Ideas rise from chaos: Information structure and creativity

Yeun Joon Kim and Chen-Bo Zhong

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2017, vol. 138, issue C, 15-27

Abstract: Is structure good or bad for creativity? When it comes to organizing information, management scholars have long advocated for a hierarchical information structure (information organized around higher-order categories as opposed to a flat information structure where there is no higher-order category) to reduce complexity of information processing and increase efficiency of work. However, a hierarchical information structure can be a double-edged sword that may reduce creativity, defined as novel and useful combination of existing information. This is because a hierarchical information structure might obstruct combining information from distal conceptual categories. Thus, the current research investigates whether information structure influences creativity. We theorize that a hierarchical information structure, compared to a flat information structure, will reduce creativity because it reduces cognitive flexibility. Three experiments using a sentence construction task and a LEGO task supported our prediction.

Keywords: Information structure; Creativity; Cognitive flexibility; Dual pathway to creativity model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:138:y:2017:i:c:p:15-27

DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2016.10.001

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