EDITORIAL

Tudor Rickards

Knowledge Leaders

W hat sort of articles are suited forCreativity and Innovation Manage-

ment? Almost any topic that serves toillustrate aspects of creativity and innovationso that the management of these processesmay be better informed. At times we suspectwe err on the side of inclusiveness. Observa-tions on the nature of strategy, for example,seem to interest some readers. Culture andclimate also are topics that indicate contextsthat are more, or less supportive of creativityand innovation. Technology managementmakes a claim because technology has hadancient rights to the claim to being an agencywithin many innovation processes. Entrepre-neurship has similar claims. More recently,we have welcomed studies of knowledgemanagement, and leadership. Design as in-novation has also attracted authors.

More important than the domain focus, isthe treatment of the topic. Editorially, we havebecome more open to quantitative analyses,although we urge authors to use numbers inthe service of ideas, rather than as demon-strations of mathematical sophistication. Wehave welcomed case descriptions, where theauthors have reported on situations so as toreflect their innovative or creative processes(or lack of innovation or creativity).

Nearly ten years ago, our dream was tohelp produce a journal that would encouragedialogue between practicing managers andacademics with shared interests in the topicsof innovation and creativity. We would stillwelcome the simply written first person ac-count of `how I did it and what sense I makeof it'. These papers are rare. Nor would ex-perimental modes be out of place. There areinnovative authors, even within the field ofmanagement, who have resorted to dramaand short stories to find something new tosay. Perhaps we have not made such aninvitation with adequate force. It is certainlythe case that most of our authors remainwedded to the traditional academic formatwith its extensive citations, and construction

borrowed from the nineteenth century scien-tific bulletins. You do not have to find acreative style to deal with creativity manage-ment, although it would add a refreshingdifference to the mainstream contributions.

Knowledge leadership

Two inter-related themes run through thearticles appearing in this issue. These areknowledge management, and leadership.Susanne Ollila takes an old notion, that ofreflective thinking, and connects it withprocesses necessary for effective leadershipin innovative projects. The reflective leaderis less likely to be trapped into denial andhabitual thinking. It seems a plausible pro-posal that such leaders will support moreinnovative climates. The paper draws on theScandinavian model of leadership pioneeredin these pages by Goran Ekvall, amongothers. It also might be seen as a justificationfor revisiting the work on the learning andproblem-solving cycle by David Kolb. Kolb,implicitly drawing on creativity theory, popu-larised the cycle of concrete experience, reflec-tive observation, abstract conceptualisation,and active experimentation.

The paper also leads smoothly into anunusual and remarkable study of the man-agerial side of the Vicars of the Church ofSweden. Jon Aarum Andersen takes his inte-grative model of leadership and change, andshows that few of the vicars, while facing greatpressures to change, are equipped to do so.

Khaleel Malik has studied the practicalchallenges facing designers offering computer-aided design systems. The designer is increas-ingly forced to accept the role of innovationleader, and to seek closer understanding ofspecific organisational practices. The casewould make good reading alongside a revisitto the wisdom found in Kanter's classic bookthe Change Masters.

Mitsuru Kodama has provided a richexample of an institutional innovation, thedevelopment of a strategic community forvetinarians and networked customers. Kodama

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gives a powerful insight into the shape ofvirtual communities, and shows how theycreate conditions for repeated, if not con-tinuous learning.

Joanne Roberts has concentrated her studyon an archtypal knowledge leadership in-dustry, global advertising. She suggests thatcontrary to the usual picture of the `creative'engaged in a lonely mission, advertisingexecutives have to facilitate a process of co-creation with their clients. This illustrates theway in which such idea leadership processes

connect up different knowledge systems andsupport innovative change.

Steven Swailes has found that two themesemerge when committed and uncommittedprofessionals are compared. The first deals withachievement, and the second with innovation.These constructs have been integrated withgoal orientation in a new theoretical model,and empirical evidence provided.

Tudor Rickards

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Volume 9 Number 3 September 2000 # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2000