Shifting focus: The influence of affective diversity on team creativity

The Creative and Cross-Functional Benefits of Wearing Hearts on Sleeves: Authentic Affect Climate, Information Elaboration, and Team Creativity

Team creative processes of generating and elaborating ideas tend to be laden with emotional expressions and communication. Yet, there is a noticeable lack of theory on how differences in teams’ management and support of affect expressions influence their ability to produce creative outcomes. We investigate why and when team authentic affect climates, which encourage members to share and respond to authentic affect, generate greater creativity compared with more constrained affect climates where members suppress or hide their genuine feelings. We propose that authentic affect climate enhances team creativity through greater information elaboration by the team and that these informational and creative benefits are more likely in functionally diverse teams. Results from three complementary studies—one multisource field study of management teams and two experiments—provide support for our predictions. In our experiments, we also examine the theorized affective mechanisms and find that authentic affect climate increases information elaboration and creativity through members’ affect expressions (Study 2) and empathic responses to each other’s expressed affect (Studies 2 and 3). We discuss the implications of our findings for the team creativity, diversity, and affect literatures.

Top Management Team Knowledge Hiding and Enterprise Innovation Performance: A Moderated Mediation Model

Top management team (TMT) knowledge hiding, which is not only related to the normal operation of the team but also closely related to enterprise innovation performance, has been paid little attention to in the previous studies. Based on the theories of upper echelons, knowledge management, and innovation, this study proposed a moderated mediation model to research how TMT knowledge hiding affected enterprise innovation performance. In this model, TMT knowledge hiding was the independent variable, TMT creativity was the mediating variable, enterprise innovation performance was the dependent variable, and team competitive climate was the moderating variable. MPLUS7.0 was used for the CFAs to evaluate the discriminate validities of the key variables, and SPSS 22.0 was used to calculate the descriptive statistics, analyze the correlations between variables, make the multiple regression analysis, and process the data obtained from 612 executives in 53 TMTs. The results showed that TMT knowledge hiding had a significant negative impact on enterprise innovation performance; TMT creativity had a partial mediating effect between TMT knowledge hiding and enterprise innovation performance, and team competitive climate had a moderating effect on the relationship between TMT knowledge hiding and TMT creativity. These research results fill up the gap of the theoretical research in TMT knowledge hiding and provide scientific guidance to reasonably reduce or eliminate the phenomenon of TMT knowledge hiding and improve enterprise innovation performance.

Creativity in an Affective Context

Abstract. Everyday life often requires considerable creativity in dealing with challenging circumstances. This implies that creativity regularly operates in an affective context, however, this “C” of creativity is rarely addressed in contemporary research. In this brief review article, we address some important milestones in this nascent field of research. Starting with early accounts on emotional creativity, we discuss seminal research intertwining creativity and mood states, and finally introduce two recent developments in this field: reappraisal inventiveness as the capacity to generate manifold cognitive reappraisals for aversive situations, and malevolent creativity as creative ideation intentionally used to damage others. We discuss the conceptual origins of reappraisal inventiveness and malevolent creativity and provide an extensive review of past behavioral and neuroscientific findings regarding these differently motivated instances of affective creativity. Additionally, novel pilot findings and prospects on both lines of research will be provided, which may help to advance investigations into more real-world applications of creative cognition.

Team Composition Revisited: A Team Member Attribute Alignment Approach

Research methods for studying team composition tend to employ either a variable-centered or person-centered approach. The variable-centered approach allows scholars to consider how patterns of attributes between team members influence teams, while the person-centered approach allows scholars to consider how variation in multiple attributes within team members influences subgroup formation and its effects. Team composition theory, however, is becoming increasingly sophisticated, assuming variation on multiple attributes both within and between team members—for example, in predicting how a team functions differently when its most assertive members are also optimistic rather than pessimistic. To support this new theory, we propose an attribute alignment approach, which complements the variable-centered and person-centered approaches by modeling teams as matrices of their members and their members’ attributes. We first demonstrate how to calculate attribute alignment by determining the vector norm and vector angle between team members’ attributes. Then, we demonstrate how the alignment of team member personality attributes (neuroticism and agreeableness) affects team relationship conflict. Finally, we discuss the potential of using the attribute alignment approach to enrich broader team research.

Is Negative Group Affective Tone Always Bad For Team Creativity? Team Trait Learning Goal Orientation as the Boundary Condition

Although previous studies have found that positive group affective tone is generally good for team creativity, the reported effects of negative group affective tone (NGAT) are mixed. Drawing on the team goal orientation composition literature, we propose that team trait learning goal orientation (TTLGO; aggregated level of team members’ trait learning goal orientation) will moderate the relationship between NGAT and team creativity. Specifically, NGAT will be positively related to team creativity when TTLGO is high but becomes negative when TTLGO is low. We further theorize that team information exchange accounts for this moderating effect. Employing a multiple-source and time-lag design, we conducted two studies to test the hypotheses. In Study 1, we collected data from 270 information technology engineers working in 62 R&D teams in a software development company and examined the moderating effect of TTLGO on the NGAT-team creativity relationship. In Study 2, we replicated the findings of Study 1 and further tested the mediating role of team information exchange (i.e., Hypothesis 2) using data from 237 members of 43 diversified teams (e.g., R&D, advertising and marketing, technical services, and quality improvement). The results of these two studies support our hypotheses. Theoretical and practical implications for group affect and creativity literature are further discussed.

The nexus between diversity management (DM) and organizational performance (OP): mediating role of cognitive and affective diversity

Purpose

Present day organizations are considering workforce diversity as one of the main challenges in the human resource management. This study aims to find out the relationship between diversity management (DM) in the context of strategic human resource management (SHRM) and organizational performance (OP). An attempt is made to find out the mediation effect of cognitive diversity (CD) and affective diversity (AD) in the relationship between DM and OP.

Design/methodology/approach

The constructs investigated in the present study include DM, OP, CD and AD. Structural equation modeling has been used to test the model fit. The data was collected from 50 human resource professionals working in different organizations in the information technology (IT) sector in Bangalore, India. Confirmatory factor analysis has been used for establishing the reliability.

Findings

The results show that there exists a significant relationship between DM and OP. This significant positive relationship can be attributed to the mediating role of CD and significant negative relationship is because of the AD.

Research limitations/implications

This study has several limitations. In this study, only three DM practices have been considered. The generalization of the results is another limitation as the study has been conducted in the IT sector in Bangalore, India. Similarly, sample size also affects the implications of an empirical study and sample size in this study is small. This study has investigated only the impact of two aspects of diversity, cognitive and affective, while neglecting the effect of communicational and symbolic processes.

Practical implications

The results indicate that organizations must consider that by providing intercultural trainings (ICTs), work–life balance (WLB) and work-time flexibility options, the negative aspects of diversity can be minimized. Moreover, organizations should encourage the task conflict which leads to better decision-making as well as creates a sense of group identification, which may help in the avoidance of negative consequences of AD.

Originality/value

This study is undertaken to find out the effect of certain diversity-oriented SHRM practices such as flexible working times, WLB, ICT and its impact on the OP in the Indian IT industry. This study has investigated the mediating role of CD and AD on the relationship between diversity-oriented SHRM practices and OP, which is the novelty of this study. Third, the study has been undertaken considering that there is a dearth of research on the impact of AD and CD on OP in the Indian context.

PENGLIBATAN PELAJAR UNIVERSITI DALAM MEMBANGUNKAN KEMAHIRAN PEMIKIRAN KREATIF MELALUI AKTIVITI KERJA BERPASUKAN (University Students’ Involvement in Developing Creative Thinking Skills through Teamwork Activities)

Pemikiran kreatif ialah nilai tambah yang ‘wajib’ ada dalam diri pelajar-pelajar Institusi Pengajian Tinggi (IPT) dalam menyumbang kepada pembangunan negara yang berinovatif. Pembentukan individu yang mempunyai kemahiran berfikir secara kreatif harus dimulakan seawal pendidikan pra-sekolah dan terus digilap di peringkat universiti. Hampir kesemua IPT di Malaysia telah menjurus kepada membangunkan kemahiran pemikiran kreatif pelajar dalam struktur pembelajaran dan pengajaran melalui kerja berpasukan. Namun demikian, masih kurang kajian yang menguji pengaruh komposisi kerja berpasukan secara spesifik, iaitu personaliti proaktif dan kecerdasan emosi ahli pasukan ke atas pembangunan pemikiran kreatif pelajar. Kajian lepas mendapati bahawa tidak semua kerja berpasukan mampu menghasilkan hasil yang hebat disebabkan kurangnya keserasian antara ahli pasukan. Oleh itu, pasukan yang hebat bukan sahaja perlu memilih ahli yang terbaik tetapi mereka perlu mempunyai komposisi ahli yang sama-sama dapat membangunkan tahap pemikiran kreatif yang tinggi. Setiap ahli pasukan perlu melibatkan diri dalam proses kreatif yang membantu membangunkan kemahiran pemikiran kreatif. Proses ini merangkumi beberapa langkah iaitu mengenal pasti masalah, mencari maklumat dan mengekodkan dan menjana idea dan alternatif dalam penyelesaian masalah. Tujuan kajian ini adalah untuk menguji hubungan antara karakteristik individu dalam komposisi pasukan dan proses kreatif serta menguji sejauh mana proses kreatif dapat membangunkan kemahiran pemikiran kreatif pelajar dalam kerja berpasukan. Sampel kajian ini ialah pelajar daripada enam buah IPT di Malaysia di mana 250 borang kaji selidik (40-50 bagi setiap IPT) telah diedarkan secara atastalian dan data diuji menggunakan perisian SPSS (versi 22). Hasil kajian daripada 242 maklumbalas menunjukkan bahawa personaliti proaktif dan kecerdasan emosi pelajar mempunyai hubungan yang positif dan signifikan dengan penglibatan pelajar dalam proses kreatif. Seterusnya, proses kreatif mempunyai hubungan yang positif dan signifikan dengan pembangunan kemahiran pemikiran kreatif pelajar. Abstract Creative thinking is a compulsory added value within students of Malaysian Higher Education Institutions (MHEIs) in contributing to the innovative national development. The development of an individual who has creative thinking skills must begin as early as pre-school education and continue to be practised at the tertiary level. Almost all MHEIs have focused on the development of creative thinking skill among students in the teaching and learning structure through teamwork. Nonetheless, studies that specifically test the influence of teamwork composition, namely proactive personality and emotional intelligence of team members on the development of students’ creative thinking are rather scarce. Previous studies found that not all teamwork is able to produce great outcome due to the fact that there is no chemistry among team members. Thus, great teams not only have to choose the best members but they also need to have a composition of members that can collectively develop high level of creative thinking skills . Every team member must take part in the creative process that facilitates the development of creative thinking skills. This process encompasses several steps of activities namely identifying problems, finding information, coding and generating ideas and alternatives in problem-solving. The purpose of this study is to test the relationship between individual characteristics in team composition and creative process as well as to the extent of which the creative process can develop students’ creative thinking skills in teamwork. The study sample comprises 250 students from six Malaysian HEIs (40-50 questionnaires per HEI) with the questionnaires distributed online. The data from 242 respondents were tested using SPSS software (version 22). The findings of the study reveal that there was a positive and significant relationship between the proactive personality and emotional intelligence of the students and the students’ involvement in the creativity process. There was also a positive and significant relationship between the creativity process and the development of creative thinking skills. Keywords: Proactive personality, emotional intelligence, creative process, creative thinking skills, Malaysian higher education institutions, student.