Paradigm Conflicts and their Management in Organizational Creativity

Defining and solving problems collectively is an integral part of organizational creativity. Organisational creativity viewed from the perspective of collective creativity require individuals to come together to define and solve problems through dialogue and discussion. Since individual and group creativity implies originality that calls for breaking the status quo the process of organizational creativity is often met with conflicts both constructive and negative. Constructive conflicts take the process of organizational creativity forward while destructive tension quells it. Scholars opine that management of competing perspectives is fundamental to the generation of organizational creativity and innovation. Bland consensus is often a block to organizational creativity and exploring opposing opinions cooperatively brings in the requisite variety which is quintessential for creativity. Constructive controversy in a cooperative mode furthers creativity while a destructive conflict in a competitive mode quashes it. This paper discusses the various aspects of constructive and destructive conflicts that affect organizational creativity and offers insights as to how conflicts can be leveraged constructively to foster organizational creativity.