Decision making and creativity: A qualitative study of MacArthur fellows

Abstract

This was a qualitative study that employed face-to-face interviewing as the primary data collection method. Participants were chosen using a purposeful sampling technique in which potential participants were stratified by gender, age, and organizational type and then randomly selected from each category. Interviewees came from different regions of the United States and worked in a range of fields including physics, agriculture, computer technology, human rights, conservation, pharmaceuticals, environmental policy, and music. An interview guide was employed to give interviews structure and maximize the busy interviewees' time. Interviews lasted approximately 60 minutes. Interview data were organized into single case studies built around constructs that surfaced during a review of the literature on both decision making and creativity. A cross-case analysis was also conducted.The results of the study supported existing theories of decision making, though these theories are relatively abstract and this study presents richer descriptions of the decision making process than one can find in the more abstract theoretical literature. As a consequence, this study should be useful to those who want to emulate individuals who have been publicly recognized for their creativity and for successfully making decisions in areas where well-established decision making pathways do not exist.vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Conventional Wisdom and Popular (Mis)Understanding of “Failing Schools”

“…Additionally, conventional wisdom is generally understood to be commonly held and accepted beliefs as well as long-accepted opinions from experts within a given field or background. Indicators of the prevalence of conventional wisdom according to Galbraith (1958) and Bang and Frith (2017) are:  Acceptance of ideas without questioning  Not challenging information that fits within established normative thought  Assuming thoughts of the majority are true because it seems "reasonable" and is based on long-standing tradition  Rationale in favor of long-standing concepts is supported by widespread talking points Hennessy (2014) asserts that conventional wisdom are theories that have been widely accepted to the extent they rarely undergo thorough scrutiny when put forward, but instead, are reflexively accepted as factual. As such, consideration of alternative perspectives is often shunned in favor of more traditional, intuitive concepts hinged on, largely, unresearched methodological approaches and a narrow set of already popular ideas (Reese & Rosenfeld, 2001).…”