Organizational Structure and the Creative Process

A creative edge can be a powerful source of competitive advantage in business, in war, in the arts, in science, and in life. In fact, creativity, innovation and the ability to adapt and change organizational structures in response to an increasingly fast-paced and competitive business environment are increasingly seen as essential for the success of many organizations. A current trend in organizational theory associates increases in formalization and both horizontal and vertical integration with decreases in an organization's ability to innovate and adapt. Consequently, organizational change efforts often involve moving from traditional, hierarchical structures toward flatter, more flexible types of organizations (Damanpour, 1995; De Canio, Dibble, & Amir-Atefi, 2000; De Sanctis, Glass, & Ensing, 2002). However, as indicated by the failure of numerous downsizing and organizational change efforts, some structures may not be effectively reversible (Appelbaum, 1999; McKinley, 1993). Furthermore, reductions in structural complexity and size may not actually enhance organizational creativity (Damanpour, 1995). This study uses a stochastic model to investigate possible causes for this apparent disconnect between theory and observation. The model is applied to simple, idealized organizations in order to investigate the relationships between individual creativity, organizational creativity, organizational structure and restructuring, and environmental uncertainty. A simplified formulation of the stochastic model is investigated analytically, and a more expanded formulation is analyzed using Monte Carlo simulation. The model results suggest that reducing structure or increasing the autonomy of individual producers or subordinates will not necessarily yield increased creative performance. The most profitable organizations were those that converged to highly integrated structures. The simulation also indicated that, beyond a point, increases in both individual and leader creativity may not improve, and may actually detract from, organizational creativity.

Name thesis:degree_name

EdD Doctor of Education

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation: Open Access

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Year dc:date.available

2004

Author dc:creator

• Bowen, Edward C., EdD

• creative process
• environmental uncertainty
• individual creativity
• innovation
• Leadership studies
• organizational creativity
• organizational structure
• restructuring
• Stochastic model

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digital.sandiego.edu/dissertations/725

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digital.sandiego.edu:dissertations-1730