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9 - Creativity and innovation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

J. David Johnson
J. David Johnson
Affiliation:
University of Kentucky
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Summary

While we will consider various knowledge transfer issues and strategies…many of them come down to finding effective ways to let people talk and listen to one another.

(Davenport and Prusak 1998, p. 88)

Innovations are not only adopted, implemented, and confirmed through social relations among people; they are also created, understood, and defined socially.

(Dearing, Meyer, and Kazmierczak 1994, p. 17)

…managers whose networks span structural holes have an advantage in identifying and in developing the more rewarding opportunities.

(Burt 2005, p. 235)

At times knowledge can be seen as the source of organizational innovation and change – at other times, however, it can be the very constraint on that change.

(Hargadon and Fanelli 2002, p. 290)

Glorification of exploration obscures the fact that most new ideas are bad ones, most changes are detrimental, and most original inventions are not worth the effort devoted to producing them.

(March 1994, p. 238)

Creativity and innovation processes often determine how rapidly private and governmental organizations change to survive in an increasingly competitive world. As Schumpeter (1943) classically observed, creative destruction, replacing the old with the new, is a fundamental component of capitalist economic systems. A stagnant organization that cannot react to evolving environmental conditions will eventually find itself no longer competitive in an increasingly complex and technologically sophisticated economy. Economic prosperity increasingly depends on the development of new products and services. Innovation may be the ultimate service provided by KM organizations.

Type
Chapter
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Managing Knowledge Networks , pp. 169 - 195
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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References

Burt, R. S. 1987. Social contagion and innovation: cohesion versus structural equivalence. Applied Journal of Psychology, 92: 1287–1335.Google Scholar
Burt, R. S. 2004. Structural holes and good ideas. American Journal of Sociology, 110: 349–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Damanpour, F. 1991. Organizational innovation: a meta-analysis of effects of determinants and moderators. Academy of Management Journal, 34: 555–590.Google Scholar
Huckfeldt, R., Johnson, P. E., and Sprague, J. 2004. Political Disagreement: The Survival of Diverse Opinions within Communication Networks. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry-Smith, J. E. 2006. Social yet creative: the role of social relationships in facilitating individual creativity. Academy of Management Journal, 49: 85–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry-Smith, J. E., and Shalley, C. E. 2003. The social side of creativity: a static and dynamic social network perspective. Academy of Management Review, 28: 89–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, E. M. 2003. Diffusion of Innovations, 5th edn. Free Press.Google Scholar
Zaltman, G., Duncan, R., and Holbek, J. 1973. Innovations and Organizations. Wiley.Google Scholar

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