Metaphors of Organizational Creativity : From Symbolic Interactionism and Constructivism

We used metaphors to explain several processes in organizations over the years. The metaphorical analysis allows us to transfer concepts from one domain of knowledge to another, improving our understanding of organizations. As a psychological process, we analyzed creativity through the lenses of particular abilities of certain people. But, is it possible to personify organizations and consider them as creative entities? How powerful had been the use of metaphors to explain creativity as organizational process in the past? The purpose of this conceptual work, based on discourse or textual analysis, is to explain how two recent developed metaphors could be used as to increase our understanding of the creative process exhibited in organizations: from conceptual ideas of the symbolic interactionism, the creativity as a "role"; from theory of constructivism, the creativity as a "zone of potential development”