{"id":{"repo_id":"uwo","oai_identifier":"oai:uwo.scholaris.ca:20.500.14721/29445"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uwo/oai:uwo.scholaris.ca:20.500.14721/29445","repository":{"repo_id":"uwo","name":"Western University","base_url":"https://uwo.scholaris.ca/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Three essays on organizational paradox, history, and resilience: An ethnography of Buddhist temples","abstract":"This dissertation investigates three organizational tensions that are most salient in Korean Buddhist temples: (1) finance versus religion, (2) change versus tradition, and (3) adaptation versus stability. Specifically, drawing upon paradox theory, my first essay examines how Buddhist monks address tension between business work to support the organization’s financial sustainability and Buddhist meditative practice to support their religious conviction. I report the findings at both organizational and individual levels of analysis, in an effort to unpack how an individual level paradox is manifested to an organizational level paradox. The second essay explores an enabling role of history in facilitating organizational change. Focusing on a Buddhist Master Monk’s historical narratives on changes, I analyze how the Master Monk selectively interprets the organizational history and develop it as a convincing storytelling tool to reduce organizational members’ cognitive resistance, thereby facilitating changes. The third essay investigates how Buddhist temples adapt to external environments while simultaneously keeping their core identity intact i.e., organizational resilience. The third essay aims to shed more light on a longitudinal process of organizational resilience. Empirically, I have conducted multiple rounds of ethnographic fieldwork in Korean Buddhist temples to deeply immerse myself into the research context. Rich data from the fieldwork allowed me to develop the distinct essays on organizational tensions. In the end, the three essays characterize different methodological and theoretical colors. Each study aims to contribute to organizational paradox, history (and narrative), and resilience literature.","abstract_html":"This dissertation investigates three organizational tensions that are most salient in Korean Buddhist temples: (1) finance versus religion, (2) change versus tradition, and (3) adaptation versus stability. Specifically, drawing upon paradox theory, my first essay examines how Buddhist monks address tension between business work to support the organization’s financial sustainability and Buddhist meditative practice to support their religious conviction. I report the findings at both organizational and individual levels of analysis, in an effort to unpack how an individual level paradox is manifested to an organizational level paradox. The second essay explores an enabling role of history in facilitating organizational change. Focusing on a Buddhist Master Monk’s historical narratives on changes, I analyze how the Master Monk selectively interprets the organizational history and develop it as a convincing storytelling tool to reduce organizational members’ cognitive resistance, thereby facilitating changes. The third essay investigates how Buddhist temples adapt to external environments while simultaneously keeping their core identity intact i.e., organizational resilience. The third essay aims to shed more light on a longitudinal process of organizational resilience. Empirically, I have conducted multiple rounds of ethnographic fieldwork in Korean Buddhist temples to deeply immerse myself into the research context. Rich data from the fieldwork allowed me to develop the distinct essays on organizational tensions. In the end, the three essays characterize different methodological and theoretical colors. Each study aims to contribute to organizational paradox, history (and narrative), and resilience literature.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Song, Hee-Chan"],"institution":"The University of Western Ontario","degree_name":"Ph D","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":"Business","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Bansal, Pratima (Tima)"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2019,"date_issued":"2019-08-19","date_published":"2019-08-19","updated_at":"2026-07-27T21:56:18Z","subjects":["Organizational paradox","history","resilience","ethnography","Qualitative study","Buddhist temple"],"languages":["en_ca"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/29445","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Bansal, Pratima (Tima)"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Song, Hee-Chan"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2025-07-10T18:31:57Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2025-07-10T18:31:57Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2019-08-19"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["The University of Western Ontario"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Business"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph D"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Organizational paradox","history","resilience","ethnography","Qualitative study","Buddhist temple"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["en_ca"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/29445"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["The thesis cover page in the PDF document includes references to Western University’s previous institutional repository platform, known as Scholarship@Western, and links to that platform (beginning with ir.lib.uwo.ca). In citing or referring to this thesis, use the DOI or handle from this page instead. Sample citation: Author name, \"Thesis title.\" (Year). Western University Open Repository. https://doi.org/10.71858/123456."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This dissertation investigates three organizational tensions that are most salient in Korean Buddhist temples: (1) finance versus religion, (2) change versus tradition, and (3) adaptation versus stability. Specifically, drawing upon paradox theory, my first essay examines how Buddhist monks address tension between business work to support the organization’s financial sustainability and Buddhist meditative practice to support their religious conviction. I report the findings at both organizational and individual levels of analysis, in an effort to unpack how an individual level paradox is manifested to an organizational level paradox. The second essay explores an enabling role of history in facilitating organizational change. Focusing on a Buddhist Master Monk’s historical narratives on changes, I analyze how the Master Monk selectively interprets the organizational history and develop it as a convincing storytelling tool to reduce organizational members’ cognitive resistance, thereby facilitating changes. The third essay investigates how Buddhist temples adapt to external environments while simultaneously keeping their core identity intact i.e., organizational resilience. The third essay aims to shed more light on a longitudinal process of organizational resilience. Empirically, I have conducted multiple rounds of ethnographic fieldwork in Korean Buddhist temples to deeply immerse myself into the research context. Rich data from the fieldwork allowed me to develop the distinct essays on organizational tensions. In the end, the three essays characterize different methodological and theoretical colors. Each study aims to contribute to organizational paradox, history (and narrative), and resilience literature."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Three essays on organizational paradox, history, and resilience: An ethnography of Buddhist temples"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Bansal, Pratima (Tima)"],"dc:creator":["Song, Hee-Chan"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2025-07-10T18:31:57Z"],"dc:date.available":["2025-07-10T18:31:57Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2019-08-19"],"dc:description":["The thesis cover page in the PDF document includes references to Western University’s previous institutional repository platform, known as Scholarship@Western, and links to that platform (beginning with ir.lib.uwo.ca). In citing or referring to this thesis, use the DOI or handle from this page instead. Sample citation: Author name, \"Thesis title.\" (Year). Western University Open Repository. https://doi.org/10.71858/123456."],"dc:description.abstract":["This dissertation investigates three organizational tensions that are most salient in Korean Buddhist temples: (1) finance versus religion, (2) change versus tradition, and (3) adaptation versus stability. Specifically, drawing upon paradox theory, my first essay examines how Buddhist monks address tension between business work to support the organization’s financial sustainability and Buddhist meditative practice to support their religious conviction. I report the findings at both organizational and individual levels of analysis, in an effort to unpack how an individual level paradox is manifested to an organizational level paradox. The second essay explores an enabling role of history in facilitating organizational change. Focusing on a Buddhist Master Monk’s historical narratives on changes, I analyze how the Master Monk selectively interprets the organizational history and develop it as a convincing storytelling tool to reduce organizational members’ cognitive resistance, thereby facilitating changes. The third essay investigates how Buddhist temples adapt to external environments while simultaneously keeping their core identity intact i.e., organizational resilience. The third essay aims to shed more light on a longitudinal process of organizational resilience. Empirically, I have conducted multiple rounds of ethnographic fieldwork in Korean Buddhist temples to deeply immerse myself into the research context. Rich data from the fieldwork allowed me to develop the distinct essays on organizational tensions. In the end, the three essays characterize different methodological and theoretical colors. Each study aims to contribute to organizational paradox, history (and narrative), and resilience literature."],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/29445"],"dc:language.iso":["en_ca"],"dc:publisher":["The University of Western Ontario"],"dc:subject":["Organizational paradox","history","resilience","ethnography","Qualitative study","Buddhist temple"],"dc:title":["Three essays on organizational paradox, history, and resilience: An ethnography of Buddhist temples"],"dc:type":["thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Business"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph D"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T21:56:18Z"}