Multilevel theorizing about creativity in organizations: A sensemaking perspective

In this article we explore assumptions about the levels of analysis embedde d in the extant literature on creativity in organizations. Uncovering and t hen relaxing these assumptions allow us to extend the literature with an al ternative but complementary model of how creativity unfolds in complex, lar ge-scale, and long-duration organizational projects. We build on the paradi gm of sensemaking and propose a multilevel model of creativity that, as its defining feature, examines how periodic organizational crises reframe the negotiated order of belief structures about creativity.