The Interaction of Roles, Resources, and Organizational Structures in Creative Work

• Main Author: TSCHANG, Feichin, Ted
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2010
• Subjects: Technology and Innovation
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/3070; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/4069/viewcontent/TschangT2010InteractRolesCreativity.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Creativity is known to be located at both the individual and group levels. We look at the case of videogame development, as an instance of project level creativity. We focus in particular on the design of the artifact. By examining the loci of creativity at the individual and group levels, we shed light on the roles and tasks of the designer, and on the organizational group structure known as the design cabal. In comparing the two extremes, we discover that the lack of organizational resources (namely, well known designers) leads in certain projects to the adoption of cabals or cabal-like approaches. Secondly, we illustrate the variety of design roles. Designers can be classified into three types (based on their roles): prototyping creators, vision creators, and implementing designers. Thus, the seemingly singular role of the designer is shown to be variable, defined by the capability of the designer and the tasks required. In the model that emerges, these roles ultimately interact with the resource requirements of the artifact to produce organizational structures.