hotho

=We are always after that balance=

Managing Creativity in the New Digital Media Industries
Sabine Hotho, Dundee Business School, University of Abertay Dundee, Dundee Katherine Champion, Dundee Business School, University of Abertay Dundee, Dundee

The role of creativity in organisational management, innovation and performance is well established. To capture the potential that resides in individual creativity is one of the most challenging tasks for management today. This applies to all business and organisational contexts as collective and individual creativity are the prerequisite for innovation and thus sustainable competitive advantage. The role of creativity is perhaps most marked in those industries whose products or services are explicitly defined as ‘creative’, i.e. in music, the arts or the media. The economic importance of the digital media or new creative industries is by now well established, and how to harness and commercialise creativity is seen as the particular challenge in these industries.

Managing creativity in the new digital media is often seen as a difficult balancing act between the opposites of innovation and routine, creative and commercial interests, client and IP work, and the associated tensions that arise from this. Yet despite the widely acknowledged difficulties of ‘managing creativity’ in the creative industries, there is still a lack of research that might provide guidance, and in particular there is a shortage of qualitative research. This paper aims to close this particular gap.

In this study we are presenting first findings from an ongoing case study that explores the challenges of managing creativity in the computer games industry, which is paradigmatic for the challenges outlined above. Findings from the study indicate that conventional prescriptions do not adequately address the conflicts and tensions that arise between the conflicting activities that constitute the day to day reality of a new creative business. We propose that effective management of creativity in the new creative industries must be framed as a complex activity that aims at balancing dualities rather than privileging ‘creative work’ per se.