Background. From the Industrial Revolution onwards, mass production factories and bureaucratic institutions were characterized by coordinated action which was concentrated in specific locations (factories, offices) and at set working hours. However, it is widely assumed that working together face-to-face is rapidly diminishing due to telework, geographical spread of firms, and inter-organizational collaboration.
Research aims. This paper speculates how the liquefying of location, working hours, and organizational boundaries will affect creativity, and ultimately innovation, on the work floor. Special consideration is given to the multi-sensuous and relational aspects of moments of creative insight, also known as “epiphanies”. The phenomenon of epiphany will be linked not only to individual creativity, but also to dyadic and group creativity, so as to emphasize its relational character.
Methodology. This paper furthers earlier theoretical work regarding the effects of distant work on employee self-control (Clegg & Van Iterson, 2013) and empirical research into the role of epiphany on organizational creativity (Van Iterson et al., 2017).
