Tensions in Corporate Creativity

In October 2016 I gave a presentation at the 5th M-Sphere Conference in Dubrovnik about tensions in corporate creativity. Meanwhile the proceedings of the conference have been published as a Book of Papers containing my contribution "Tensions in Corporate Creativity". Here is the abstract:

The standard definition of creativity is based on a tension between originality and effectiveness. Borrowing from the wave-particle duality in physics one could say that there is an originality-effectiveness duality at work for creativity. The paper explores how this tension pervades Amabile’s (1997) componential theory of organizational creativity with the components
organizational motivation, management practices (including work assignment and work control) and resources. As a method the so called value square (“Wertequadrat”) developed by Helwig (1967) and Schulz von Thun (1998) is used which balances a value with its countervalue. The author identifies a tension of corporate tradition and corporate change for organizational motivation, a tension of skills and challenges for work assignment, a tension of management by control and management by loss of control for work control as well as a tension of organizational efficiency and organizational slack for resources. Additionally different implications of these tensions for the resistance of a company to creativity, for an organizational climate conducive to creativity as well as for resource allocation in creative endeavours are discussed.

The full paper can be found here.

For more information on the M-Sphere Conference go to the following website: http://m-sphere.com.hr/