The Practice of Professional Agency and the Emergence of Collaborative Creativity in Developmental Staff Meetings

Abstract

In this study, we focused on the manifestations of professional agency and collaborative creativity in team meetings. We aimed to investigate how different kinds of professional agency are related to collaborative creativity. We used an ethnographic approach, collecting observational data from the team meetings of the Human Resource Department of a Finnish Health Care District during 2009–2010. We found that professional agency is practised in various ways in team meetings, reflecting different habitual practices and power relations. In addition, it appeared that the nature of the professional agency practised affected the emergence of collaborative creativity. An environment with a high degree of freedom and a conversational atmosphere supported the practice of professional agency and the emergence of collaborative creativity. By contrast, a tradition of regulation and non-conversational practices acted as obstacles to agency and creativity.