In general, from a management perspective, clean desks are common in jobs that are highly repetitive. Messy desks are more common in jobs that consist of concurrent projects that many times have the same due dates. In general, the creative types will have a good deal of paper on their desks whereas clerks will have just enough, neatly arranged, to make you believe that they have something to do, which may be a bald faced lie.
Ladder thinkers tend to have neat desks, fan thinkers (I am married to one) tend to have so many inputs to their work that it is difficult to store everything neatly. Computers have helped the fan thinkers, but they still will have a good deal of paper on their desk. I don’t bother them with harangues about clean desks as I know that their organization is inside their heads and it may be a type of organization that I do not necessarily recognize as desirable, but it works spectacularly well for them.
My desks are usually neat and orderly, BUT they are never bare. How can you work and never have anything on your desk? I’m telling you, he never works on anything alone. He isn’t capable.
Saw a sign that said “A cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind. An empty desk is the sign of an empty mind.”