COGNITIVE TEAM DIVERSITY AND INDIVIDUAL TEAM MEMBER CREATIVITY:A CROSS-LEVEL INTERACTION
SHUNG J.SHIN
Portland State University
TAE-YEOL KIM
China Europe International Business School
JEONG-YEON LEE University of Kansas LIN BIAN
City University of Hong Kong
We theorized and tested the conditions under which cognitive team diversity is posi-tively related to individual team member creativity.Hierarchical linear modeling results using 316employees on 68teams from Chine companies indicated that a team member’s creative lf-efficacy moderated the relationship between cognitive team diversity and individual creativity:this relationship was positive only when creative lf-efficacy was high.Further,“transformational leadership”moderated the relation-ship i
n such a way that cognitive team diversity was positively related to individual creativity only when transformational leadership was high.
Creativity and innovation are critical for organiza-tion performance and survival in rapidly changing and highly competitive environments (Lopez-Cabrales,Pérez-Luño,&Cabrera,2009).Furthermore,teams are widely ud in workplaces,and work-forces are becoming more diver than ever before,so the need to examine the relationships between team diversity and creativity is especially impor-tant (Jackson,Joshi,&Erhardt,2003;Williams &O’Reilly,1998).
We note that although rearchers have accumu-lated knowledge on how team diversity relates to team creativity (e.g.,Kearney &Gebert,2009;Shin &Zhou,2007),little rearch has been done to explore the relationship between team diversity and individ-ual creativity.However,becau team members may respond differently to the same context,it is not ap-propriate to assume that team diversity has a similar
effect on individual creativity as it does on team-level creativity.Thus,in this study,answering Jackson and colleagues’(2003)call for the examination of the in-dividual-level outcomes of team diversity,we
aimed to examine how team diversity influences individual creativity.Among the team diversity dimensions,we focud on cognitive team diversity—perceived dif-ferences in thinking styles,knowledge,skills,values,and beliefs among individual team members (Dahlin,Weingart,&Hinds,2005)becau not all effects of diversity are equal (Joshi &Roh,2009;Williams &O’Reilly,1998),and creativity involves cognitive process.
One important area of diversity and creativity rearch concerns the conditions that can enhance or mitigate the effects of team diversity on creativ-ity.The interactional approach of creativity re-arch suggests that scholars need to look at follow-ers’characteristics to fully understand the relationship between contexts and individual cre-ativity (Oldham &Cummings,1996;Woodman,Sawyer,&Griffin,1993).Nevertheless,diversity and creativity rearchers have rarely studied indi-vidual differences as moderators of the relationship between team diversity and creativity,although each individual may react to team diversity differ-ently.Bandura (1991)suggested that lf-efficacy is one of the most critical cognitive and motivational factors in workplaces.In particular,creative lf-efficacy ,which is the extent to which employees
We thank Elizabeth Morrison and the three reviewers of AMJ for their constructive and insightful comments on a draft of this article.We also extend our appreciation to Pamela Tierney,Robert Liden,
Thomas Bateman,and Brad Gilbreath for their helpful comments on earlier versions as well as to the participants at minars held at Korea University Business School,Yoni School of Business,and City University of Hong Kong.
Editor’s note :The manuscript for this article was ac-cepted for publication during the term of AMJ ’s previous editor-in-chief,R.Duane Ireland.
Academy of Management Journal 2012,Vol.55,No.1,197–212.
/10.5465/amj.2010.0270
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Copyright of the Academy of Management,all rights rerved.Contents may not be copied,emailed,posted to a listrv,or otherwi transmitted without the copyright holder’s express written permission.Urs may print,download,or email articles for individual u only.
believe they are capable of being creative(Tierney &Farmer,2002),has been studied as a key variable positively affecting workplace creativity(Red-mond,Mumford,&Teach,1993;Tierney&Farmer, 2002).The literature suggests that creative lf-ef-ficacy may influence individuals’respons to con-t
exts,such as cognitive team diversity,and their subquent creative behavior(cf.Drazin,Glynn,& Kazanjian,1999;Ford,1996).In particular,to make n of engaging in creative behavior when ex-pod to cognitive team diversity,individuals should posss the belief that“I can be creative,so I can utilize the cognitive resources to be creative.”Thus,given that creativity is a result of cognitive and motivational process(Mumford&Gustafson, 1988),we argue that creative lf-efficacy is one of the most important individual differences that moderate the relationship between cognitive team diversity and creativity.
To further understand the conditions under which cognitive team diversity exerts a positive influence on individual creativity,one should also consider team-level moderators.Team-level factors such as leadership have been studied as moderators of the relationship between team diversity and team creativity(Shin&Zhou,2007;Somech,2006). Given the influence of leadership,especially “transformational leadership”(Bass,1985),on em-ployees’creative behavior in their workplace(Red-mond et al.,1993;Scott&Bruce,1994;Shin& Zhou,2003),we examined the moderating role of transformational leadership in the relationship be-tween cognitive team diversity and individual team member creativity.
Thus,our study contributes to the diversity and creativity literature in veral ways.First,we de-velop
a theory addressing the interplay between cognitive team diversity and individual team mem-bers’creativity.Given that the creativity of individ-ual team members provides the basis for a team’s creative process,understanding how team diver-sity influences individual creativity becomes sa-lient.Second,by investigating the effects of the cross-level interaction between cognitive team di-versity and team members’creative lf-efficacy on individual creativity,we offer a perspective com-plementary to the previous ,team-level)studies on the relationship between team diversity and creativity.Third,we explore the con-textual boundary conditions of cognitive team di-versity’s effect on individual creativity.Specifi-cally,we theorize and test the way in which transformational leadership and cognitive team di-versity interact to influence individual creativity. Finally,as Zhou and Shalley(2008)suggested,one of the gaps to fill in the creativity-at-work literature is to expand the rearch to the international arena to ek cross-national generalizability,becau or-ganizations continue to become interconnected globally.In particular,Chine employees tend to place high value on collectivism(Hofstede,1980; Oyrman,Coon,&Kemmelmeier,2002),so the pressure for conformity in collectivistic cultures (Goncalo&Staw,2006)might offt the effects of cognitive diversity on creativity.Even though ex-isting cognitive diversity and creativity theory is not explicitly culture bound,cognitive diversity might have different effects on individual creativity in China.Therefore,this rearch may contribute to the creativity literature by examining diversity and creativity issues in the Chine context.
THEORY DEVELOPMENT
Team Diversity and Creativity
In line with previous studies(Zhou&Shalley, 2003),we define creativity as the production of novel and uful ideas concerning products,r-vices,process,and procedures by an employee. The ideas can be completely new anywhere or new only to a focal team or organization.Creativity requires the ability to think divergently,e things from different perspectives,and combine previ-ously unrelated process,products,or materials into something new and better(Amabile,1996). The generation of creative ideas is a result of cog-nitive and motivational process within individu-als,although sometimes the interactions within teams foster it(Mumford&Gustafson,1988).In-deed,taking a“nmaking”perspective,Drazin et al.argued that creativity is the process of engage-ment in creative acts that occur in an iterative fash-ion between individuals and teams:“The iterative, interactive nature of group creativity requires that individuals first choo to engage in individual-level creativity”(1999:291).
On the other hand,diversity is defined as“the distribution of differences among the members of a unit with respect to a common attribute such as ten-ure,ethnicity”(Harrison&Klein,2007:1200).The diversit
y literature suggests that the value of team diversity resides in the incread range of knowledge, skills,and perspectives available within a team (Pelled,Einhardt,&Xin,1999;e Williams and O’Reilly[1998]for a review),which can be very valu-able sources of workplace creativity(Amabile,1996). Teams can be hotbeds of individual creativity that allow team members to combine information and per-spectives from individuals with different knowledge, skills,thinking styles,and perspectives(Lipman-Blu-men&Leavitt,1999).
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However,despite the potentially positive influ-ence of diversity on creativity,studies of diversity have yielded mixed results on the relationship be-tween team diversity and cognitive performance measured as problem solving,idea generation,and decision making(Jackson et al.,2003;van Knippen-berg,De Dreu,&Homan,2004;Williams&O’Reilly, 1998).The mixed results suggest that rearchers need to pay clor attention to at least two issues to better understand the relationship between team diversity and creativity.First,they need to choo the diversity variable that is appropriate in terms of its conceptual relevance to the outcome variables. This is becau the effects
of diversity variables are not all equal(Harrison&Klein,2007;Horwitz& Horwitz,2007;Joshi&Roh,2009).Second,they need to examine the conditions under which diver-sity delivers the intended benefits to employee cre-ativity(Mannix&Neale,2005;Williams&O’Reilly, 1998).In this study,we address the calls by in-vestigating the effects of cognitive team diversity on individual creativity and by examining individ-ual-level as well as team-level moderators of the relationship between cognitive team diversity and individual creativity.
Cognitive Team Diversity and Individual Team Member Creativity
The two main arguments about the effects of diversity on creativity have been differentiated in the literature as“similarity attraction”and“value in diversity”(Williams&O’Reilly,1998).Accord-ing to the similarity attraction argument(Pfeffer, 1983),similarity induces individuals to appreciate one another’s positive attributes,and dissimilarity provokes unfavorable treatment and less accep-tance of another’s strengths becau of social cate-gorization ,an“us-them”distinc-tion).Diversity may therefore relate negatively to individual creativity becau of possible emotional and relational conflict resulting from being differ-ent(Jehn,Northcraft,&Neale,1999;Mannix& Neale,2005).If a team suffers from dysfunctional conflicts caud by diversity,the team members are less likely to engage in creative process,such as building,experimenting,and elaborating ideas wit
h one another.The value-in-diversity argument, on the other hand,highlights that exposure to dif-ferences may stimulate team members to generate innovative ideas(Perry-Smith&Shalley,2003)and motivate them to combine and rearrange the differ-ent perspectives and ideas they encounter(Jehn et al.,1999).Team diversity may therefore relate pos-itively to creativity becau it is likely to provide team members with an incread range of knowl-edge and perspectives.
According to the literature,the similarity attrac-tion argument is more relevant to demographic di-versity,but the value in diversity argument is more relevant to cognitive diversity(Jehn et al.,1999). That is,whereas surface diversity,such as demo-graphic diversity,is likely to cau social categori-zation process,deep diversity,such as cognitive diversity,is likely to promote creativity process (e.g.,information processing,combining different ideas,building on others’ideas,and experimenting with the ideas of tho with different perspectives)by providing team members with a wide range of ideas, perspectives,knowledge,and values(Harrison,Price, Gavin,&Florey,2002;Horwitz&Horwitz,2007;Jehn et al.,1999;Joshi&Roh,2009;van Knippenberg et al., 2004).Although demographic diversity is likely to cau relational ,interpersonal emo-tional clashes),cognitive diversity is likely to boost task ,disagreement on job-related issues) toward creative solutions(Pelled et al.,1999).Thus, when a context requires creativity,cognitiv
e team diversity,which conceptually relates more cloly to creativity than demographic diversity does,is likely to provide individual members with more benefits than disadvantages,becau team members are more likely to recognize the various ideas,knowledge,and perspectives among team members as creativity pro-cess than to engage in social categorization pro-cess(Harrison&Klein,2007;van Knippenberg et al.,2004).Indeed,previous studies suggest that cog-nitive diversity(often resulting from functional diver-sity)is positively related to creative performance (Jackson et al.,2003;Kurtzberg&Amabile,2001;Per-ry-Smith&Shalley,2003).
Furthermore,compared with team creativity, which requires team convergence process,indi-vidual creativity is likely to take advantage of the different perspectives and approaches of other team members without a further need for high-quality interpersonal interactions.For team creativ-ity to be realized,once the individual members of a team have generated an idea,the team has to pro-cess each member’s creative ideas critically and drop tho that appear less uful.This may cau team“process loss,”such as limiting choices (Gigone&Hastie,1993),conflicts(Carnevale& Probst,1998),conformity(Larey&Paulus,1999),“social loafing”(Price,Harrison,&Gavin,2006), and other production-blocking factors(Diehl& Stroebe,1991)that may be especially strong in diver groups(Webber&Donahue,2001).In other words,individual creativity can take advantage of cognitive resources by being less vulnerable to so-cial categorization process than team creativity
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process.Thus,being expod to cognitive team diversity,whether purpofully or not,individual team members are more able to combine and build on different ideas and to experiment with the ideas from different perspectives.That is,with the abundant cognitive resources from cognitive team diversity,individual team members are likely to exploit the various ideas and perspectives of other team members to generate creative ideas in a con-text requiring creativity.
To summarize,we argue that cognitive team di-versity is significantly related to individual team members’creativity becau it is likely to be asso-ciated with creativity process rather than with social categorization process.Thus,we predict the following:
Hypothesis1.Cognitive team diversity posi-tively relates to individual team member creativity.
The Moderating Role of Creative Self-Efficacy Creativity rearchers readily acknowledge that individual differences can affect creativity,yet Drazin et al.found that creativity rearchers as-sume“the homogeneity of higher-level(or situa-tional)effects on individuals”(1999:289).How-ever,indi
vidual team members respond to situations intentionally(Weick,1979),and many studies have emphasized the importance of a focal individual’s ,Drazin et al., 1999;Ford,1996;Shin&Zhou,2003),so the as-sumption of homogeneity should be questioned (Drazin et al.,1999;Klein,Danreau,&Hall, 1994).Thus,we argue that team diversity may have different influences on individual creativity de-pending on individual differences.In particular, individuals are likely to show creative behavior in a given situation if they think undertaking the cre-ative endeavor makes n or if they believe their creativity competencies are sufficient to bring suc-cess(Drazin et al.,1999;Ford,1996).Ford(1996) argued that individuals continuously engage in nmaking process to decide between creative and routine behavioral options.For instance,if in-dividual team members believe that they can be creative,this belief is likely to move their n-making process toward creative behavioral op-tions.Thus,to improve their work creatively,when expod to cognitive team diversity,individuals should not only be motivated,but should also cog-nitively choo to exploit cognitive resources(Tay-lor&Greve,2006).
Self-efficacy beliefs are among the most powerful determinants of behavioral change becau they de-termine the initial decision to engage in a behavior, the effort expended,and the persistence demon-strated in the face of adversity(Bandura,1991).To predict individual creativity,an efficacy mea
sure specific to creativity is much more effective and nec-essary than a general measure of general beliefs(Gib-son,Randel,&Earley,2000).Creative lf-efficacy is defined as individuals’beliefs in their ability to pro-duce creative ideas(Tierney&Farmer,2002),and this kind of lf-efficacy has been suggested as a n-making frame(Ford,1996).
Drawing on the nmaking framework,we pro-po that creative lf-efficacy may frame individ-uals’nmaking process so that they perceive cognitive team diversity as a favorable situation facilitating creative behavior.Team members with high creative lf-efficacy may believe that they can effectively interpret and integrate different ideas and perspectives becau they are more focud on creativity tasks and less distracted by psychological anxiety(Bandura,1997).In other words,individu-als with strong creative lf-efficacy are likely to e cognitive team diversity as a valuable resource that is personally advantageous for their creative performance,so they will actively look for ways to capitalize on it.In addition,as discusd earlier, individuals with high creative lf-efficacy are more willing to engage in creative acts becau creative behavioral options make more n:they will more likely take risks in creating new things from combining different perspectives and ideas becau they feel confident of their ability to inte-grate the(Drazin et al.,1999).With boosted mo-tivation resulting from nmaking,they will want to create novel ideas from the differen
t information, knowledge,and perspectives their group has.On the other hand,individual team members with low creative lf-efficacy may doubt their abilities. With their low confidence and weak nmaking of creative behavioral options,they are unlikely to ek and integrate different ideas or engage in cre-ative behavior.They will even discount the bene-fits of team diversity.Furthermore,they may inter-pret the different ideas and information in a manner consistent with their own views(Swann, 1987),which will result in an abnce of synergy with the ideas of others.
In addition,veral studies suggest that lf-effi-cacy beliefs facilitate the integration and u of new information(Brown,Ganesan,&Challagalla,2001), as well as increa a positive learning attitude and an awareness of development needs(Noe&Wilk, 1993).With high creative lf-efficacy,individuals may regard differences in opinions and ideas as opportunities for their work,whereas with low cre-ative lf-efficacy,they may perceive the differ-
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ences as threats(Staw,Sandelands,&Dutton, 1981).To summarize,team members with high lev-els of creative lf-efficacy are more likely to man-ifest the benefits of cognitive diversity than tho with lo
w levels of creative lf-efficacy.Hence,we predict the following:
Hypothesis2.The relationship between cogni-tive team diversity and individual team member creativity is moderated by a team member’s cre-ative lf-efficacy in such a way that cognitive team diversity is more positively related to indi-vidual creativity when the team member’s cre-ative lf-efficacy is high than when it is low.
The Moderating Role of Transformational Leadership
To understand under what conditions individual team members better u the potential benefits of cognitive team diversity for their creativity,one should also contemplate team-level factors.Among the team contextual factors,leadership plays the dominant role in workplaces(Redmond et al., 1993)and has been studied as a moderator of the relationship between team diversity and team cre-ativity.Leadership may minimize the negative ,social categorization process)and maximize the positive ,providing various ideas,knowledge and perspectives)of team diversity on team creativity(Kearney&Gebert, 2009;Shin&Zhou,2007;Somech,2006).In partic-ular,transformational leadership has been sug-gested to boost team members’motivation and to encourage them to be open to different ideas and to value unique needs and perspectives(Bass,198
5; Shin&Zhou,2003).Thus,we argue that transfor-mational leadership is likely to help individuals capitalize on the cognitive resources from cognitive team diversity.
Transformational leadership behavior includes “inspirational motivation”(articulating a common compelling vision),“idealized influence”(rving as a role model to energize),intellectual stimula-tion(stimulating imagination,intellectual curios-ity,and novel approaches),and“individualized consideration”(paying attention to followers’needs and appreciating individuals’initiatives and viewpoints)(Bass,1985).Each of the behaviors may affect the relationship between cognitive di-versity and individual creativity.For example,by providing inspirational motivation,the leaders tend to decrea their team members’negative reac-tions toward and behaviors in relation to diversity (i.e.,being different)via increasing the members’awareness of team ,“we are a team”)so that the individual team members are more willing to capitalize on the wide range of ideas and perspectives coming from their cognitively diver team(van Knippenberg,1999).Moreover,the en-hanced motivation resulting from transformational leaders’idealized influence can drive the individuals to arch for the different ideas provided by the cog-nitive diversity of their team and to integrate the actively so that they may perform better in creative tasks.With exposure to different ideas,perspectives, and knowledge and with the enhanced motivation, team members are likely to exploit the advantage of cognitive resources.
Second,by intellectually stimulating their team members,transformational leaders can guide them to arch for and to be open to different ideas and perspectives(Gong,Huang,&Farh,2009).Their intellectual stimulation directs the attention of team members toward discovering new and better ideas and urges the members to explore and ex-periment with new approaches(Shin&Zhou, 2003),making them more readily appreciate and adopt one another’s different perspectives to be creative.In other words,intellectual stimulation may help them explore the cognitive resources from cognitive team diversity.In addition,the in-dividualized consideration of transformational leaders assures the team members that individual-ity and unique perspectives are valued(Bass, 1985).As such,transformational leaders motivate team members to ek creative ideas without the fear of being penalized(Kahai,Sosik,&Avolio, 2003).Conquently,the team members are less likely to fear ostracism and are more likely to feel comfortable in discussing and exploring their ideas with other members.With a high level of psycho-logical safety,team members are more likely to utilize the different ideas and perspectives of the cognitively diver team members(Edmondson, 1999).Taking the points together,we predict the following:
Hypothesis3.The relationship between cogni-tive team diversity and individual team mem-ber creativity is moderated by transformational leadership in such a way that cognitive team diversity is
more positively related to individ-ual creativity when transformational leader-ship is high than when it is low.
METHODS
Participants and Procedures
Data were collected from subordinates and their supervisors from68teams in three large organiza-tions located in the northern part of the Republic of
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