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Exploring the Relation between Creativity and Rules: The Case of the Performing ArtsAuthor(s): Anja KernSource: International Studies of Management & Organization, Vol. 36, No. 1, Creativity inOrganizations (Spring, 2006), pp. 63-80Published by: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40397655 .

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Int. Studies ofMgt. & Org., vol. 36, no. 1, Spring 2006, pp. 63-80. © 2006 M.E. Sharpe, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN 0020-8825 / 2006 $9.50 + 0.00.

Anja Kern

Exploring the Relation Between Creativity and Rules The Case of the Performing Arts

Abstract: This research uses a cultural-historical psychology perspective and examples from performing arts to elucidate the relation between creativity and rules. The research assumes that the concepts of creativity and rules are inherently linked in the concept of activity. The relation between rules and creativity, which is neither antagonistic nor sequential but rather dialectical, is identified to be crucial for organizations. Rules are not only regarded as constraints and invariants for activity, but also as sources of creativity. They are, therefore, vectors for creativity. A set of informal rules, called genre, plays an important role in the articulation of the individuar s creativity within collective activity. An effective management of rules and creativity should not stop at the formulation of formal rules but should include their genesis.

Anja Kern is a lecturer for the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) at the University Sorbonne Nouvelle, 94, Avenue des Grésillons, 92600 Asnières, France, a student in the Ph.D. program at Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (ESSEC; BP 50105, 95021 Cergy-Pontoise, France), and a doctoral student at the Universität Stuttgart, Lehrstuhl für Allgemeine Betriebswirtschaftslehre und Betriebswirtschaftliche Planung, Keplerstr. 17, D-70174 Stuttgart (tel.: +49 (0)711/121-3469; fax: +49 (0)711/121-3191).

The author thanks Professor A. Bourguignon, J. Boddewyn, Moshe Banai, Profes- sor P. Lorino of the ESSEC Business School, Professor E. Zahn of the University of Stuttgart, the participants at the tenth workshop on managerial and organizational cognition the participants at the doctoral seminar of the chair of Professor Zahn, Uni- versity of Stuttgart, and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful and constructive comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Special acknowledgments are due to Dr. Tristan McGeorge and Dr. Nikola Kern for proofreading the manuscript.

63



64 ANJA KERN (GERMANY AND FRANCE)

The purpose of this study is to highlight the relations between creativity and rules, a topic that has been neglected by current management and organization research (Tsoukas 2003, 618). It is widely acknowledged that rules contribute to the formalization and routinization of practices (March, Schulz, and Zhou 2000; Weber 1968). In addition to the contribution of rules to stability, and the danger of rules' inertia, organizational research has underlined the role of rules in organizational change and, in particular, in organizational learning (Cyert and March 1963; March and Simon 1958; March et al. 2000; Nelson and Winter 1982). Learning models distinguish the refinement of existing rules as adaptive learning or exploitation on the one hand, and the creation of new rules as disruptive learning or exploration on the other hand (Argyris and Schön 1978; Bateson 1973; Cyert and March 1963; March 1991; Senge 1990). While it is widely agreed upon that it is critical for an organization to find a balance between exploitation and exploration (March 1991, 71), stability and change, or repetition and creativity, most studies, however, analyze these concepts separately and overlook their interdependence (Holmqvist 2003; Tsoukas 2003, 617-618.). But even the studies that focus on this issue (Argyris and Schön 1978; Bateson 1973; Cyert and March 1963; Feldman 2000; Feldman and Pentland 2003; March 1991 ; Senge 1990) continue to rely on a conceptual separation between "creative" and "repetitive" elements, or types of action. This separation hinders a deeper understanding of the relation between creativity and rules. It is argued that the dominating paradigm in management and organization research, namely, the cognitive-rational model of action and its underlying epistemology (Tsoukas 1998), do not allow us to conceptualize creativity and repetition as being intrinsically linked within human action. The cognitive-rational model of action bears several epistemological problems for the analysis of the relationship between creativity and rules. The separation of thinking and doing leads to the idea that one can separate "creative" from "repetitive" elements or types of action. Postulating that it is possible to represent knowledge objectively implies that rules have an objective meaning, thus leading to the idea that one can follow a rule objectively. Conceptualizing the organization on the basis of the individual, on the one hand, and the organizational structure, on the other hand, leads to the idea that rules are imposed on agents and constrain their creativity.

In order to overcome the limits of the cognitive-rational paradigm, it is proposed that the relation between creativity and rules needs to be studied on the basis of an alternative theoretical framework. This alternative theoretical framework is based on theories originating in cultural-historical psychology, in particular, Vygotsky's concept of "artifact mediated and object orientated action" (Vygotsky 1978), Rabardel's instrumental approach (Rabardel 1995), and Clot's theory of genre and styles (Clot 1999). Vygotsky, the founder of



EXPLORING THE RELATION BETWEEN CREATIVITY AND RULES 65

cultural-historical psychology, argued that psychological phenomena have a sociohistorical character. Accordingly, psychological phenomena are social in two aspects: they depend on exchanges with other people and, thus, on social

experience, and they are shaped and generated by socially produced artifacts. The agent/structure dualism is overcome by conceiving human activity as

being inherently social. The subject/object dualism and representation are overcome by conceiving the use of artifacts as being inherently interpretative, subjective, and situational. Thinking and doing are intrinsically linked within

activity; repetition is never purely repetitive, but always implies creativity. Human activity is proposed as the basic unit of analysis. Studying the use of artifacts such as rules is regarded as a key to understanding human activity.

Using this theoretical framework to highlight the relation between creativity and rules, this study focuses in particular on the following questions: How are rules a means for the individual's creativity? In what way are they a means for the articulation of the individual's creativity within collective activity? And how should creativity and rules be managed? Human activity is analyzed on the basis of an action research.

After the introductory and methodological part and the definition of the central concepts, the key theories of cultural-historical-psychology are in- troduced in the following two sections concerning individual creativity and

concerning its articulation within collective activity. These concepts are then used as an analytical lens for the analysis of examples in the performing arts and, in particular, in the theater. Thereafter, consequences for the management of creativity and rules are outlined, both for the field of performing arts as well as for the management of organizations. To conclude, implications and limitations of the research are discussed.

Several major results are obtained. The individual's creativity is based on the use of cultural artifacts such as language or rules. Artifacts such as rules are not only constraints for creativity but are also resources for it. Each time

agents use rules, they interpret the rules, they adapt them to the situation, and they integrate them into their activity and thus change them. The use of rules creates new possibilities of meaning for activity. Further, there are

important insights concerning the articulation of the relations between the

subject's creativity and collective activity. This articulation relies on a set of informal rules called genre, which exists in addition to the formal rule and the

subject's interpretation of the rule. Genre is a means of communication and articulation within collective activity. Finally, it is argued that management can foster creativity through appropriate management of rules. Management should not stop at the definition of the formal rule, but rather has to include the management of its genesis. The following measures to manage rules are

proposed: first, support should be provided to the agents in integrating rules in




their activity, creating the conditions for agents to construct a genre. The second debate, which is a crucial motor for the development of rules and activity, and thus creativity, should be encouraged. Last, linking pins, which prevent a decoupling of the use of rules from activity, should be established.

Methodology

Cultural-historical psychology postulates human activity as a basic unit of analysis. Accordingly, this research analyzes the relation between creativity and rules using the example of a specific human activity, namely, performing arts.

An analysis of performing arts seems particularly appropriate to highlight the present research question. Performing arts, still a coded art form, typify in its essence the idea of repetition. In contrast to management, it is widely recognized in performing arts that codes and rules, such as verse forms or rehearsal schedules, do not harm creativity but are a necessary part of it. Performing art troops share certain characteristics with creative processes in groups in general, namely, interaction mediated by artifacts, collaboration of all participants, and a tension between planned and improvised interaction (Sawyer 2003, 21). The current study's findings may be generalized to the relation between creativity and rules in other working groups.

Action research is an appropriate method with which to analyze human activity in social sciences and, in particular, in the field of management and organization theory (Cassirer 2000; Susman and Evered 1978).

The examples from the field of performing arts are drawn on the author's own experience in amateur theaters, as an actor, stage manager, and specta- tor, in Germany and France. The researcher has employed the action research approach in this study. Discussions with other researchers have contributed to an "objectivisation" of experience. Moreover, personal experience is related to literature written by stage directors, art critics, and scholars of art history. The example about the use of key figures, described in the third section on managing rules and creativity, is based on an ongoing action research, where the researcher has worked in the field of management accounting in a hospital on a part-time basis for over two years.

Definition of creativity and rules

In management literature, it is common to define creativity as a cognitive process, which is confined to the "activity of the mind." Within the framework of cultural-historical psychology, creativity is not limited to the cognitive level but embraces all types of human activities. Creativity originates in activity and




is part of it. In fact, each activity is unique at every occurrence and embraces creativity (Béguin and Clot 2004). Consequently, the research does not use the distinction, common within creativity research, between small "c" creativity, meaning the creativity in everyday life, and big "C" creativity, denoting the creativity of a genius like Einstein, which changes the way we see the world (Csikszentmihalyi 1988; Gardner 1993).

In this research, the concept of rules is kept broad and includes various artifacts such as procedures, task descriptions, informal and formal routines, and strategies and tools (Schulz 1998; Zhou 1993). Key figures are conceived as a kind of rule.

The individual's creativity

Theoretical framework

The Russian psychologist Vygotsky founded cultural-historical psychology. He proposed the theoretical concept of "tool-mediated and object-oriented action," in which he identified the role of tools for all human development. Based on Vygotsky's ideas, Rabardel developed the concept of tool use in his instrumental approach (Rabardel 1995). The basic unit of analysis of both approaches is the human activity, which is represented in a tripolar model consisting of the following elements:

• The subject: the individual user, worker, or agent who is carrying out the activity.

• The instrument: man-made artifact such as a rule, utensil, tool, machine, or sign.

• The object toward which the action aided by the instrument is directed: matter, subject, object of the work, other subject (Rabardel 1995, 65).

A man-made artifact such as a rule can become an instrument, when the subject uses it as a means he or she associates in his or her action (Rabardel 1995). Following Rabardel, an instrument is defined as an artifact with its utilization schemes (Rabardel 1995, 93).

According to Vygotsky, creativity is based on dialectically raising and synthesizing contradictions and tensions of the individual within his sociocultural context (Moran and John-Steiner 2003). Tools play a central role in the dialectical relationship between the individual and his sociocultural context. In fact, the social-cultural heritage is embedded in tools and acquired by individuals through tool use. Vygotsky developed a psychological concept of tools by comparing material tools, such as a hammer, with psychological tools, such as plans, maps, signs, and language. Further, he identified the role




of tools for complex psychological processes such as cognition and proposed a theoretical concept of "tool-mediated and object-oriented action." The human being does not react directly to his or her environment. Instead, tools mediate all activity. They mediate the relationship between humans and objects of their environment and are cultural means that were built by humans to control and transform their behavior and their environment (Vygotsky 1978). Tools are, in a certain way, a constraint and a resource for creativity: The subject has to make an effort to appropriate the tool for him- or herself, which allows him or her to develop his or her own "style" of using it. This process of appropriation, which can be described as instrumental genesis, calls for creativity, as the subject has to elaborate his or her utilization schemes (Rabardel 1995, 135-145).

The dialectical relation between individual and social aspects of creativity

In cultural-historical psychology, creativity happens within the dialectical relation of the individual and the social context. Is there a difference between the creativity employed to write the ancient Bylina (a popular Russian epic), and the creativity Pushkin employed to write a poem? After all, while people have transmitted the first work over centuries, Pushkin's poem is the work of an individual author. Vygotsky has asked this question and has definitely rejected its premise. He argued that Pushkin is, in fact, not the individual author of his poems, plays, and novels, as he did not invent methods of verse, or rhythms and rhymes, but has taken them from the immense heritage of literary tradition: "Were we to determine in a literary work what is created by the author himself and what he has taken ready made from the literary tradition, we would find that the author's creativity amounts to selecting certain elements, combining them within given, generally accepted standards, transposing certain traditional elements into other systems, and so forth" (Vygotsky 1971, 16). He then concluded that both the popular epic and the poet's work include elements of individual authorship and the literary tradition, and that, therefore, there is no fundamental difference from a psychological point of view between the process of popular (social) and individual creativity (Vygotsky 1971, 16). He cited Freud, who stated that "individual psychology from its incept is at the same time also social psychology" (Vygotsky 1971, 17).

In this context, Vygotsky analyzes the psychology of the actor's creativity, which he defines as a social-psychological activity (Vygotsky 1999, 241). He argues that the actor's creativity is based on the social-psychological context, rather than on an individual-psychological context. When an actor is embodying a certain role, the cultural and historical context influences the




interpretation of the text, the actor's own experiences, the function of stage performances, and the social nature of the theatrical form. In this sense, "the psychology of the actor of the Stanislawski Theater differs much more from the psychology of the actor of the Sophocles epoch than the contemporary building differs from the ancient amphitheater" (Vygotsky 1999, 240). Ac- cordingly, the "psychology of the actor expresses the social ideology of the epoch" (Vygotsky 1999, 240), and "the experience of the actor, his emotions, appear not as functions of his personal mental life, but as a phenomenon that has an objective, social sense and significance" (Vygotsky 1999, 244).

Creation is then based on a complex interweaving of individual and social factors. These social factors are embedded in artifacts such as language and rules.

Artifacts as constraint and resource for creativity

Rabardel's model of the instrumental genesis allows us to analyze the complex relation between the individual and artifacts such as rules. Humans use artifacts, and it is the process of the appropriation of artifacts, their genesis, which calls for creativity. In the following, this process is described with reference to the alexandrine verse in the performing arts.

A director and his theater perform Racine's Phèdre, a French classical tragedy. Here, the verse form of the play, the alexandrines, and its inherent rules are not as such an obstacle to creativity: "Concerning the alexandrines, ... it is a question of techniques that the actor has to resolve by approaching this repertoire. It is not an obstacle that will create a misunderstanding with the public, rather the contrary; it is one of the bases of theatrics; one must affirm its subtlety during diction, interaction and respiration" (Miquel 1997, 85). Creativity is the "creative use" of these rules: An actor shows his creativity by mastering the phonetic rules of the alexandrines, but at certain moments he or she breaks these rules, for example, by pausing at moments that were not foreseen (not at the caesura). The audience is surprised by this new and personal interpretation of the verse and might admire the beauty of the im- perfect verse (or condemn the assumed error of the actor). In such moments, one can speak of the creative force of the actor that manifests itself. How does the actor "decide" to break the rule just at this verse? There are various possibilities: The stage director or the actor propose it during rehearsals, but it could also be "an accident" that produces itself during the rehearsals or the performance when interacting with his or her colleagues, which he or she then might try to reproduce.

The text form with its inherent rules is not an obstacle to creativity. Instead, it channels and, at the same time, provokes creativity. The subjects have to




take into consideration the verse form, a form that is both a constraint and a resource. The use of the verse form produces new possibilities of meaning for the subjects.

Thus, a theater performance in the form of an improvisation with no formal codes is not necessarily more creative than the performance of a very coded art form, such as the classical tragedy or Japanese "No" theater. Creativity is linked to the use of the rules, rather than to their absence.

Psychological tool-use theories allow the subjects to analyze closely the interactions between subject, instrument (the generic form of all artifacts including rules), and object. On the basis of Vygotsky's theories, Rabardel describes the process of instrumental genesis that explains how the subject appropriates the instrument and reorganizes his or her activity accordingly (Rabardel 1995, 135-145). During the instrumental genesis, he identifies various interactions. These include the double orientation of the instrumental genesis and the structuring effects of the artifact on the object of the activity.

The double orientation of the instrumental genesis consists of:

• The evolution and elaboration of schemes (interpretation schemes), called instrumentation (their constitution, their evolution by adaptation, coordination, combination, and assimilation, for example, a certain way of pronouncing a verse form).

• The evolution of the artifact (rules), called instrumentalization (the selection, production, and institution of functions, and the transformation of the artifact, for example, the selection of certain verses).

The structuring effects of the artifact on the object of the activity include: • Possibilities, which the artifact creates (reorganization, new modes of

organization of the activity, new objectives for the activity, for example, new ways of pronouncing a verse)

• Constraints, which the artifact constitutes (e.g., the kind of verse form used)

The distinction between instrumentation and instrumentalization is conceptual. Both orientations are interwoven within an activity. Nevertheless, on a conceptual basis, the distinction can contribute to elucidating the different mechanisms of the creativity process.

In regards to the above-cited example, one can say that the actor develops a new interpretation scheme for the verse (artifact or rule) by breaking the usual phonetic rule. According to Rabardel, this is instrumentation. If the actor selects certain verses for the performance and omits others, this can be called instrumentalization. With regard to the structuring effects of the artifact on the activity, the verse form is a constraint (in the sense that the actor has to master the technique of alexandrines) as well as a resource (as the verse form opens a field of creative possibilities) for the subject.




An artifact is, therefore, a constraint and a resource for creativity, while creativity can have two orientations: the development of new schemes and the development of the artifact. According to Rabardel, both of these orientations are born of the subject, but the process of instrumentation is oriented toward the subject, and the process of instrumentalization is oriented toward the artifact.

The individual's creativity within the collective activity

Theoretical framework

The tool-use theories of Vygotsky and Rabardel contribute to a discussion about collective activity, but they do not conceptualize in detail the articulation between the individual activity and the collective activity, which leaves a theoretical gap.

The expression "collective activity" refers to a number of articulations that have implications depending on their form (e.g., coaction, coactivity, cooperation, collaboration, assistance), their mode of realization (e.g., coordination, concerted action, debates, transactions, negotiations), their cognitive implications (collective intelligence, collective performance, shared artifacts), and the concept of the group (e.g., collective actor, individual actor within a collective; see Benechekroun and Weill-Fassina 2000). The concept of articulation is used in a broad sense, meaning the various interdependences of individual activity within collective activity, including the common activity, and the adjustment of the individual's activity in terms of the others and the environment (Grosjean and Lacoste 1999).

The gap is filled by Clot's concept of genre and styles, which is used in the following as a theoretical framework. On the basis of Vygotsky, Leontiev's ac-

tivity theory, and Bakhtine's linguistic theory (Bakhtine 1978), Clot proposes the concept of genre and styles to establish a link between the individual's and the collective's activities. The genre groups all collective elements. The

styles are the individual elements of the activity. Starting with a critique of the classical distinction between the task de-

scription and the real activity, Clot argues that there is, in addition to the task description and the real activity, a prescribed form of work that is imposed by the employees on themselves. This form of work is both a constraint and a resource for the activity: the genre. The genre can, therefore, be considered as a kind of artifact, as illustrated in Table 1.

If one had to create each time in the course of the action the activity, work would not be possible. The genre of the activity is based on the principle of an economy of the action. The genre is the implied part of the activity, what




Table 1 Link between different concepts: artifact, task, genre, and style

Extended concept of artifact

Genre (prescribed Nature of schemes by the Individual

Author artifact collective) schemes/style

Cultural-historical Vygotsky (1978) Tool, sign context Individual tool-use

Collective activity schemes, social Individual utilization

Rabardel (1995) Tool, symbol utilization schemes schemes

Task Clot (1 999) description Genre of task Style of task

the employees of a certain sector know, see, expect, appreciate, recognize or fear; it is what they have in common and what links them in the real conditions of life. (Clot and Faïta 2000, 11)

The style is the genre applied in the situation. Stylistic creations influence the genre and bring about different variations of a genre.

Even though Clot develops his theories mainly in the context of industrial work environments, such as the national railway, they are not confined to this field. He also applies them to artistic activity, namely, to the creative process of the painter Soulage (Clot 2003), and to the rehearsal of a play at the Comédie Française (Clot 2004).

Articulation of the individual creativity within the collective activity

On the basis of Clot's concept, the articulation between the individual (style) and the collective activity (genre) can happen in the following way: In the collective activity, the individual develops his own style, he or she shows this style to his or her fellow workers, who imitate it. They integrate this style in their activity, which finally results in a variation of the genre.

Concerning the above-mentioned example, the actor develops his or her style of pronouncing the alexandrines. The other actors of the troop inspire themselves from this style and develop, on this basis, their individual styles. Finally, the way of pronouncing the alexandrines becomes a variation of the




genre. Each new actor who arrives in the troop gets acquainted with this genre.

When creating a style, the subject is confronted with two different dynamics. First, in developing a style, the individual distances him- or herself from the genre and then transgresses it. Second, the subject has to regress him- or herself to his or her own "history," former styles, and then transgress them, in order to create a new style. "In the intersection of these dynamics, creation is conflict ... the activity is a permanent theater of the movement between two opposite directions: stylization of genres and variation of oneself (Clot and Faïta 2000, 18).

The genre needs the styles in order to survive. "Styles can be defined as the metamorphosis of the genre in the course of the action. They are the contrary of a fixed state and never finished Genres stay alive due to stylistic recreations" (Clot and Faïta 2000, 15). Styles continually transform genres. But if the agent does not master the genre, the agent cannot elaborate different styles.

Concerning the creation of styles, it is crucial that the subject has access to a repertory of variations of the genre or a repertory of different genres. To look at a genre with the eyes of another genre, being able to act in a genre with the resources of another genre, is essential for the creation of styles (Clot 1999, 211). Darre argues that the affiliation with different groups is a principal source of stylistic creation (1994).

The genre as a means of communication and articulation

Collective activity requires articulation and coordination between different individuals and different collectives. For theater, as a performing art, the interaction with the public during the performance is of crucial importance; therefore, one can argue that it is actually a collective activity, where the public and the troop are taking part. A common genre between the public and the troop is essential for the interaction. If the public and the troop do not share a genre, interaction is not possible, and styles could not be interpreted to be creative.

The actor who breaks the rule of the alexandrine at a certain point creates "his style." Whether the public also interprets this as a sign of creativity de- pends on whether it has access to this style or not. Various factors influence this, among them culture. It is interesting to note that the reception of the French classical tragedy has been rather difficult outside France: "No other literary genre of comparable importance and intrinsic splendor has played such a narrowly national role" (Steiner 1993, 53). The stylistic creation of an individual can be recognized and perceived as such, only if the members of collective activity share a common genre.




In this light, how does one explain the success of a performance of Phaedra by a Japanese theater troupe, the Troupe of Moraki Watanabe, in the style of Noh theater in Paris, despite the different culture, language, and the widely unknown Noh? The explanation is that the audience shared with the troop the basic genre of the tragedy, which was reinforced through the Japanese culture, language, and the Noh.

Often the actors did not speak but sang. This underlined the fact that the voice of the tragic person was not that of the "normal people." It resembled, in this way, the French alexandrine and the Greek tradition of the tragedy. Above all, the troop mastered the art of silence. According to Jean-Pierre Miquel, a French stage director, part of the genre of tragedy is to master the art of silence.

It is in these moments that the art of theater appears. It is in the moments of silence, where the most intense communication between the public and the actors is established. The silence should not be confused with the normal pauses between respirations or with the time of reflections of the characters, but the silence is of a different kind. It is the moment when the duration is pending, a moment of eternity that is stolen from the pendulum, a moment of awaken dream, where everything is possible. (Miquel 1997, 51)

It is in these moments that the actor transmits what the text does not say, that the "tension of the public and the actor are concentrated in the same movement: they are on the same wavelength" (Miquel 1997, 52).

The silence is part of the genre, which is shared by the public and the the- atre troop. The genre is essential for communication and articulation between different individuals, the members of the troop, and the audience. Only on the basis of a "living" genre that is nourished by different styles can the collective activity develop. Different languages and cultures are not, as such, an obstacle for the formation of a genre. The genre can lean on other collectively shared experiences or artifacts. These shared artifacts might not be obvious in the first superficial contact with a foreign genre but can be identified through interaction between the subject and the foreign genre.

Managing the relation between creativity and rules

Vygotsky's, Clot's, and Rabardel's theories concern the individual activity and the articulation of the individual with collective activity but not the management of collective activity. In the following discussion, an attempt is made to integrate management in the above-discussed theories. First, it is shown how creativity can be managed within the performing arts. Second, an example from ongoing action research in the field of management accounting is described.

When starting to work on a play, the text is the basic artifact for the director




and his troop. This artifact evokes images and schemes to troop members, but not the same ones. The different styles are exchanged in discussions and are the basis for the constitution of a genre.

Depending on the personality of the director, he or she can influence or determine, more or less, the genre. In an interview Otto Sander, a famous German actor, compared the work with different stage directors. While the stage director, Peter Stein, gives clear and precise instructions to each actor on how to talk, pronounce, move, walk, and interact, his colleague, Klaus Michael Grüber, works on the basis of associations and images. "[When working on 'Amphitryon' Grüber told me to] think of a cornfield in Sardinia, a yellow cornfield, sun that goes down. Not more. This had nothing to do with the play" (Dermutz 1996).

The manager, in this case the stage director, influences the constitution of a specific genre. Accordingly, the actors create their styles, their way of playing a certain role. This embraces various aspects, for example, their way of moving, talking, pronouncing, and interacting with others. In the first rehearsals, variations of the genre develop due to the individual styles. Again, depending on his "management style," the director can influence which styles become part of the genre. If the director thinks that a certain style does not fit his or her artistic vision, he or she could intervene and demand that the individual search for a different style, or he or she could decide on one style for a certain character but not want the other characters to employ the same. Alternatively, the actors might not always agree with the director's opinion and insist on a specific style. In their discussions, they could try to persuade the director and the other members of the troop to adopt their preferred style. Others, for example, the dramaturg (dramatic adviser), could join these discussions between the actors and the director. In German's theater produc- tions, there is often a dramaturg. This is a kind of internal theater critic who either accompanies the creation from the beginning or intervenes at certain moments by commenting on the performance. The dramaturg can influence the development of genre and styles.

The source of creativity is the individual - the actors, the director, or the dramaturg - and each develops his or her own style. The director, as manager, can provide for conditions that allow agents to construct a genre, for example, by defining clear working methods and by supporting agents in adopting and developing those methods. Moreover, he can manage the articulation between genre and styles by discriminating or fostering certain styles. Further, he or she can manage the articulation between the individuals and the process of negotiation between different members of the organization by defining the framework and modes of exchange and discussion. In discussions and negotiations, the genre develops on the basis of these styles.




As the intersection of different genres is a source of the stylistic creation, it is part of the manager's task to reinforce the encounter of different genres. This can happen, for example, through an exchange in the form of discussions between the actors and the dramaturg, or through subjects who belong to different genres at the same time, such as an actor who has been part of a dancing group.

An ongoing action research in the field of management accounting has led to comparable results in terms of managing creativity and rules. An additional issue emerged concerning the role of linking pins.

The above-described theoretical framework has been used as a lens to analyze the use of medico-economic key figures (rules) by physicians in a chronic heart failure clinic. First results show that the use of key figures can create new possibilities of action for the agents. The responsible physician was identified as the "manager" of the instrumental genesis, as only he could find a meaningful way to integrate the key figures in his activity. He gave the decisive impulses to develop key figures (rules) and interpretation schemes. In the above-cited case, the use of key figures led to a reorganization of the activity. One of the key elements of this reorganization was the introduction of a patient training program. On the basis of this program, patients learned to live with their illnesses and to go to the hospital before they reach a severe condition. This considerably reduced the amount of stays per patient and the length of the average patient stay and, thus, overall cost. This idea is based on the physician's knowledge of his activity. The capacity of being "creative" is bound to the agent carrying out the activity. Administrators or "classical" managers in the hospital would not have been able to redesign the medical activity in a meaningful way. However, they can support creativity of the agents by carefully managing rules.

The management of rules should not stop at the definition of formal rules but should include their genesis. Management can provide for conditions that allow agents to construct their genre of using rules. In the above-cited example, there was only one physician who used the key figures for management accounting purposes, and therefore, no genre for the use of rules existed among physicians. In situations where the physician faced dilemmas, which pitted economic objectives against medical ethics, he was "isolated" with these questions and tended to blame the key figures for the difficult and unclear situation. This was an obstacle for the integration of the rules in activity. Here, a discussion with peers and the existence of a genre could have contributed to the solutions of such conflicts.

Further, management has the task of encouraging debate, allowing the agents to construct different interpretations. This is an important source for the development of rules, the development of activity, and, thus, creativity.




Likewise, the physician was able to develop rules and interpretation schemes on the basis of discussions with the linking pin and the representatives of the administration. In these discussions, he did not adopt the interpretation of the administration or the linking pin, but rather constructed his own meaningful interpretation. The rules were used as a means to construct different interpretations and to articulate them. They were constraint for the discussion and at the same time created new definitions of meaning for all participants.

A crucial aspect is to avoid using rules decoupled from actual activity when judging, for example, the agents' activities within budget negotiations. An important means by which to prevent such a decoupling are so-called linking pins (Likert 1961), who have the role of mediating between two worlds. In the described case, a physician, who had specialized in controlling, played this role of mediating between the medical world and the administrative or managerial world. The linking pin had an important role in "translating" aggregated administrative key figures in meaningful medical key figures for physicians. Moreover, he had a key role in balancing the physician's need to adjust the key figures to his activity and in balancing the administration's need to have comparable key figures throughout the hospital. Linking pins have a key role in managing the relation between creativity and change.

Conclusion

Cultural-historical psychology has been used as a theoretical framework in order to explore the relation between creativity and rules in the field of performing arts. The use of rules contributes to the stability of activity and is simultaneously a resource for the development of activity. Changing con- texts continuously demands the development of rules and the activity. Two orientations of creativity can be distinguished: the evolution of the rules and the evolution of their utilization schemes. Being both a constraint and a resource for creativity, rules can be regarded as vectors for creativity. The use and the creation of rules, or according to March, the concepts of exploitation and exploration, are not antagonistic or sequential but are in a dialectical relationship within activity. Each acting individual confronts this dialectical relationship within his or her activity.

The principle implication for the field of organization studies concerns the nature of the relation between creativity and rules. Whereas most of the research in this field has neglected the relation between creativity and rules, the attempt is made in this paper to clarify the nature of this relationship. The findings suggest that the relationship is dialectical, and therefore, the study of only one of the elements is insufficient for the understanding of either one of these concepts.




Several practical implications for organizations can be deduced. Above all, it is vital for organizations to nourish the dialogue between creativity and rules, which is the basis for the instrumental genesis: the evolution of rules and interpretation schemes. When this evolution is blocked, the dialogue is interrupted: rules and interpretation schemes are not adapted to new experiences (Lorino 2000). In order to avoid such situations, organizations need an effective management of rules and creativity. Management needs to provide for an "appropriate" management of rules, which demands that the design process not stop with the formulation of the formal rule but continues during the process of their genesis. Second, management has to create conditions that allow an organization to create its genres. It is only on the basis of these informal rules that the dialogue between rules and creativity can be established. The existence of a genre is a prerequisite for the development of styles (individual creativity). Like rules, genres can also be regarded as a resource and a constraint for the development of styles and, therefore, for creativity.

Moreover, managers can foster creativity by encouraging the encounter of different genres. This can trigger a certain form of creative reasoning, such as enabling the subject to transform concepts from one domain to another.

Finally, management needs to identify who can play the role of linking pins and provide them with support, as linking pins have a key role in managing the relation between creativity and rules. On the basis of their mediating role, they balance change and stability.

The present research has some limitations. The concept of genre refers within Clot's theory to a homogenous professional group. In organizations, however, different professional groups and different genres coexist. Future research could explore further the articulation between different genres in organization- wide rules. Another limitation concerns the setting of the research in a performing art troop. In this setting, the dialogue between creativity and rules is obvious, as it is part of the artist's work, on the one hand, to master certain techniques (rules) and, on the other, to strive for their transgression. Future research could continue to analyze settings such as the above-described example of the accounting department where this dialogue is less obvious.

A further limitation lies in the research method. The empirical part draws on experiences of different people in the field of performing arts. More evidence could be gathered through the use of other empirical research methods, such as conversation analysis and interviews coupled with case studies or action research. Future research might deepen the analysis of the role of linking pins for the management of creativity and rules. If it is crucial to analyze this issue in the field of management and organization, the role of linking pins could also be analyzed for performing arts (e.g., concerning the cooperation




of different professional groups, such as actors, musicians, and technicians within a troop).

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