Abstract:     Changes of an organization′s internal and external environment may promote or hinder its development. When the promoting effect significantly makes the current management model no longer applicable, or the hindering effect substantially affects the organization′s operation, the firm would be trapped in a development dilemma which needs an urgent change. Among abundant organizational changes, only a small number of them get success with a precise strategic transformation direction. Most of firms fail in transformation because they are unable to grasp the accurate direction of changes which are always influenced by various factors and the complex relationship among the factors. Consequently, they tend to blindly choose and implement a change, trapped by a new dilemma. Therefore, the direction of strategic change plays a fundamental role in implementing a strategic change. Theoretically, some scholars have analyzed the impact of a single element (such as performance and aspiration) on the process of strategic change and argued that the relationship between elements will affect the direction of strategic change. However, there is still a lack of in-depth exploration of this complex impact process. So, it is necessary to explore how firms can shape the direction of specific strategic change.
    Shaping the direction of strategic change is a complex process. Especially when a firm faces development difficulties, there are many contradictions caused by competition for resources and conflict of goals. Organizational paradox refers to a pair of elements with a long-term contradictory and mutually reinforcing relationship. When the paradox relationship changes from "hidden" to "prominent", the conflict between the paradox elements becomes stronger. This contradictory relationship also appears in distress faced by the firm, so the paradoxical relationship helps restore the organization′s complex internal and external situations during strategic change. Given this, we choose organizational paradox to explain complex relational and explore how organizational paradox affects the direction of strategic change? Also, some scholars have proposed that when managers′ cognition is coordinated with changes in circumstances, it will promote strategic changes. It can be considered that managers′ cognition, organizational paradox, and the direction of strategic change are associated. Therefore, we select five leading firms from different industries and use the multi-case study method to explore the process mechanism of organizational paradox affecting the direction of transformation strategy change through managers′ cognition.
    The results show that the process of shaping strategic change′s direction refers to three phases: identifying the development dilemma phase, defining the fuzzy direction phase, and determining the specific phase. The three phases are closely linked and show a progressive relationship, and the prominent paradoxical relationship runs through the whole shaping process with different functions at different stages; During the period of identifying the development dilemma, the contradictory relationship between the paradox elements has increased, and many paradox relationships have changed from "hidden" to "prominent", which means that there are relational obstacles in the operation of firms; In the period of defining the ambiguous direction, firstly distinguish the central prominent paradox and the secondary prominent paradox among the paradoxes in the "prominent" state, and then apply the central prominent paradox to managers′ cognition, increase its complexity and focus, and form a new manager′s cognitive focus range and define the relatively vague direction of strategic change; During the period of determining the specific direction, based on the central prominent to highlight the contradictory relationship represented by the paradox, gradually focus on multiple and sub-prominent paradoxes and act on the manager′s cognition, circularly increase the complexity and focus of cognition, forming new cognitive focal points and defining specific strategic directions for change.
     This research attempts to break the existing research of analyzing the direction of strategic change from a single element perspective and adopt the complex relationship between elements to explore the forming mechanism of the direction of strategic change. It may supplement the theoretical system of organizational paradox, put forward two prominent paradox relations: prominent central paradox and prominent secondary paradox, and propose that paradox formulates the direction of strategic change by acting on two dimensions of managers′ cognition. This research may also bring implications for managers: It′s necessary to grasp the core contradiction quickly and get it as the core focus of formulating the direction of strategic change. Then careful consideration of all aspects of the problem to determine the direction of strategic change as accurate as possible.

Key words:  strategic change direction, organizational paradox theory, managerial cognition, multiple case study