Following improvement, saw contradiction (10)
I believe the answer is:
gainsaying
'contradiction' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'following improvement saw' is the wordplay.
'following' says to put letters next to each other.
'improvement' becomes 'gain'.
'saw' becomes 'saying' (I've seen this before**).
'gain'+'saying' is 'GAINSAYING'.
(Other definitions for gainsaying that I've seen before include "Not agreeing" , "denial" .)