Creativity is not a linear process. Rather, as pertinent research has corroborated, complexity, non-linearity and indeterminacy are key features of creative processes. Previous research has shown that creative processes involve temporal complexity, such as the tension between “chronos” and “kairos”, and multiple temporal orientations among the different actors involved. Pertinent research, so far, focused on one particular organizational practice to meet the challenges imposed by the temporal multicontextuality of creative projects: entrainment Practices of entrainment are geared towards the synchronization of multiple temporal structures in complex project ecologies by aligning attention and the prioritization of tasks.
Regulating the intensity and direction of people's attention and effort is seen as a central aspect of innovation management. This rather mechanistic perception of entrainment has been criticized more
recently for neglecting potential benefits of asynchronicity for organizations. Moreover, entrainment cannot be reduced to a one-dimensional and functionalist optimization effort. Rather organizational actors have to perform a “dance of entrainment”, i.e. they have to navigate simultaneously across multiple endogenous and exogenous pacers and occasionally might be left with no alternative than to deliberately uncouple activities temporarily. Although previous research has increasingly appreciated multiple practices of entrainment, the
chief concern of the respective research was with performance and efficiency. So far, the interdependence between entrainment and, importantly, disentrainment on the one hand, and creativity on the other, has not been explored in a systematic fashion. Entrainment might induce productive friction that stimulates creativity; but, conversely, creative ideas may require tempo or phase “misfit” in order to germinate and flourish. In order to conceptualize more the role of entrainment and disentrainment in organizing creativity, we seek to advance research on temporal structuring in at least three directions. First, we aim to systematize the variety of relevant temporal structures influencing creative processes on different levels of
analysis in both fields. Second, we aim to foreground the role of disentrainment as an important practice by which creativity is organized. Third, we aim to unpack the role of materiality in creative projects in the two fields in influencing temporal structures and practices of temporal structuring alike. Fourth, we aim to go beyond a description of different temporal structures and practices playing a role in creative processes by
applying a comparative design that helps us to develop propositions regarding which practices of (dis-)entrainment foster creativity in which field contexts and in different stages of the creative process.