Creativity and Leadership in Science, Technology and Innovation

A joint International Society for the Psychology of Science and Technology (ISPST) and the European Sociological Association Sociology of Science and Technology Network (SSTNET) workshop, 9-10 July, 2010, at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg

DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS (200 words) - 1 March, 2010

There is agreement that leadership is vital to creativity and successful innovation in groups and organizations . Despite this agreement in the literature, leadership is seldom studied as a creativity driver. For example, leadership in R&D groups, where creativity is clearly needed, has not been given enough attention. One reason for this situation may be the belief that creativity cannot and should not be managed. Creative individuals and groups are regarded as, and indeed often are, autonomous and self-driving. From this belief the erroneous conclusion is drawn that there is no need for leadership in creative environments and situations. The better conclusion is rather that a creativity-stimulating leadership is necessary. Moreover, such a leadership should possess at least two features: a) expertise in the field/s, and b) an ability to create, support and encourage individuals, groups and creative knowledge environments. The former feature demands deep and extensive scientific knowledge (or other knowledge and skills) which should be communicated and used by followers, while the latter is related to general and specific leadership abilities and skills that promote creativity among followers. How this leadership is performed is still largely unknown.

In the literature, it is often concluded that we distinguish between the idea generation and implementation phases in creative processes beacuse they are different and demand different forms of leaderhip that take this into account. Leadership seems to vary with the two phases, but our knowledge about this is limited. One hypothesis is that R&D leaders provide feedback on ideas from group members in the idea generation phase to make ideas more creative and possible to realize, while in the implementation phase, where a stronger market orientation is needed, other leadership behaviours are needed.

A distinction in creativity, innovation and leadership research, is sometimes made between cognitive and social leadership, where the former denotes instrumental leadership behaviours (e.g. instructions) and the latter relational and emotional ones (e.g. encouraging talk). Although, cognitive and social leaderships are intertwined in real-life situations and not always distinguishable, the two are useful analytically to understand how leadership in creative settings works and can be enhanced.

Of course, there are a number of other issues on leading creativity in S&T that deserves attention and research. Some of the research problems - but not restricted to those - that could be addressed in the workshop are:

• Is leadership aiming at creativity different from other forms of leadership? And if it is, in what ways? Does the creative process put certain demands on leaders?
• Which kind of leaderships are needed at different levels of S&T organizations for a creative output?
• What leadership differences in creative knowledge environments can be found (a search for a taxonomy)?  For example, we would expect that the wider context (e.g., S&T policies, economies), institutions (e.g., academic, industrial), the technologies involved (e.g., biomed/biotech, enviromental, ICT) and disciplinary differences (e.g., physics, anthropology) will influence creative leadership.
• What social and cognitive abilities and skills are needed for leadership in creative environments? For example, do creative team processes demand certain social and cognitive leadership characteristics?
• How does leadership vary with different phases of the creative process?
• How are coworkers involved in creative leadership? For example, to what extent and in what situations are shared or informal forms of leadership advantageous for a creative output?
• What creative leaderships have evolved over time? For example, is there a shift in creative leadership over time? Have some characteristics in creative leaderships not changed?
• How should leadership and creativity be approached? What measures of creativity and/or leadership are preferable to understand better how leaders may stimulate creativity?

Workshop objective: Besides increasing our knowledge about creativity and leadership by gathering eminent researchers in the psychology and sociology of science, technology and innovation. The best papers will be selected for an edited book volume on Creativity and Leadership in Science, Technology and Innovation to be published by an international publisher. In addition, certain selected authors who are not workshop participants may be invited to submit papers.

Keynote speaker: Professor Michael D. Mumford, Department of Psychology, University of Oklahoma University, USA.

Abstract and paper submission: Abstracts of 200 words on the workshop theme should be submitted to sven.hemlin@gri.gu.se. Deadline: 1 March, 2010. Decisions on abstracts will be made about 1 May. To be part of the selection of best papers for the edited volume, full papers of about 8 000-10 000 words (12-point Times Roman) should be submitted to sven.hemlin@gri.gu.se by 31 August, 2010.

Organizers: International Society for the Psychology of Science and Technology (ISPST), European Sociological Association Sociology of Science and Technology Network (SSTNET), School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg.

Scientific board: Carl Martin Allwood, Greg Feist, Mike Gorman, Sven Hemlin, Yuwei Lin, Ben Martin, Luisa Oliveira, Katarina Prpic, Harald Rohracher, Piotr Stankiewicz, Aaro Tupasela.

Local hosts: Sven Hemlin, (sven.hemlin@gri.gu.se), Lisa Olsson (lisa.olsson@gri.gu.se) and Leif Denti (leif.denti@gri.gu.se).

Venue: School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg. Street: Vasagatan 1, Gothenburg.