Language and Creativity at Work

Book excerpt: Language and Creativity at Work: A Corpus-Assisted Model of Creative Workplace Discourse explores linguistic creativity at work as well as the role of language in creative processes in the workplace. Using a mixed-methods approach involving corpus linguistics and discourse analysis, this book: Provides a critical comparison of previous studies in language and creativity in a linguistic context as well as in the context of businesses and entrepreneurship, and considers the insights that can be gained from both approaches Argues the case for workplace creativity as a linguistic and discursive phenomenon in addition to a cognitive or relational one Presents a model of creative workplace discourse that integrates creative language, the creative actions involving language, and alignment between speakers Employs spoken corpus data from a range of workplace contexts recorded over a 20-year period; Examines professional practice and creativity in two different professional contexts: a residential care home and a small start-up company, and explores the roles of constraints, leadership and alignment in these contexts Critically interrogates the notion of creativity as an inherently positive phenomenon and analyses instances of problematic creativity in the workplace Demonstrates how corpora can be used to underscore assessments of creativity and its realisations in real dialogic contexts. This book fills an important gap in the literature on creativity within both language and organisational studies, and as such will be key reading for students and researchers of English language, applied linguistics, communication studies and business management.