PROJECT I.2 Organizing Temporary Co-Presence to Induce and Cope with Uncertainty in Creative Processes

• Applicants: Professor Dr.-Ing. Gernot Grabher; Professorin Dr. Elke Schüßler; Professor Dr. Jörg Sydow
• Subject Area: Accounting and Finance
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 248556105

This project examines the role of physical co-presence in creative processes. Physical copresence in workshops, studios or trade fairs can foster the sharing of tacit knowledge and provides opportunities for unusual interactions, which is associated with creativity andinnovation. Conversely, physical distance has been linked to lower teamwork quality and problem-solving capacity. However, permanent copresence can also potentially lead to convergent thinking and path dependence. Thus, temporary forms of copresence as well as temporary absence may play an important and to date underestimated role in creative processes. Using a more refined understanding of copresence that includes permanent, temporary and virtual interactions, this project aims to provide a more completepicture of the role of co-presence and accompanying phases of distance for creativity. We will hereby empirically trace how creative ideas move through different arenas of copresence at different levels of analysis and involve (or avoid) interactions with different kinds of actors. Thereby, this projects aims to shed light on different kinds ofuncertainty resulting from physical proximity and distance in the course of creative processes. Copresence can be a mechanism to cope with uncertainty by allowing for information to be gained or trust to be built, but it can also induce or amplify uncertainty, e.g. because actors get to know their competitors. Based on a comparison of eightcreative projects, four from music and four from pharma, this enterprise will derive an account of the practices and rhythms of alternating between copresence and absence in the course of creative projects. This will involve not only a conceptual analysis ofhow creative projects temporally and spatially move across levels of analysis, but also of how different kinds of uncertainty are temporally distributed across levels of analysis and actors by practices of organizing copresence and absence. In sum, this enterprise willcontribute to a more spatially sensitive theory of organized creativity.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 2161: Organized Creativity - Practices for Inducing and Coping with Uncertainty
• International Connection: Austria