Abstract
Nowadays creativity is fashionable. Writers on management and organisation, for example, mention creativity as vital to entrepreneurship.1 They consider it to be as important as land, labour and capital, which form the traditional factors of production.2 And related terms such as ‘genius’ are in use again. An example of this is the widely read book Built to Last.3 Moreover, creativity and rationality are presented as alternatives. To be creative, managers are urged to put rationality aside: ‘being reasonable does not win the day’ they are assured4 and ‘all progress depends on the unreasonable man’.5 This view that rationality and creativity oppose each other is, however, unsatisfactory involving, as it does, a form of epistemological schizophrenia. One excludes the other only if we adopt a simplistic concept of rationality and an esoteric view of creativity. This article, therefore, sets out to clarify the relationship between the concepts of creativity and rationality. Three ideal-type concepts of rationality will be introduced (algorithmic, judgemental, reflective) and their tolerance of novelty discussed. Then two modes of creativity (explorative and transcendentive) are distinguished, followed by a discussion of whether rationality can enhance creativity. I conclude by reviewing some factors involved in creativity, such as tolerance for ambiguity, playfulness and attentiveness, and with a short discussion of the relationship of creativity to power.6
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References
See P Drucker Innovation and Entrepreneurship Pan Books, London 1985
G Morgan ‘Emerging Waves and Challenges: the Need for new Competencies and Mindsets’ in J Henry (ed) Creative Management Sage, London 1998 pp 283–294. However, there are also warnings of negative effects which may be involved in creativity. Expressions such as ‘self-indulgent creativity’ (S Rapp, T Collins The Great Marketing Turnaround Plume, New York 1992) and the ‘fallacy of creativity’ (P Drucker Management, Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices HarperBusiness, New York 1993) are illustrations of this, as is the view that there is nothing inherently moral or positive in creativity (H Gardner 1988 ‘Creative lives and Creative Works: a synthetic approach’ in R J Sternberg (ed) The Nature of Creativity Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1988 p 319)
J C Collins, J I Porras Built to Last Harper Business, New York 1997
B Clegg, P Birch disOrganisation Financial Times, London 1998
C Handy ‘The Age of Unreason’ in J Henry (ed) Creative Management Sage, London 1998 pp 269–283 (quotation p 270)
I am not concerned in this paper with techniques for increasing creativity or the notions of intuition and feeling.
K R Popper, J Eccles The Self and its Brain 1977 p 551. The pejorative expression ‘creative accounting’ is used to denote a new and clever malfeasance in book-keeping. Such a negative application of the term ‘creative’ seems to be an exception, however, because it is normally used to denote a much welcomed way of doing or thinking.
Collins & Porras op cit p 43
A less strong relationship is manifest in views that focus on changes in phenomenal reality, whereas the deep structure of reality remains the same. In this approach the changed situations come first and human creativity follows. What this human creativity then leads to is a kind of flexibility. In the field of Management & Organisation contingency theory can count as an example.
J Schmidt Die Geschichte des Genie-Gedankens in der deutschen Literatur, Philosophie und Politik 1750–1945 Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1985 Vol 1 p 451
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J S Mill Collected Works Part I University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1981 p 334. For a more recent non-elitist view see R C Schrank ‘Creativity as a Mechanical Process’ in R J Sternberg (ed) The Nature of Creativity Cambridge University Press, Cambridge1988
J S Mill On Liberty Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 1979 p 129
F Nietzsche ‘Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen’ Werke Bd I A Baeumler (ed) Kröner Verlag, Leipzig 1930
H Bergson L’Évolution Créatrice Librairie Félix Alcan, Paris 1923 p 42
As mentioned in my introduction, I will not discuss ‘intuition’
Bergson op cit p 153
Process and Reality Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1929 p 28
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That creativity and rationality are, also at a metaphysical level, viewed as unhappy bedfellows, is also manifest in the idea that the laws of nature, as an expression of rationality, are unchangeable (Prigogine & Strengers 1984: 306)
W James Pragmatism Meridian, New York 1955 p 167; Essays in Pragmatism. Hafner, New York 1948 p 172
W James op cit 1948 p 4
his view is analogous with Whitehead’s God-world relationship
James op cit 1955 p 167 Recently, the physicist Bohm defended a reciprocalist relationship between human creativity and reality (D Bohm On Creativity Routledge London 1998). In such an interactionist view, human life is considered an endless grasping and cultivating of the potential of reality
n order to grasp the complexities of rationality, I think it is helpful to distinguish between the kind of subject matters at issue and the way rationality is exercised. As far as the kinds of issues are concerned, one can, for example, think of the choice of means in order to reach some end, and it is also possible to rationally compare ends in the light of values. The ideal-type model attends only to the way rationality is exercised. In doing so, actual thoughts or actions can, as far as they are rational, be viewed as a mixture of these types, the actual blend of which can be studied empirically. Whether the actual is also to be preferred is another, normative, matter. From a philosophical point of view, especially, this is an important issue
H A Simon Models of Bounded Rationality: Behavioral Economics and Business Organization Cambridge (Mass) 1983 pp 381–2
F Schipper ‘Rationality and the Philosophy of Organisation’ Organisation 3(3) 1996 p 267–289
Schipper loc cit 1996
Geoffrey Vickers The Art of Judgment A Study of Policy Making Harper & Row, London 1965
C Argyris, D Schön Organisational Learning II. Addison Wesley, Reading (Mass) 1996; K v d Heijden & C Eden ‘The Theory and Praxis of Reflective Learning in Strategy Making’ in C Eden & J-C Spedender (eds) Managerial and Organisational Cognition Sage, London 1998 Now, someone might suggest that a feedback loop constituted by a thermostat is a technical realisation of reflective rationality. I think, however, that such an artifact is not even a weak metaphor. My point is that, when the preferred temperature is adjusted, it depends on the functioning of a closed circle, passing by the required openness (see also Schipper & Kee op cit 2000).
F Schipper, B Kee ‘Philosophical Reflection in Management and Organisation’ 2000 (under review)
J Schmidt Die Geschichte des Genie-Gedankens in der deutschen Literatur, Philosophie und Politik 1750–1945 Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1985 Vol 1 p 122
R J Sternberg & T I Lubart Defying the Crowd. Cultivating Creativity in a Culture of Conformity The Free Press, New York 1995
I think that it is legitimate to say that the ideal of genius, mentioned earlier, focused entirely on transcendentive creativity.
A Newell, J C Shaw & H A Simon ‘The Processes of Creative Thinking’ in E Gruber, G Terrell & M Wertheimer (eds) Contemporary Approaches to Creative Thinking Atherton Press, New York 1962
Schipper & Kee op cit 2000
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Schipper & Kee op cit 2000
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However, this does not always seem to be the case. Sometimes, it is argued, unpleasant stimulations are important for the awakening of creativity (Sternberg & Lubart op cit 1995 p 256).
Brodbeck op cit 1999
I will not discuss the concept of freedom in this article, although there is certainly a temptation to do so. One important aspect is the double connection between freedom and constraints. On the one hand, freedom can mean freedom from constraints, on the other hand one may speak of the freedom made possible by constraints. It is especially this second freedom which is involved in explorative creativity
See for example B Flyvbjerg Rationality and Power University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1998
In order to nuance matters, one could also say that this effectiveness in misuse shows the power of reason. It is exactly this kind of power the Enlightenment philosophers were looking for
This perhaps links with empirical studies of humans in organisations, such as, those which study collective mental maps or shared meanings in relation to power
Collins & Porras op cit 1997 pp 43, 217, 242, 247
Handy loc cit 1998 p 270
Clegg & Birch ‘The Age of Reason’ op cit 1998 p 7
Simon op cit; ‘Decision Making and Organisational Design’ in D S Pugh (ed) Organisation Theory Penguin, Harmondsworth 1984
A N Whitehead The Function of Reason Beacon Press, Boston 1958 p 485
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Schipper, F. Creativity and Rationality: A Philosophical Contribution. Philos. of Manag. 1, 3–15 (2001). https://doi.org/10.5840/pom20011210
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5840/pom20011210