Abstract
Paradoxical leadership refers to a leadership style that embraces and effectively manages tensions, complexities, and contradictions within the workplace. Organisations are operating in VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) world; hence, practising paradoxical leadership is necessary for leaders, especially future leaders. It recognises that leaders must navigate opposing forces, values, or goals in many situations. Rather than trying to resolve these conflicts, paradoxical leadership seeks to harness the power of these tensions to benefit the organisation. In organisations, paradoxical leadership may unlock benefits for followers. However, the impact on leaders who engage in paradoxical leadership behaviours has been overlooked in the leadership literature. To analyse paradoxical leadership, I drew on paradox theory and conducted 35 in-depth semi-structured interviews with leaders and followers in four multinational clothing companies operating in Bangladesh. I report only findings from the leaders' interviews in this development paper. This study unveils the impact of paradoxical leadership on leaders. In this paper, I discovered that paradoxical leadership helps leaders in job crafting. Job crafting, in turn, benefits leaders in managing paradoxes within their organisation, which I am focusing on. Additionally, I uncovered the potential drawbacks associated with leaders who practice paradoxical leadership. It can lead to psychological stress and influence leaders' attitudes and behaviours.