Creativity, Organizational Knowledge, and the Power of Dreams

Abstract

This study addresses the question of how dreams might improve organizational creativity in real-world situations. Both Freudian and Jungian perspectives are considered in a study that seeks to explore whether the personal and the collective unconscious can be put to the service of high-tech companies. A multiple case study methodology based on 10 projects from two companies shed light on the role that intrinsic motivation (personal unconscious) and organizational ideals (collective unconscious) play in the dreaming activity of the project managers and the resulting overall creativity outcomes of the corresponding projects. With respect to the management of the personal unconscious, the findings indicate that intrinsic motivation increases the emotional tone of dreams, which in turn, contributes to overall project creativity. A more intrinsically motivated project manager is an emotional dreamer which is able to contribute to the project creativity with innovative solutions derived from his/her dreams. With regard to the management of the collective unconscious, the study shows that project managers organize their project members around some organizational ideals (hierarchy, group, team, and clan) that may fuel or hamper project creativity outcomes, thus conditioning the use of the collective unconscious. Specifically, the project managers in charge of teams and clans are more creative and emotional dreamers than those in charge of hierarchies and groups. This study contributes to the knowledge of the role that elusive antecedents, such as dreams, might play in organizational creativity, innovation, and change. Instead of discussing about dreams in an abstract manner, the study focuses on specific mechanisms (intrinsic motivation and organizational ideals) under the control of senior managers.