolution of the organizational system. At the end, we make some comments about future studies on the theme.
Human resource management; organizational paradoxes; organizational culture; organizational studies