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Björn Müller
Title
Dr.
Last Name
Müller
First name
Björn
Email
bjoern.mueller@unisg.ch
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1 - 10 of 13
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PublicationOrganizational Creativity Revisited : An audio-visual ethnography of the production of contemporary movement and dance theater as ‚making events work'( 2012-02-05)Most organizational creativity research can be regarded as torn between partial vantage points (Kallio, Barry, Visscher, & de Weerd-Nederhof, 2011), the 4 P's of creativity research - person, process, press and product (Rhodes, 1961). This approach must be seen in regard to two basic assumptions, methodological individualism inherited from psychology and economy, and organization theory's in most parts entitative and static view of organization. Relating these assumptions to the dominant tradition of ‘creativity as creation', in this paper I then propose a ‘forward' reading of creativity (Ingold & Hallam, 2007) resting on alternative, processual and relational assumptions tied to the minor tradition of ‘creativity as creating' (Hope Mason, 2003). This paper then aims at a specific practice-based account of organizational creativity, which allows to theorize organizational creativity in its non-teleological openness, its aesthetic and affective aspects and its collectivity. Opening up organizational creativity to the performativity of its practice then is the basic conceptual move allowing for an understanding of organizational creativity as ‘making events work'. As part of my ongoing PhD project, I draw on these concepts to analyze first material from my video-based, microethnographic studies of the performance-making processes in two different contemporary dance and movement theatre companies. The production of contemporary dance and movement theatre then is portrayed as a performative practice; sensing, attending and surrendering to a broad movement of materialities - the work of making events - and then consuming its own work, evaluating and channeling movement to practice's evolving purpose - the work of making events work.Type: conference paper
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PublicationOrganizational creativity's flavor : Taste-making as central practice in crafting contemporary dance and movement theatrePurpose - Presenting empirical findings from an ethnography on the making of contemporary dance and movement theatre, this paper aims to deepen our understanding of organizational creativity as practice driven by the nexus of idea generation and evaluation. From a practice-based perspective situated in a sociology of attachment (Hennion, 2004; 2007), the concept of ‘taste-making' (Gherardi, 2009) is thereby introduced as a central, performative practice (Hennion, 2004) elucidating the intricate interlacing of idea generation and evaluation. Design/methodology/approach - The paper draws on empirical data from a multisited video ethnographic fieldwork on the making of contemporary dance and movement theatre (CDMT), which has been part of my ongoing PhD project. The data has been analyzed according to the following research question: How is the making of contemporary dance and movement theatre realized by choreographic practices that interweave idea generation and evaluation in different forms of taste-making? Findings - The paper suggests that in different phases of a creative process taste-making is central to distinctive ‘tactics' (Certeau, 1984) of dance making. Three rehearsal tactics are presented in depth: ‘collective improvisation as assessocratic performance', ‘employing ‘le regard exterieur by turns' and ‘postponing closure - deferring taste-making to future assemblages'. These tactics are presented as pertaining to two dominant aesthetics of the chosen context, namely an ‘aesthetic of im/perfection' and a twofold aesthetic of ‘capitulation & closure'. Originality/value - The paper seeks to discuss organizational creativity from a practice-based approach based on process philosophy, distinguishing the various configurations of the idea generation and evaluation nexus, yet emphasizing their co-constitution in creative practice. By developing a conceptual framework around the performativity of practice and its inherent taste-making, the basic concept of practice is further opened up to the non-teleological openness, the collective (relational) aspects and the aesthetic aspects of a creative development process. The study thereby addresses a gap between creativity literature, mainly focusing on idea generation, and innovation literature, which mainly focuses on idea evaluation and implementation (Kijkuit & Van Den Ende, 2007). The paper is further contributing to the development of an aesthetics of organizational creativity as practice and therefore also draws on videographic data.Type: conference paperVolume: Sub-theme 47
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PublicationOrganizational creativity as taste-making - towards a pragmatics of contemporary dance theater productionIn this thesis, I sought to contribute to organizational creativity research by empirically studying the collective production of Contemporary Dance Theater (CDT). I began with suggesting that the literature domain of organizational creativity, while a burgeoning academic field, is perpetuating paradigmatic and ideological assumptions that often separate creativity from practice. It is the prevailing ontological and methodological individualism of most organizational creativity research that brings about conceptual and methodological quandaries when seeking to account for (a) organizational creativity as a relational, processual and thoroughly embodied and affective affair, and (b) the basic question of how novelty and creativity are possible. The overall aim of this thesis was therefore to reclaim creativity as a prolific category of social and organizational thought by exploring it within the holistic process of actual work. For this, I studied creativity as a form of practice and enactive sensemaking within the richness of the moment-to-moment, affective engagement of experienced bodies with culturally meaningful materials. From a perspective of creative practice, this meant turning creativity into a problematic modality of attachment and thus a matter of taste. Framing creativity in terms of a pragmatic conception of taste-making then allowed me to account for the performativity of relational becomings that conserve as well as refine and transform sensibilities and materials. This meant granting the materials of practice their own agencies, as well as endowing the practitioner with "passion," a specific skill set of active sensibilities that allows one to follow and intervene in the flow of materials. Seeking to enact these conceptual formations through an empirical study of CDT production, I based this study on a multi-sited and focused organizational video-ethnography within a comparative, embedded case design. I thereby developed a methodology that attempted to "follow forward" the creative process and sought to produce rich and suggestive descriptions of the creative practice and its processes within CDT while developing theoretical propositions alongside the empirical material. First, the empirical study detailed creative practice in terms of its ecology. I distinguished between (a) the actual material of creative practice, which consists of incorporated motion repertoires as well as biographical and cultural proficiency; (b) the various practice carriers (plug-ins) - from social techniques, over performative theories, devices, and the conduit of "taste talk" to the enactment of material in productive articulations - that enable creative practice through forging skilled bodies; and (c) the affective and "normaesthetic" milieu of creative practice that is constituted by the community of practitioners. Together, these elements were described as forming an experimental apparatus, or a collective set-up of a performance and event ecology that harbors poetic practices and their occasions. Second, this study specified the process of CDT production as an incremental qualification of a performance. Marked by a peculiar "fever curve" of attachments and detachments, CDT production was described as being affected within the formats of researching, assembling and scaffolding. A detailed analysis of the various practices of these formats revealed a nexus of experimental and codifying modes of taste-making. The findings were integrated within propositional models that specified the modes of taste-making as revolving around three central reciprocal relationships: (a) between immanent and explicit, (b) between prospective and retrospective and (c) between inventive and restorative forms of taste-making. Overall, this study expands our understanding of organizational creativity by showing that creativity is 1) temporalized and processualized, 2) spatialized and collectivized, 3) grounded in affect and 4) politicized. It demonstrates the prolificacy of a practice-based framework of organizational creativity that is rooted in a pragmatic conception of taste-making and suggests that such a framing could open up creativity-as-practice as a stimulating research agenda. On a more general level, this study develops a framework of creative practice that concerns the status of its elements. It provides an "infra-language" or theory that seeks not to represent, systematically and from the outside, but to provide the sensibilities to explore organizational creativity from up-close - which can, as this study suggests, bear remarkable surprises.Type: doctoral thesis
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PublicationJahresbericht 2011 der Psychologischen Beratungsstelle der Universität St. Gallen(Lehrstuhl für Organisationspsychologie (OPSY) der Universität St. Gallen, 2012)
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PublicationJahresbericht 2010 der Psychologischen Beratungsstelle der Universität St.Gallen(Lehrstuhl für Organisationspsychologie, 2011)