Managing Creativity in Organizations: Critique and Practices

Organizational creativity denotes an organization's capacity to exploit and explore its intellectual capital in activities constituting and leading to sustainable competitive advantage. Even though R&D, innovation, and other forms of activities that strengthen the firm's position in the market are strongly emphasized in management writing, the notion of organizational creativity is poorly exploited as a means for improving organizational performance. Managing Creativity in Organizations addresses the notion of organizational creativity and advocates a more detailed view of organizational creativity. In the first part of the book (Critique), the management literature on creativity is critically reviewed and examined in terms of epistemology and methodological concerns. The second part of the book (Practices) explores the management of organizational creativity in the pharmaceutical industry. Here, issues such as technology, cognition and leadership are introduced as central, yet somewhat under theorized and ignored, resources and practices in the management of organizational creativity. The authors suggest that organizational creativity is a resource of great importance for a series of industries and companies but that the construct of organizational creativity is suffering from a number of theoretical ambiguities and shortcomings. The empirical platform for this book is based on management practices from four companies: AstraZeneca, Carisson Research and Wingardh Architect Firm - all of who have over time demonstrated a significant ability to exploit their organizational creativity.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: The Absence of Creativity in Practice and Management Writing PART 1: CRITIQUE What is Organizational Creativity? The Epistemology of Creativity Exploring Creativity in Organizations: Methodological Concerns PART 2: PRACTICES Technology and Creativity Intuition and Creativity Leadership and Creativity Conclusion: Managing Organizational Creativity

About the Author :
ALEXANDER STYHRE is Associate Professor at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden. He has published many papers on a variety of issues pertaining to the management of knowledge-intensive organizations and is the author of a number of books, including Management Writing out of Bounds (Copenhagen Business School Press, 2005), Collaborative Research in Organizations (co-edited, Sage, 2004), Understanding Knowledge Management (Copenhagen Business School Press, 2003) and Knowledge Sharing in Organizations (co-authored, Copenhagen Business School Press, 2003). MATS SUNDGREN is a Scientific Adviser and Senior Informatics Scientist with AstraZeneca R&D, Molndal, Sweden, and is affiliated with the Fenix Research Program at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, and the Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden. He has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry in new drug development, and has published in management journals on the topic of organizational creativity.

Review :
'The authors provide an exemplary case combining academic rigour and practitioner experience and concerns. They help us towards an understanding of the complexities of creativity at the level of the modern organization and its location within the broader field of organization theory. The treatment helps us re-appraise the nature and role of leadership and organizational rationalities. The book will be welcomed by practitioners, researchers and students of management alike.' - Tudor Rickards, Professor of Creativity and Organizational Change, University of Manchester, UK 'An important contribution to the development of management practices in the context of complexity and creativity. In a world of constantly increasing volatility and uncertainty there is a need for better understanding of how leadership, structural preconditions and technology can enhance organizational creativity.' - Bo Rex, Chairman of the board, Soul Business Innovation Group, Sweden 'Managing Creativity in Organizations: Critique and Practices, offers a solid framework for anyone trying to get beyond the widely held assumptions about creativity. From a practitioner perspective, the authors offer an intriguing synthesis of valid concepts and hypotheses to use when assessing creativity at an individual or organizational level. The discussions are very useful to inspire management in science/technology-based corporations to reflect upon how we as leaders impact on several dimensions of creativity. Obtaining a proper balance between productivity driven by process improvements, technical expertize and exploring organizational creativity, as a competitive edge is a delicate mission in Pharmaceutical companies.' - Mikael Dolsten, Head of Corporate Pharma Research, Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc, USA 'Today, managing creativity in organizations is a decisive factor to remain successful in R&D intensive industries. Being able to keep focus on the business while at the same time nurturing organizational creativity demands mature leadership. I firmly believe this book makes an important contribution to industry. It offers practical guidance combined with rich illustrations of the complexity of perspectives involved when managing creativity in organizations.' - Anna Kall, Head Business Management, Pfizer, Sweden 'This book presents a clearly written, extensive survey of research about many aspects that bridge the areas of organizational creativity and organizational theory. It convincingly argues for the existence and practical impact of an organizational creativity that integrates critique, with practices such as technology, intuition, leadership, and strategy etc. In a world where technological developments are demanding ever faster innovations, and where globalization is making markets and organizations more and more complex, to understand the critique and practices of organizational creativity has become critical.' - Marcus Selart, Norwegian School of Economics & Business Administration, Norway 'This book brings the very important aspect of organizational creativity on the table. It feels refreshing in a corporate world filled of processes and risk reducing procedures slowly killing innovation and future success. The role of managerial aspects for creativity and creative organisations needs to be put on the managerial agenda. A good start is to read this thought provoking book' - Hans Glise, Senior Vice-President, NovoNordisk 'It has often been assumed that large organization are not very creative and rather bureaucratic and slow in relation to decision-making etc. In AstraZeneca Discovery, we have been working very hard to ensure that creativity, flexibility and capturing opportunities can also be the hallmarks for a productive big pharma organization. This book illustrates some basic principles behind the importance of so called organizational creativity in large organizations and v