Ideas rise from chaos: Information structure and creativity

- A hierarchical information structure (HIS) organizes information by categories.
- A flat information structure (FIS) is an information set without categories.
- Scholars have advocated HIS due to its efficiency benefits.
- For creativity, HIS is detrimental because it reduces cognitive flexibility.
- FIS increases creativity because it enhances flexible uses of information.

Is structure good or bad for creativity? When it comes to organizing information, management scholars have long advocated for a hierarchical information structure (information organized around higher-order categories as opposed to a flat information structure where there is no higher-order category) to reduce complexity of information processing and increase efficiency of work. However, a hierarchical information structure can be a double-edged sword that may reduce creativity, defined as novel and useful combination of existing information. This is because a hierarchical information structure might obstruct combining information from distal conceptual categories. Thus, the current research investigates whether information structure influences creativity. We theorize that a hierarchical information structure, compared to a flat information structure, will reduce creativity because it reduces cognitive flexibility. Three experiments using a sentence construction task and a LEGO task supported our prediction.