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Organizing Individual and Collective Creativity: Flying in the Face of Creativity Clichés
Author(s) -
Bissola Rita,
Imperatori Barbara
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
creativity and innovation management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.148
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1467-8691
pISSN - 0963-1690
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8691.2011.00597.x
Subject(s) - creativity , genius , sensemaking , empirical research , psychology , face (sociological concept) , collective intelligence , relevance (law) , process (computing) , sociology , knowledge management , social psychology , computer science , epistemology , political science , social science , developmental psychology , philosophy , law , operating system
The growing complexity of problems requires collective solutions to produce creative outcomes. Organizational theory on creativity has been extensively developed in recent decades, but two problematic issues remain. First, no current comprehensive model explains the development of collective creativity. Second, no empirical research has been conducted on the process of theory dissemination and its relevance within the managerial community. This paper provides evidence which can inform the design of collective creative projects within organizations, flying in the face of some managerial clichés. We design a research project which enables managerial sensemaking to emerge and which proposes a comprehensive approach to the design of team creativity. From a research design involving 24 managers and 98 eleven‐person groups, results confirm that creativity is not only about creative genius, and design for creativity is not a matter of linear correlation but implies a more sophisticated and integrative approach according to which individual creative skills, team dynamics and organizational solutions interact with each other to produce a collective creative performance.