Individual creativity, job-related diversity and team creativity : the role of team communication

Abstract

This study aims to extend the team creativity literature by investigating team members’ average individual creativity, as well as job-related diversity, as the antecedents of team creativity; and by examining the moderating role of team communication (in terms of centralization and frequency) in the relationship between the proposed antecedents and team creativity. This study uses samples of teams that conducting creativity related jobs from Multinational Companies (MNC) in Mainland China to examine the hypotheses. Surveys were done at team level. Data regarding different constructs were collected from different sources, i.e. team leader and team members, separately. Ordinary Least Squares regression models were used to test the moderating effects. A total number of 33 team provided usable data for the study. The result from the data supported the hypothesized relationship between team members’ average individual creativity, team creativity, and team communication centralization and frequency. These findings are expected to have implications for team leaders and HR practitioners regarding how to facilitate the team communication so as to leverage the team composition to achieve better team creativity