Wendy K. Smith
Biography
Wendy Smith studies how leaders and organizations navigate competing demands, advancing scholarship and practice about paradox theory and engaging both/and approaches to tensions.
As a leading expert in paradox and both/and thinking, Wendy received the Web of Science Highly Cited Research Award 7 times (2019-2025) for being among the 1 percent most-cited researchers in her field and twice won the Decade Award (2021, 2024) from the Academy of Management Review for the most cited paper in the past 10 years. Her work has been published in top academic journals including Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science and Management Science. She has also been featured in top publications including Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Newsweek, Fast Company and others.
She was awarded the 2023 Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award and named to the 2025 Thinkers50 top 50 global management thinkers for her insights about paradox. She integrates her research into her book Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems.
In addition to teaching leadership and ethics at University of Delaware, Wendy has also taught at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania–Wharton while helping senior leaders and middle managers all over the world more effectively navigate tensions and challenges.
View Wendy’s TEDx-UD talk, “The Power of Paradox.”
Education
- Ph.D. in organizational behavior, Harvard University/Harvard Business School, 2006
- M.A. in psychology, Harvard University, 2004
- B.A. in psychology & political science, Yale University, 1996
Select Publications
- Besharov, M., & Smith, W. K. 2025. Zooming Out and Zooming in to Expand Research on Multiple Institutional Logics and Organizational Hybridity: Reflections on the 2024 AMR Decade Award: Academy of Management Review.
- Schrage, S., Andriopoulos, C., Lewis, M. & Smith, W. 2025. Unleashing the Creative Potential of Research Tensions: Toward a Paradox Approach to Methods. Organization Research Methods.
- Keller, J., Berti, M., & Smith, W. 2025. Paradoxical Theorizing: A Multimodal Approach to Generate New Theory. Organization Theory, 6(2), 26317877251351642.
- Slawinski, N., Smith, W. K., & Van der Byl, C. A. 2025. Leveraging the Dominant Pole: How Champions of an Industry-Wide Environmental Alliance Navigate Coopetition Paradoxes. Journal of Management, 51(8): 3250-3285.
- Sparr, J. L., E. Miron-Spektor, M. W. Lewis, and W. K. Smith. 2022. From a Label to a Metatheory of Paradox: If We Change the Way We Look at Things, the Things We Look at Change. Academy of Management Collections 1(2): 16-34.
- Lewis, M.W. and Smith, W.K. 2022. Navigating Paradox is Paradoxical. Academy of Management Review. 47(4), 528-548. (available openaccess)
- Miron-Spektor, E., Emich K., Argote, L., & Smith, W.K. 2022. Conceiving Opposites Together: Cultivating Paradoxical Frames and Epistemic Motivation Fosters Team Creativity. Organizational Behavior & Human Decision Processes. 171 (104152) (available openaccess)
- Smith, W.K. and Besharov. M.L. 2019. Bowing Before Dual Gods: How Structured Flexibility Sustains Organizational Hybridity. Administrative Science Quarterly, 64(1): 1-44.
- Miron-Spektor, E., Ingram, A. S., Keller, J., Smith, W. K., & Lewis, M. W. 2018. Microfoundations of Organizational Paradox: The Problem is How We Think About the Problem. Academy of Management Journal, 61(1): 26-45.
- Schad, J., Lewis, M.W., Raisch, S., & Smith, W.K. 2016. Paradox Research in Management Science: Looking Back to Move Forward. Academy of Management Annals, 10(1): 5-64.
- Fairhurst, G., Smith, W. K., Banghart, S., Lewis, M. W., Putnam, L., Raisch, S., & Schad, J. 2016. Diverging and converging: Integrating Insights on a Paradox Meta-perspective. Academy of Management Annals, 10(1): 173-182.
- Smith, W.K. 2014. Dynamic Decision Making: A Model of Senior Leaders Managing Strategic Paradoxes. Academy of Management Journal, 57: 1592-1623.
- Besharov, M. and Smith W.K. 2014. Multiple Logics in Organizations: A Theoretical Integration. Academy of Management Review, 39, 364-381.
- Smith, W.K. and Lewis, M.W. 2011. Toward a Theory of Paradox: A Dynamic Equilibrium Model of Organizing. Academy of Management Review, 36(2): 381-403.
Awards & Honors
- Thinkers50, top 50 global management thinkers, 2025-2027
- Francis Alison Award, 2025
- Web of Science, Highly Cited Researcher Award, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
- Decade award, Academy of Management Review, for “Toward a Theory of Paradox…” 2021, for “Multiple Logics…,” 2024
- Thinkers50, Breakthrough Idea Award, 2023
- Community Award, Paradox Research Education and Practice, 2022
- Responsible Research in Management Award, distinguished winner 2020
- Mid-Career Excellence in Scholarship Award, University of Delaware, 2018
- Citation of excellence for “Multiple Logics…,” Emerald Publishing Limited, 2017
- Best paper award for “Dynamic Decision Making…,” Ivey Business School Institute for Leadership, 2017
- Best paper award, runner-up for “Paradox Research…,” Academy of Management Annals, 2017
- #3 most viewed papers on the AMJ Website for “Dynamic Decision Making…,” December 2014
- Top 100 “Business School Research with Social Impact” for “Bowing Before Dual Gods…,” Financial Times
Curriculum Vitae
Download Wendy Smith’s CV (PDF)
Website
Visit Wendy Smith’s Personal Website
Follow Wendy Smith on LinkedIn