Creativity

Mike Smith, John Beck, Cary L. Cooper, Charles Cox, Dick Ottaway and Reg Talbot
Additional contact information
Mike Smith: University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology
John Beck: University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology
Cary L. Cooper: University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology
Charles Cox: University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology
Dick Ottaway: University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology
Reg Talbot: University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology

Chapter 11 in Introducing Organizational Behaviour, 1982, pp 207-239 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract About 200 years ago the world’s equivalent of today’s Silicon Valley was not a valley at all. It was the Pennine Hills to the south-east of Manchester in England. At the far side of these hills Arkwright established the first factory in the world — Masson Mills in the tiny village of Cromford. The mills were powered by the streams cascading from the rainy Peak District plateau between Manchester and Cromford. The dominant mode of transport at the time, the canals, could not cope with the gradients of the Peak District plateau so a railway was built between the canal terminus at Whaley Bridge and Cromford. According to modern standards, it was a strange railway with only stationary engines at the either side of the plateau. Wagons were hauled up the inclines by systems of chains and pulleys. The wagons then travelled the rest of their way under the force of gravity, with a little help from horses. By the standards of that time the railway was completely orthodox. Machinery was nearly always fixed in one place. It required a genius to make the second greatest creative leap in the history of mankind and appreciate that the power source could be placed on wheels. That single creative leap led to the railway systems of the world. It lead to the first station at Liverpool Road in Manchester. It led to the great railways which opened up the midwest of the USA and allowed the granary of the world to get its products to market.

Keywords: Creative Process; Creative Idea; Wicked Problem; Creative Potential; Creative Product (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1982
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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-16833-0_11

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