Double or Quits: Understanding the Links between Secrecy and Creativity in a Project Development Process. Issue 2 (March 2018) - Courpasson, David
Most studies on the links between secrecy and creativity have focused on individual sources of creativity and the impact of organizational management on creative initiatives. However, because of their very focus on individual practices of concealment and personal creative capacities, they have paid scant attention to collective interactions occurring around secrets. In this paper, we illuminate some mechanisms through which the creative work achieved in secret by scientists is enhanced by the exceptional character of their situation within the company. Coping with these exceptional circumstances leads the group to increase commitment, cohesion and efficiency. We theorize creativity as a result of the multiplication of social interactions among individuals and the social consequences of working and cooperating in secret. We show that secrecy can help rather than be detrimental to organizations when it is analysed as a social fabric of interactions around work and common feelings triggered by the risks of working in secret.