My Research
Adressing Wicked Problems of Sustainable Transformation
My academic motivation is understanding how organizations address complex societal challenges and wicked problems, specifically how such approaches lead to unintended consequences or perpetuate grand challenges. As a theoretical lens, I focus on the emergence of (paradoxical) tensions within organizations and interorganizational collaborations and networks and how these tensions and competing demands can be addressed. In particular, I examine the intersections of businesses, NGOs, and public authorities and the perspective of multi-stakeholder initiatives.
I focus on qualitative, ethnographic research, which enables me to understand issues on-site and observe and learn how actors engage with these challenges through everyday practices, routines, and sense-making. Following this philosophy, I thrive working with people from various backgrounds, both academics and practitioners and I draw a lot of energy from engaging in research collaboration.
My Publications
Early Warnings, No Actions: A Practice Perspective on Barriers to Anticipatory Action Approaches
Geisemann, P., Seidemann, I., Olawuyi, D., & Geiger, D. (2025). Early Warnings, No Actions: A Practice Perspective on Barriers to Anticipatory Action Approaches. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 33(4), e70083. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5973.70083
Among various climate adaptation and resilience-building efforts, anticipatory action (AA) offers a promising approach that emphasizes acting before disasters strike, shifting from reactive response to proactive preparedness. Adopting a management and coordination perspective, this paper examines challenges to the effective implementation of AA. Based on qualitative data from communities, practitioners, local governments, and a humanitarian agency in flood-prone regions of Nigeria, we identify five interrelated barriers: conflicting timeframes, tensions between short- and long-term goals, competing priorities, structural integration challenges, and data credibility trade-offs. These barriers are not static but co-enacted through everyday practices across actors. A practice perspective reveals how such misalignments persist and highlights the need for systemic, governance-oriented solutions beyond technical fixes.
2025
The Downward Spiral of Legitimacy Erosion: Lessons on Network Governance Failure During the German “Refugee Crisis”
Seidemann, I., K. S. Weißmüller, and D. Geiger. 2025. “ The Downward Spiral of Legitimacy Erosion: Lessons on Network Governance Failure During the German “Refugee Crisis”.” Public Administration Review 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.70008
Organizational legitimacy is essential for effective crisis governance. This study analyzes the rapid erosion of legitimacy faced by the German State Office for Health and Social Affairs (LAGeSo) during the 2015 refugee crisis, triggering cascading failures in public service delivery. Analyzing news articles and press statements, the study traces stakeholders' interactions with the LAGeSo, reconstructing key events and reactions to identify critical public governance failures. The findings show that a lack of network governance and anticipatory leadership contributed to a self-reinforcing process of legitimacy erosion, which culminated in organizational collapse. The case demonstrates that public sector crisis management requires more than technical responses; it demands strategic awareness of legitimacy dynamics and strong leadership in network governance. Adopting a legitimacy-as-process perspective, the study provides novel conceptual and practical insights for improving public crisis governance.
2025
Blinded by the Light: A critique on the universality, normativity, and hegemony of paradox theory and research
Seidemann, I. (2024). Blinded by the Light: A Critique on the Universality, Normativity, and Hegemony of Paradox Theory and Research, Organization Theory, https://doi.org/10.1177/26317877241290248
This paper intervenes in paradox theory and research by problematizing the taken-for-granted premises that currently dominate the field. Building on the “growing pains” of paradox theory, the paper offers three provocations for current paradox theory and research: it questions the conceptual universality of paradox, reveals the implicit normativity of some of its key assumptions, and problematizes the hegemony of the conception of both/and as core to responses to paradox. Deliberately stepping beyond the established guardrails of paradox theory, the paper critically assesses these premises and reflects on their potential risks and blind spots. Building on these three provocations, the paper offers in turn a set of distinct pathways for theoretical development, including interpreting presupposed features of paradox in light of ontological positions, integrating normative approaches into paradox management, and introducing much greater granularity to the study of paradox responses.
2024
Conceptual foundations of workforce homogeneity in the public sector. Insights from a systematic review oncauses, consequences, and blind spots
Seidemann, I. & Weißmüller, K. (2024). Conceptual Foundations of Workforce Homogeneity in the Public Sector. Insights from a Systematic Review on Causes, Consequences, and Blind Spots, Public Management Review, https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2022.2084770
Workforce diversity is a key objective of public personnel policies worldwide. Weaugment this discourse by exploring the complementary and multifaceted conceptof workforce homogeneity. This systematic literature review clarifies an elusive conceptand reveals dominant causes and consequences of public sector workforce homo-geneity, synthesizing how self-selection, personnel policies, and socialization createoften implicit yet persistent practices that lead to workforce homogeneity. By linkingthese causes with their (un-)intended consequences, this study on workforce homo-geneity sheds light on an important theoretical concept for public management andidentifies broad avenues for future research.
2024
System Level Dynamics in the Emergence and Navigation of Multi-Actor Paradoxes
Seidemann, I., Geiger, D., & Harborth, L. (2023). System Level Dynamics in the Emergence and Navigation of Multi-Actor Paradoxes. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2023(1), https://doi.org/10.5465/AMPROC.2023.77bp.
In this paper, we bridge the gap between paradox theory and a system level perspective to study how system level dynamics initiate and drive multi actor paradoxes in the response to the grand challenge of climate-induced disasters. We show how multiple actors engage in contradictory yet interrelated practices that fuel paradoxical dynamics and finally create a non-optimal but stable equilibrium that inhibits system change. We explore this process through a longitudinal ethnography study on the implementation of the “Forecast-based-Financing” approach in Uganda; an approach that shall initiate early action in anticipation of disasters. Our findings reveal how stakeholders’ implementation practices drive paradoxical dynamics that constitute self-reinforcing dynamics. Drawing on these insights, we develop a process model that explains how paradoxical dynamics not only hinder the tackling of the grand challenge but stabilize each other, contributing to a path dependent development. We contribute to theory in at least two ways: first, we theorize how addressing grand challenges instigates an interplay of paradoxical dynamics which create non-optimal but stable, path dependent equilibria on a system level which are difficult to change. Second, we introduce a dynamic perspective on paradoxes, thereby moving beyond the perspective of stable paradox poles that can be embraced.
