Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Organizational Creativity: A New Perspective from Cognitive Systems Theory

  • Chapter
Knowledge Creation

Abstract

In recent years scholars have increasingly paid more attention to knowledge management in the firm. The different ways of generating and transferring knowledge among individuals and organizations have been widely analysed (Nonaka, 1988, 1991; Badaracco, 1991; Vicari, 1991; Kogut and Zander, 1992; Leonard-Barton, 1995; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; von Krogh and Roos, 1996; Sanchez and Heene, 1997; Davenport and Prusak, 1998). Attention has also been paid to the organizational conditions which enable learning and knowledge acquisition (Argyris and Schön, 1978; Duncan and Weiss, 1979; Shrivastava, 1983; Fiol and Lyles, 1985; Senge, 1990) and the processes of knowledge codification and storage (Weick, 1979; Hedberg, 1981; Sims and Gioia, 1986; Sackmann, 1991; Walsh and Ungson, 1991). Such studies have often been carried out from different epistemological perspectives, leading to the definition and use of different constructs and interpretative categories (von Krogh and Roos, 1995, 1996).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • AMABILE, T. M. (1988) ‘A Model of Creativity and Innovation in Organizations’, in B. M. Staw and L. L. Cummings (eds), Research in Organizational Behavior, vol. 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • AMABILE, T. M. (1997) ‘Motivating Creativity in Organizations: On Doing What You Love and Loving What You Do’, California Management Review, 40(1).

    Google Scholar 

  • ARGYRIS, C. and D. A. SCHÖN (1978) Organizational learning: A Theory of Action Perspective (Reading: Addison-Wesley).

    Google Scholar 

  • ARROW, K. (1984) Collected Papers of K Arrows: The Economics of Information (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • ATLAN, H. (1986) Tra il cristallo e il fumo. Saggio sull’organizzazione del vivente (Firenze: Hopeful Monster).

    Google Scholar 

  • BADARACCO, J. L. (1991) The Knowledge Link: How Firms Compete through Strategic Alliances (Boston: Harvard Business School Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • BAER, J. (1993) Creativity and Divergent Thinking (Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum).

    Google Scholar 

  • BARNEY, J. (1991) ‘Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage’, Journal of Management, 17.

    Google Scholar 

  • BARRON, F. and D. M. HARRINGTON (1981) ‘Creativity, Intelligence, and Personality’, Annual Review of Psychology, 51.

    Google Scholar 

  • BASADUR, M., G. B. GRAEN and S. G. GREEN (1982) ‘Training in Creative Problem Solving: Effect on Ideation and Problem Finding and Solving in an Industrial Research Organization’, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 30.

    Google Scholar 

  • BATESON, G. (1984) Mente e natura (Milano: Adelphi).

    Google Scholar 

  • BINNIG, G. (1991) Dal nulla (Milano: Garzanti).

    Google Scholar 

  • BODEN, M. A. (1994) Dimensions of Creativity (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • COCCO, G. C. (1983) Creativita’, ricerca e innovazione (Milano: Franco Angeli).

    Google Scholar 

  • COHEN, M. D., J. G. MARCH and J. P. OLSEN (1972) ‘A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Change’, Administrative Science Quarterly, (17).

    Google Scholar 

  • CSIKSZENTMIHALYI, M. (1988) ‘Society, Culture, and Person: A Systems View of Creativity’, in R. J. Sternberg (ed.), The Nature of Creativity: Contemporary Psychological Perspectives (New York: Cambridge University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • CSIKSZENTMIHALYI, M. (1990) ‘The Domain of Creativity’, in M. A. Runco and R. S. Albert (eds), Theories of Creativity (Newbury Park: Sage)

    Google Scholar 

  • CSIKSZENTMIHALYI, M. (1996) Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (New York: HarperCollins).

    Google Scholar 

  • CUMMINGS, A. and G. R. OLDHAM (1997) ‘Enhancing Creativity: Managing Work Contexts for The High Potential Employee’, California Management Review, 40(1).

    Google Scholar 

  • D’AVENI, R. A. (1994) Hyper-competition: Managing the Dynamics of Strategic Maneuvering (New York: Free Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • DAFT, R. L. and K. E. WEICK (1984) ‘Toward a Model of Organizations as Interpretive Systems’, Academy of Management Review, 9(2).

    Google Scholar 

  • DAVENPORT, T. H. and L. PRUSAK (1998) Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know (Boston: Harvard Business School Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • DE BONO, E. (1967) The Use of Lateral Thinking.

    Google Scholar 

  • DE BONO, E. (1996) Essere creativi (Milano: Edizioni Il Sole 24 Ore).

    Google Scholar 

  • DIERRICKX, I. and K. COOL (1989) ‘Asset Stock Accumulation and Sustainability of Competitive Advantage’, Management Science, (12).

    Google Scholar 

  • DUNCAN, R. and A. WEISS (1979) ‘Organizational Learning: Implications for Organizational Design’, Research in Organizational Behavior, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • FINKE, R. A., T. B. WARD and S. M. SMITH (1992) Creative Cognition: Theory, Research and Applications (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • FIOL, C. M. and M. A. LYLES (1985) ‘Organizational Learning’, Academy of Management Review, 10(4).

    Google Scholar 

  • FLETCHER, J. and K. OLWYLER (1997) Paradoxical Thinking How to Profit from Your Contradiction, (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler).

    Google Scholar 

  • FORD, C. M. and D.A. GIOIA (eds) (1995) Creative Action in Organizations (Thousands Oaks: Sage).

    Google Scholar 

  • GARDNER, H. (1993) Creating Minds (New York: Basic Books).

    Google Scholar 

  • GETZELS, J. W. (1975) ‘Problem Finding and the Inventiveness of Solution’, Journal of Creative Behavior, 9.

    Google Scholar 

  • GIOIA, D. A. and H. P. SIMS (1986) ‘Introduction: Social Cognition in Organizations’, in H. P. Sims and D. A. Gioia (eds), The Thinking Organization (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass).

    Google Scholar 

  • GRANT, R. (1991) ‘The Resource-Based Theory of Competitive Advantage: Implications for Strategy Formulation’, California Management Review (Spring).

    Google Scholar 

  • HAMEL, G. and C. K. PRAHALAD (1994) Competing for the Future (Boston: Harvard Business School Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • HEDBERG, B. (1981) ‘How Organizations Learn and Unlearn’, in P. C. Nystrom and W. H. Starbuck (eds), Handbook of Organizational Design (Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • KAO, J. (1996) Jamming: The Art and Discipline of Business Creativity (London: HarperCollins).

    Google Scholar 

  • KLEIN, B., R. DRAWFORD and A. ALCHIAN (1978) ‘Vertical Integration. Appropriable Rents and Competitive Contracting Process’, Journal of Law and Economics, 27.

    Google Scholar 

  • KLEIN, M. (1975) The Psycho-analysis of Children (London: Hogarth).

    Google Scholar 

  • KOGUT, B. and U. ZANDER (1992) ‘Knowledge of the Firm, Combinative Capabilities and the Replication of Technology’, Organization Science, 3(3).

    Google Scholar 

  • LEARNED, E., C. CHRISTENSEN, K. ANDREWS and W. GUTH (1969) Business Policy: Text and Cases (Homewood, IU.: Irwin).

    Google Scholar 

  • LEONARD-BARTON, D (1995) Wellsprings of Knowledge: Building and Sustaining the Sources of Innovation (Boston: Harvard Business School Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • LUHMANN, N. (1984) Soziale Systeme. Giundrisse einer a Ilgemeinen Theorie (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkampverlag).

    Google Scholar 

  • LUHMANN, N. (1990) Sistemi sociali: Fondamenti di una teoria generale (Bologna: il Mulino).

    Google Scholar 

  • MARCH, J. G. and H. A. SIMON (1958) Organizations (New York: Wiley).

    Google Scholar 

  • MATURANA, H. and F. J. VARELA (1980) Autopoiesis and Cognition: the Realization of Living (London: Reidl).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • MATURANA, H. and F. J. VARELA (1987) The Tree of Knowledge (New York: Shambhala).

    Google Scholar 

  • MINTZBERG, H. (1978) ‘Planning on the Left Side, and Managing on the Right’, Harvard Business Review, (54).

    Google Scholar 

  • MONTEVERDE, K. and D. J. TEECE (1982) ‘Appropriate Rents and Quasi-vertical Integration’, Journal of Law and Economics, (25).

    Google Scholar 

  • MORIN, E. (1983) Ordine, disordine, organizzazione (Milano: Feltrinelli).

    Google Scholar 

  • NELSON, R. R. and S. G. WINTER (1982) An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • NONAKA, I. (1988) ‘Toward Middle-Up-Down Management: Accelerating Information Creation’, Sloan Management Review (Spring).

    Google Scholar 

  • NONAKA, I. (1991) ‘The Knowledge-Creating Company’, Harvard Business Review (November–December).

    Google Scholar 

  • NONAKA, I. and H. TAKEUCHI (1995) The Knowledge-Creating Company (New York: Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • PENROSE, E. T. (1959) The Theory of the Growth of the Firm (Oxford: Blackwell).

    Google Scholar 

  • PETTIGREW, A. M. (1973) The Politics of Organizational Decision Making (New York: Harper & Row).

    Google Scholar 

  • PFEFFER, J. and G. R. SALANCICK (1974) ‘Organizational Decision Making as a Political Process: The Case of the University’, Administrative Science Quarterly, (19).

    Google Scholar 

  • PIORE, M. and C. SABEL (1984) The Second Industrial Divide (New York: Basic Books).

    Google Scholar 

  • PORTER, M. E. (1990) The Competitive Advantage of Nations (London: Macmillan).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • PRAHALAD, C. K. and G. HAMEL (1990) ‘The Core Competence of the Corporation’, Harvard Business Review, (May–June).

    Google Scholar 

  • PRIGOGINE, I. and I. STENGERS (1989) Tra il tempo e l’eternita’ (Torino: Bollati Boringhieri).

    Google Scholar 

  • ROBINSON, A. G. and S. STERN (1997) Corporate Creativity: How Innovation and Improvement Actually Happen (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler).

    Google Scholar 

  • RULLANI, E. and S. VICARI (1999) ‘Introduzione’, in E. Rullani and S. Vicari (eds), Sistemi ed evoluzione nel management (Milano: Etaslibri).

    Google Scholar 

  • RUMELT, R. P. (1984) ‘Toward a Strategic Theory of the Firm’, in R. Lamb (ed.), Competitive Strategic Management (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall).

    Google Scholar 

  • RUMELT, R. P. (1987) ‘Theory, Strategy, and Entrepreneurship’, in D. J. Teece (ed.), The Competitive Challenge: Strategies for Industrial Innovation and Renewal (Cambridge: Ballinger).

    Google Scholar 

  • RUNCO, M. A. (1991) Divergent Thinking (Norwood: Ablex).

    Google Scholar 

  • RUNCO, M. A. (ed.) (1994) Problem Finding, Problem Solving and Creativity (Norwood: Ablex).

    Google Scholar 

  • SACKMANN, S. A. (1991) Cultural Knowledge in Organizations: Exploring the Collective Mind (Newbury Park: Sage).

    Google Scholar 

  • SANCHEZ, R. and A. HEENE (eds) (1997) Strategic Learning and Knowledge Management (Chichester: John Wiley & Sons).

    Google Scholar 

  • SENGE, P. M. (1990) The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of The Learning Organization (New York: Doubleday Currency).

    Google Scholar 

  • SHRIVASTAVA, P. (1983) ‘A Typology of Organizational Learning Systems’, Journal of Management Studies, 20(1).

    Google Scholar 

  • SIMON, H. A. (1947) Administrative Behavior (New York: Macmillan).

    Google Scholar 

  • SIMS, H. P. and D. A. GIOIA (eds) (1986) The Thinking Organization (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass).

    Google Scholar 

  • SMIRCHICH, L. and C. STUBBART (1985) ‘Strategic Management in an Enacted World’, Academy of Management Review, 10(4).

    Google Scholar 

  • SPERRY, R. W. (1968) ‘Hemisphere Deconnection and Unity in Conscious Awareness’, American Psychologist, (23).

    Google Scholar 

  • STACEY, R. D. (1996) Complexity and Creativity in Organizations (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler). STIEGLER, G. J. (1961) ‘The Economics of Information’, Journal of Political Economy (June).

    Google Scholar 

  • TAGGART, W. and D. ROBERY (1981) ‘Minds and Managers: On the Dual Nature of Human Information Processing and Management’, Academy of Management Review, (6).

    Google Scholar 

  • VARELA, F. J., H. R. MATURANA and R. URIBE (1974) ‘Autopoiesis: The Organization of Living Systems, Its Characterization and a Model’, Biosystems, 5.

    Google Scholar 

  • VICARI, S. (1991) L’impresa vivente (Milano: Etaslibri).

    Google Scholar 

  • VICARI, S. and G. TROILO (1998) ‘Errors and Learning in Organizations’, in G. von Krogh, J. Roos and D. Klein (eds), Knowing in the Firm: Understanding, Managing and Measuring Knowledge (London: Sage).

    Google Scholar 

  • VON KROGH, G. and J. ROOS (1995) Organizational Epistemology (London: Macmillan).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • VON KROGH, G. and J. ROOS (1996) Managing Knowledge: Perspectives on Cooperation and Competition (London: Sage).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • VON KROGH, G, J. ROOS and K. SLOCUM (1994) ‘An Essay on Corporate Epistemology’, Strategic Management Journal (Special Issue, Summer).

    Google Scholar 

  • VON KROGH, G. and S. VICARI (1993) ‘An Autopoiesis Approach to Experimental Strategic Learning’, in P. Lorange, B. Chakravarthy, J. Roos and A. van de Ven (eds), Implementing Strategic Processes: Change, Learning and Co-operation (London: Blackwell).

    Google Scholar 

  • WALSH, J. P. and G. R. UNGSON (1991) ‘Organizational Memory’, Academy of Management Review, 16(1).

    Google Scholar 

  • WEICK, K. E. (1979) ‘Cognitive Processes in Organizations’, Research in Organizational Behavior, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • WEISBERG, R. W. (1993) Creativity: Beyond the Myth of Genius (New York: Freeman).

    Google Scholar 

  • WERNERFELT, B. (1984) ‘A Resource-based View of the Firm’, Strategic Management Journal, 5.

    Google Scholar 

  • WOODMAN, R. W, J. E. SAWYER and R. W. GRIFFIN (1993) ‘Toward A Theory of Organizational Creativity’, Academy of Management Review, 18(2).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Salvio Vicari
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Gabriele Troilo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Management, University of St Gallen, Switzerland

    Georg von Krogh (Professor, member of the board of directors at the Institute of Management) (Professor, member of the board of directors at the Institute of Management)

  2. Graduate School of Knowledge Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Ishikawa, Japan

    Ikujiro Nonaka (Dean) (Dean)

  3. Institute of Innovation Research, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan

    Toshihiro Nishiguchi (Professor of Management) (Professor of Management)

Copyright information

© 2000 Salvio Vicari and Gabriele Troilo

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Vicari, S., Troilo, G. (2000). Organizational Creativity: A New Perspective from Cognitive Systems Theory. In: von Krogh, G., Nonaka, I., Nishiguchi, T. (eds) Knowledge Creation. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62753-0_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62753-0_4

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-62755-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-62753-0

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation