Management Accounting Section Midyear Meeting

Necessity: The Mother of Invention? The Relationship between Management Control and Creativity: Lessons from Apollo 13

• In Event: Qualitative Case Studies I

Abstract

This case study develops our understanding of the relationship between management control and creativity. Building on findings of control/creativity research, we extend current understandings of the ways in which management control and creativity may combine by theorizing a broad typological framework that conceptualizes the relationship as comprising four basic forms. We postulate that not only can control and creativity co-exist, but that they are mutually reliant, and can function concurrently to differing extents within one operational entity as circumstances dictate. The case we use as a vehicle to illustrate our framework is based on a review of NASA documentation and first-person accounts of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission where the need to manage the apparent paradox between control and creativity was literally a matter of life and death. Analysis of control and creativity within this unique setting provides the opportunity to gain insights into inputs, processes, explanations and outcomes that might otherwise be missed in studies of more conventional environments. Our findings serve as a foundational basis for further empirical and theoretical enquiry and offer research directions that may provide a deeper understanding of the ways in which control and creativity may combine.

Authors

• Basil Phillip Tucker, University of South Australia

• Ian Halkett, University of South Australia

• Ady James, University of South Australia