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Constructive Controversy: Teaching Students How to Think Creatively

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Konstruktive Kontroverse in Organisationen

Part of the book series: uniscope. Publikationen der SGO Stiftung ((UNISCOPE))

Abstract

If organizations are to flourish, their members must (a) create new ideas that suggest productive and profitable new directions and procedures and (b) innovate by implementing those ideas and procedures. Creativity and innovation are often derived from the clash of different perspectives and positions. Structuring conflict among ideas, conclusions, opinions determines the interaction among group members, which in turn determines the outcomes. The process of constructive controversy includes forming an initial conclusion when presented with a problem, being confronted by other people with different conclusions, becoming uncertain as to the correctness of one’s views, actively searching for more information and a more adequate perspective, and forming a new, reconceptualized, and reorganized conclusion. This process tends to result in greater achievement and retention, cognitive and moral reasoning, perspective-taking, open-mindedness, creativity, task involvement, continuing motivation, attitude change, interpersonal attraction, and self-esteem.

Have you learned lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you?

Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed the passage with you?

Walt Whitman (1860, S. 421)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA

    Prof. em. Dr. David W. Johnson & Prof. em. Dr. Roger T. Johnson

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  1. Prof. em. Dr. David W. Johnson
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  2. Prof. em. Dr. Roger T. Johnson
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Correspondence to David W. Johnson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hochschule für Angewandte Psychologie Institut f. Kooperationsforschung und -e, Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, Olten, Switzerland

    Albert Vollmer

  2. Lehrstuhl f. Betriebspädagogik, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Marburg, Magdeburg, Germany

    Michael Dick

  3. Lehrstuhl für Arbeits- und Organisations, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Theo Wehner

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Johnson, D., Johnson, R. (2015). Constructive Controversy: Teaching Students How to Think Creatively. In: Vollmer, A., Dick, M., Wehner, T. (eds) Konstruktive Kontroverse in Organisationen. uniscope. Publikationen der SGO Stiftung. Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-00263-3_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-00263-3_4

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