Sub-theme 35: Creativity: Moving Through and Beyond the Unexpected
Call for Papers
The unexpected is the essence of creativity, and it can cause the unforeseen to occur within organizations. Creativity
enables original ideas to arise, and it is the core competence that can lead to innovation (Liu et al., 2017). Creativity
allows team members to glimpse novel solutions from the integration of different perspectives (Hargadon & Bechky, 2006;
Shalley & Perry-Smith, 2008).
This unexpected essence of creativity can engender surprise within and
outside an organization. Surprise can cause positive individual states and emotions such as passion, energy, and engagement,
but also lead to negative states such as shock, confusion, and burn out. At the organizational level, surprise can support
continuous innovation, organizational learning, and knowledge creation, but it can also lead to the loss of efficiency, constraints
in scaling, and failures in strategy execution (James & Taylor, 2010).
The journey to the unexpected
can be more or less surprising depending on the industries examined. On the one hand, there are industries where the unexpected
is embedded in creativity and produces more radical innovations or paradigm shifts (e.g. Alessi teapot which moved from being
viewed as a kitchen tool to a design object) and a change in competitive logics (e.g. competition among companies vs. open
innovation and a shared economy). On the other hand, there are other industries where bringing the unexpected and being surprising
are minimum requirements for the organizations’ survival (e.g. industries such as media and entertainment, and fashion design).
Creativity research has been focused on how organizations can facilitate and support the unexpected so that
creativity becomes an individual, team, and organizational capability (Anderson et al., 2014; Madjar et al., 2011). In this
sense, organizations deliberately design activities, internal contexts, managerial and HR practices, as well as organizational
structures and climate to enhance creativity, thus, it often is the expected and unsurprising result of organizing (Shalley
et al., 2004).
To support individual, team, and organizational creativity, organizations will design jobs
and adopt rules, routines, leadership styles, and coordination mechanisms in order to obtain the unexpected from the more
traditional organizational receipts (Gilson et al., 2005; Bissola et al., 2014). In other cases, less conventional processes
such as bricolage, improvisation, and design thinking can enable surprising organizational outcomes (Barrett, 1998; Elsbach
& Hargadon, 2006; Johansson-Sköldberg et al., 2013; Martin, 2009; Vera & Crossan, 2005).
A further
research avenue is the unexpected consequences of creativity for individuals, teams, and organizations. While creativity has
been mainly considered as a driver of positive individual, team, and organizational outcomes, more recently, it has been associated
with a wide range of counterproductive and unexpected issues (Baucus et al., 2008). For example, research has indicated that
creative people can experience negative moods, are usually lower on the tolerance of conventionality and boredom, and tend
to be more narcissistic (Mumford et al., 2002). Recently, creativity also has been associated with dishonesty (Gino &
Arieli, 2012; Gino & Wiltermuth, 2014). At the organizational level, creative organizations are often exposed to highly
risky conditions; they can be undisciplined and difficult to manage, and at times creativity is directed toward negative ends
(Boon et al., 2009).
Contributors to this sub-theme are encouraged to discuss alternative perspectives about
how surprise can lead to challenging the creativity domain: What are the unexpected consequences of creativity? Is the surprise
implied in creativity always positive? Does design thinking and improvisation lead to enhanced creative performance? What
lessons can be learned from cases of unforeseen creativity? How can surprise and the unexpected occur in the creativity research
domain?
Rigorous conceptual and empirical research that are relevant to organizational settings is called
for. Papers submitted may include, but are not restricted to, the following themes:
The unexpected essence
of creativity:
Surprised people and creativity
Types of creativity and creative industries
Designing the unexpected
Letting the unexpected emerge
The power of surprise
Journey to creativity
The unexpected outcomes of creativity:
Creativity and ethics
Creative organizations and sustainability
Co-creation, unexpected creativity and open innovation
Creative momentum and creative outcomes
The dark side of creativity
Creativity and burn out
Creativity as an organizational constraint
References
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- Barrett, F.J. (1998): “Coda – creativity and improvisation in jazz and organizations: Implications for organizational learning.” Organization Science, 9 (5), 605–622.
- Baucus, M.S., Norton, W.I., Baucus, D.A., & Human, S.E. (2008): “Fostering creativity and innovation without encouraging unethical behavior.” Journal of Business Ethics, 81, 97–115.
- Bissola, R., Imperatori, B., & Trinca Colonel, R. (2014): “Enhancing the creative performance of new product teams: an organizational configurational approach.” Journal of Product Innovation Management, 31 (2), 375–391.
- Boon, B., Jones, D., & Curnow, B. (2009): “Out of the blue: The dark side of creative enterprise.” Culture and Organization, 15, 361–377.
- Elsbach, K.D., & Hargadon, A.B. (2006): “Enhancing creativity through ‘mindless’ work: A framework of workday design.” Organization Science, 17 (4), 470–483.
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- Shalley, C.E., Zhou, J., & Oldham, G.R. (2004): “The effects of personal and contextual characteristics on creativity: Where should we go from here?” Journal of Management, 30 (6), 933–958.
- Vera, D., & Crossan, M. (2005): “Improvisation and innovative performance in teams.” Organization Science, 16 (3), 203–224.