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When Your Race Is Almost Run, but You Feel You're Not Yet Done: Application of the Propulsion Theory of Creative Contributions to Late‐career Challenges
Author(s) -
Sternberg Robert J.,
Kaufman James C.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the journal of creative behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.896
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 2162-6057
pISSN - 0022-0175
DOI - 10.1002/jocb.005
Subject(s) - race (biology) , propulsion , replication (statistics) , closing (real estate) , product (mathematics) , engineering ethics , sociology , public relations , management , computer science , epistemology , engineering , political science , economics , aerospace engineering , law , mathematics , gender studies , statistics , geometry , philosophy
The propulsion theory of creative contributions is a theory that focuses on how a creative act or product builds on and adds to knowledge in various fields. In this article, we apply the propulsion theory of creative contributions not to creative discoveries or inventions, but rather to late‐career decisions about future directions in which one can steer one's career. We consider eight different kinds of career decisions one can make—replication, redefinition, forward incrementation, advance forward incrementation, redirection, reconstruction/redirection, reinitiation, and synthesis. Each offers a viable option for closing out a creative career.