The Digital Workplace: Navigating in a Jungle of Paradoxical Tensions

Digital technologies have become omnipresent in our professional and personal lives. While they provide numerous opportunities, they also cause tensions, many of which are paradoxical. They confront us with conflicting yet synergetic and interdependent alternatives that persist over time—such as benefiting from the increasing availability and access to information at the risk of information overload and technostress. Thus far, we know little about the specific paradoxes caused by digital technologies in the workplace and how managers perceive and cope with them. This article offers a comprehensive perspective on the multiplicity and interrelatedness of paradoxes in the digital white-collar workplace and suggests how managers can develop effective coping mechanisms for convergent change and transforming work practices in paradoxical environments.