Toward a Theory of Organizational Creativity

TLDR

Organizational creativity is defined as the creation of a valuable new product, service, idea, procedure, or process by individuals working together in a complex social system, building on the interactionist model of creative behavior. The article develops a theoretical framework for understanding creativity in complex social settings. The framework is built by integrating the interactionist model of creative behavior with literature on creative behavior and organizational innovation to produce an interactional model of organizational creativity. The framework is distilled into three propositions that can guide the formulation of testable hypotheses.

Abstract

In this article we develop a theoretical framework for understanding creativity in complex social settings. We define organizational creativity as the creation of a valuable, useful new product, service, idea, procedure, or process by individuals working together in a complex social system. The starting point for our theoretical development is provided by the interactionist model of creative behavior developed by Woodman and Schoenfeldt (1989). This model and supporting literature on creative behavior and organizational innovation are used to develop an interactional framework for organizational creativity. The theoretical framework is summarized by three propositions that can effectively guide the development of testable hypotheses.