Point Break? The impact of creative differences on directors’ careers and the process of creative vitrification

Popular images of creative leaders often depict them as difficult to work with and yet, worth the struggle because of their ability to innovate: the so-called “jerk genius.” Leading creative group work requires, by design, managing differences in perspective, vision, and ideas. In this multimethod study, we examine the both the long-term effects of creative leaders fail that spark disagreements that lead to broken collaborations and the process that leads to these breakdowns. Integrating perspectives from research on the social turn in creativity and using an archival sample of Hollywood directors leaving projects due to “creative differences,” we first assess the relationship between creative differences and creative leaders’ future career success. Empirical evidence support our hypotheses that creative leaders leaving projects due to “creative differences” experience drop offs in future employability and creativity success. In a subsequent qualitative study, we discovered the process of creative vitrification, that explains the underlying social dynamics that harden and subsequently break creative collaborations leading to “creative differences.” Together, our multimethod findings breaks new ground, challenging prevailing notions of the value of disagreeable creative leaders by revealing the long-term consequences of these behaviors while also elucidating the often obscured process of creative vitrification that leads to breakdowns in collaboration.

Zoom link: https://eur-nl.zoom.us/j/97012537983?pwd=Q28wWGhpTG1jYnZMcXNJRUhVdk5LZz09&from=addon

Meeting ID: 970 1253 7983