'The digital age provide tremendous opportunities for organizations who adapt new technologies, implement disruptive business models, introduce new ways of working and who drive on innovation. There is no doubt that one of the most important capabilities for 21st century organizations is ''mastering creativity''. Andres Hatum has done a fabulous job in taking readers of his latest book on a journey where they learn how to build and include creativity in the DNA of their organizations. A must-read for every business and talent profession.' -Nick van Dam, Global Chief Learning Officer, McKinsey & Company, Nyenrode Business University, the Netherlands and the University of Pennsylvania, US 'This book is a welcome addition to the steadily growing literature on creativity and organization. The author achieves the twin hurdles of rigorous analysis for the academics and practice-based relevance for practitioners. The book provides ample frameworks and case examples to identify key factors which influence and enhance creativity in organizations. These factors range from individual characteristics through organizational factors such as structure and culture to more contextual and environmental conditions. The author then shows how developing creativity, as a key organizational competence, can positively influence strategic decision making to enhance exploration rather than exploitation, to increase agility and to facilitate proactive change.' - David Wilson, Open University, UK 'Mastering Creativity in Organizations offers a comprehensive and pedagogical treatise of the forces and factors that facilitate creativity in organizations and the numerous challenges that this involves. The book is richly illustrated with a variety of cases from a range of different sectors, including sports, advertising, manufacturing, consulting, primary education, the entertainment industry, and the culinary industry. Thanks to his fantastic access, Professor Hatum takes us behind the scenes and gives us an inside look into a number of iconic organizations such as Cirque de Soleil, FC Barcelona and Tetra Pak - exploring their leadership practices, HR strategies, office design and several other key issues. However, as the authors attests, creativity is not just for the exceptionally talented genius or for the people working in these extraordinary organizations. Everybody, and every organization, can learn to work in more creative ways from the unique cases in this book.' - Torkild Thanem, Stockholm University, Sweden This book identifies best practices, leadership styles, and organizational structures for the stimulation of organizational creativity. Andres Hatum first explains what creativity means in an organizational context. He then explores the ways in which an organization can foster it, with an aim to help any company - not just companies in creative fields or industries - become an organization in which new ideas flow, new processes are developed, and new products are brought to market. In doing so, he provides scholars with a solid framework for studying and understanding the deeper meaning of creativity. Andres Hatum's new framework for understanding organizational creativity offers examples from a rich variety of companies and situations. The book balances theory and practice for a multifaceted approach that brings its analysis into the real world. In-depth case studies include FC Barcelona, elBulli, Almodovar, and Cirque du Soleil. Managers will find case studies describing exceptional organizational creativity and practical takeaways that can be applied in their own firms. Students will find concrete analytical frameworks for thinking about creativity in organizations, and academics will find a different approach to the study of creativity, one that is grounded in practice.

Andres Hatum explores determinants of organizational flexibility in this examination of four family-owned companies, two flexible and two less flexible, from the edible oil and pharmaceutical industries. By means of an innovative analysis - including longitudinal analysis, coding analysis, statistical analysis and the use of original display charts - he illustrates the determinants of flexibility and sheds light on the process of transformation and adaptation of family firms, an area that has not yet been the subject of extensive empirical inquiry. The management literature has claimed that the complexity of business contexts has forced firms to confront hypercompetitive or high-velocity environments. Behind such claims lies a new interest in the dynamics of adaptation, and in particular a firm's flexibility as a way of adjusting under conditions of uncertainty. The businesses studied here have had to contend with the environmental volatility that characterized Argentina for some years. The author identifies five determinants of flexibility as a set of organizational and managerial capabilities that enabled some firms to adapt quickly in a highly competitive environment: heterogeneity of the dominant coalition, centralization and formalization of decision-making, low macroculture embeddedness, environmental scanning, and a strong organizational identity. These findings were analyzed and interpreted by developing theoretical ideas from three areas between which historically there has been no interface: organizational flexibility, organizational innovativeness and institutional embeddedness. This insightful examination into what enables some family-owned businesses to survive and thrive and causes others to fail will be of interest to academics concerned with business flexibility and adaptation, as well as to managers and owners of family businesses.