"Leadership of Creativity: Entity-Based, Relational, and Complexity Perspectives" by Russ Marion

Summary

This academic chapter, "Leadership of Creativity: Entity-Based, Relational, and Complexity Perspectives," explores how creativity is fostered within organisations, moving beyond the traditional focus on individual attributes to examine collective and systemic dynamics. It begins by reviewing established "entity-based" research, which investigates individual characteristics and supportive conditions for creativity. However, the chapter then shifts to highlight the emerging concept of collective creativity, where innovative insights arise from the interactions and conflicts among diverse individuals and ideas, rather than from a single person. Finally, it delves into complexity theory as a framework for understanding how leadership can actively enable these emergent, non-linear processes, leading to increased creativity, adaptability, and learning within organisations.