Organizational creativity: breaking equilibrium and order to innovate

Purpose – The aim of this paper is twofold: to propose a new theoretical framework to interpret organizational creativity as a process of situated and distributed cognition in a sense-making perspective; and to identify the system of tools which influences this process. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis developed in the paper is theoretical, as it is rooted in a rich literature review concerning organizational creativity and in the proposal to enrich these studies by applying a cognitive and a sense-making perspective. Findings – The paper provides a novel framework as well as new levels of analysis. Originality/value – Compared with previous contributions, the main theoretical thesis is that a firm’s creativity is achieved only if some of the well-established mediating structures that influence creativity are intentionally broken or renewed. This proposal can provide insights for researchers and managers as well.