In this article, the author investigates the process by which jazz is produced and evaluated. He suggests that this is a valuable tool for organizational theorists who want to understand innovation, the variation process in natural selection, idea generation and creativity. The key ideas about how jazz is produced include the use os songs as a temporal logic and the use retrospective bricolage as a means to create order within chaos. The key idea about evaluation developed here is the notion that jazz appreciation involves an aesthetics of imperfection.
Jazz; organizations; innovation; aesthetic of imperfection; retrospect; improvisation