Abstract
Private nonprofit higher education within the United States continues to experience unprecedented disruption and discontinuous change in an industry not known for its flexibility and adaptability. The current ethnographic case study describes how the culture-sharing senior leadership team of a private nonprofit U.S. institution of higher education leverages tensions to create strategic agility. The results of the study yielded six major themes including (a) fostering a culture that seeks and embraces innovation through paradoxical tensions, (b) creating a mindset for innovation and growth, (c) generating collaboration and partnership, (d) forming teams mindfully and purposefully, (e) managing tensions positively, and (f) increasing institutional responsiveness through the creation of flexible capacities. From the study’s results, a conceptual model is proposed to aid like institutions in creating greater strategic agility.|Keywords: Paradox leadership, paradoxical tensions, ambidexterity, strategic agility, higher education, private nonprofit