Creativity and the Management of Technology: Balancing Creativity and Standardization

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Shalley, Christina E.; Gilson, Lucy L.
• 署名单位: University System of Georgia; Georgia Institute of Technology; University of Connecticut
• 刊物名称: PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1059-1478
• DOI: 10.1111/poms.12639
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 605-616
• 关键词: CREATIVITY; standardization; management of technology; PARADOX

摘要

This thought piece represents an opportunity to integrate creativity and operations management (OM) research, and in particular the management of technology (MOT), to stimulate thinking and drive research across disciplines. Specifically, we discuss how there is an inherent tension when considering how work is organized and performed given that the majority of today's jobs require a certain degree of following routinized procedures, while some level of creativity is desirable as well. Therefore, there is the need to balance standardization with the desire for creativity, and this represents an inherent paradox. Here, we propose applying a creativity lens to the work categories used in OM, and discuss the implications of considering creativity as a process and an outcome that ranges along a continuum from incremental to radical. Our goal is to start a conversation that integrates the organizational creativity literature with OM and the MOT, and in doing so leads to future research and new developments in each of these literatures.