Necessity: The Mother of Invention? The Tension Between Management Control and Creativity: Lessons from Apollo 13

Abstract

This case study develops our understanding of the ways in which management control and creativity co-exist within organizations. We extend current understandings of how management control and creativity may combine by theorizing a broad typological framework 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 to illustrate our framework is based on a review of NASA documentation and first-person accounts of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission during which the need to manage the apparent dichotomy between control and creativity was literally a matter of life and death. 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.