On serendipity and organizing

Miguel Pina e Cunha, Stewart R. Clegg and Sandro Mendonça

European Management Journal, 2010, vol. 28, issue 5, 319-330

Abstract: Summary Serendipity means the accidental discovery of something valuable. While it is sometimes presented as an element of organizational learning, it has rarely been addressed per se by organizational scholars. We discuss and elaborate the processes associated with serendipity in the organizational context. At its core, serendipity is a process of metaphorical association - seeing something in another thing. New ways of seeing may provide the necessary ingredients for creativity and exploratory learning, which will counter organizational tendencies towards inertia and the ossification of dominant mindsets and practices.

Keywords: Serendipity; Learning; Unsought; discovery; Creativity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263237310000526
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eurman:v:28:y:2010:i:5:p:319-330

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/115/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... me/115/bibliographic

Access Statistics for this article

European Management Journal is currently edited by Michael Haenlein

More articles in European Management Journal from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().