Project specification: creativity and rhetoric in scientific research

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify different types of project in relation to their degree of specification and the creative possibilities that more highly specified projects offer researchers. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents the limitations of project management methods when managing research in relation to creativity. If projects are rigorously formulated and fulfill the requirements of project management, they may be compared to a mechanical task in which active decision making no longer applies. The conceptual framework develops the study of the spaces of creativity that research projects offer based on intentional action in which the notion of project is considered to be more flexible than that of more traditional approaches, and the notion of judgment is seen as a source of creativity. The empirical research presents the study of two scientific projects and compares their degree of the goal and task specification, the time required to specify them and how creativity emerges from routinized activities. Findings – The spaces of creative possibilities in projects are related in two ways: first, these spaces are related to a critical view of the concepts of repeated action and routines, and second, they are related to the ways researchers use projects and the methods of project management not only as a method but also as a form of rhetoric. Originality/value – Constituting a contribution to organizational change and innovation theory that enlarges the concept of project and brings understanding of how researchers define their projects, confront project specifications and are creative in a constrained framework.