Exploring Creativity in Organizations: Methodological Concerns

In this chapter, the use of different methodological aspects, combined with the three influential theoretical models, will be critically examined in terms of relevance for the study of organizational creativity and a management study, which in this case means support, reinforce and increase understanding of the creative activities in organizations. The argument is that practically all current work on creativity is based on methodologies that either are psychometric in nature or were developed in response to perceived weaknesses of creativity measurement (Plucker and Renzulli, 1999). The main bulk of creativity literature is either conceptual or in the realm of quantitative methodology. In addition, the majority of creativity studies have generally focused on only one level of analysis at a time (e.g., Taggar, 2002). There is an ongoing debate about the appropriate level of analysis in studying creativity in organizations. Traditionally, creativity research has concentrated on the small group (or independent project) as the focal level of analysis. With some exceptions (e.g., Glynn, 1996; Woodman et al., 1993), little has been done to extend research beyond the level of the small project (Drazin et al., 1999).