The Ontology of Creativity in Industrial Cleaning

Creativity is (e.g. Gadner, 1993) often associated with the arts, science, technology, high-end products developed (cf. Plucker, Beghetto & Dow, 2004) by a genius working through long, complicated, isolated, arduous and mythical procedures. But, what about ordinary people doing ordinary work in their everyday organizational life? Would it make sense to describe them as creative as well? Would it e.g. make sense to claim that industrial cleaners are regularly being creative? In this article, we will analyze a case study that examines industrial cleaning workers in the food-industry services. The article belongs to (Clark II & Fast, 2008) qualitative economics and is based on ideographic methodology. This analysis collected data though participatory observation, formal and informal qualitative interviews during a period of three years. Based on analyses, we conclude that industrial cleaners regularly produce everyday creativity, also known as small “c”. We also conclude that it is rare to find examples of big “C,” creativity leading to radical change. In this study, only one example of creativity outside of small “c” was observed. This creative act was produced by an external consultant rather than the industrial cleaners being studied.