Negative capability: A contribution to the understanding of creative leadership

French, Robert; Simpson, Peter; Harvey, Charles

Abstract

Our aim in this chapter is to suggest how the idea of ‘negative capability’ may contribute to an understanding of the creative leader. We begin by exploring the origins of the term negative capability and its meaning in the creative arts and in psychoanalysis. We then assess its value as a concept in relation to leadership. Creative leadership is called for at the edge between certainty and uncertainty, both a necessary and a difficult place to work in the current context of organizational life. Whereas, positive capabilities direct leaders and followers toward particular forms of action rooted in knowing, negative capability is the ability to resist dispersing into inappropriate knowing and action. We suggest that appropriate combinations of positive capabilities and negative capability can generate and sustain a ‘working space’ or ‘capacity’ for creative thought at this edge between knowing and not knowing. Creative leaders are characterised by their ability to generate such spaces not merely for themselves but also for others within the organization. Some of the problems for organizational leaders in working with negative capability are raised and explored.

Citation

French, R., Simpson, P., & Harvey, C. (2009). Negative capability: A contribution to the understanding of creative leadership. In B. Sievers, H. Brunning, J. De Gooijer, & L. Gould (Eds.), Psychoanalytic Studies of Organizations: Contributions from the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations. Karnac Books

• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2009
• Deposit Date: May 13, 2011
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 16, 2016
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Book Title: Psychoanalytic Studies of Organizations: Contributions from the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations
• ISBN: 9781855756076
• Keywords: certainty/uncertainty, creative leadership, negative capability, positive capability
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1002563
• Publisher URL: http://www.karnacbooks.com/Product.asp?PID=27704&MATCH=1
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This chapter was originally included in Sievers, B. and Brunning, H. and De Gooijer, J. and Gould, L., (eds.) Psychoanalytic Studies of Organizations: Contributions from the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations, http://www.karnacbooks.com/isbn/9781855756076, published by Karnac Books in 2009, reprinted here with kind permission of Karnac Books.