Building blocks of idea generation and implementation in teams: A Meta‐Analysis of team design and team creativity and innovation

Development and validation of a higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) scale for major students in the interior design discipline for blended learning

Assessing and cultivating students' HOTS are crucial for interior design education in a blended learning environment. However, current research has focused primarily on the impact of blended learning instructional strategies, learning tasks, and activities on the development of HOTS, whereas few studies have specifically addressed the assessment of these skills through dedicated scales in the context of blended learning. This study aimed to develop a comprehensive scale for assessing HOTS in interior design major students within the context of blended learning. Employing a mixed methods design, the research involved in-depth interviews with 10 education stakeholders to gather qualitative data, which informed the development of a 66-item soft skills assessment scale. The scale was administered to a purposive sample of 359 undergraduate students enrolled in an interior design program at a university in China. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were also conducted to evaluate the underlying factor structure of the scale. The findings revealed a robust four-factor model encompassing critical thinking skills, problem-solving skills, teamwork skills, and practical innovation skills. The scale demonstrated high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.948-0.966) and satisfactory convergent and discriminant validity. This scale provides a valuable instrument for assessing and cultivating HOTS among interior design major students in blended learning environments. Future research can utilize a scale to examine the factors influencing the development of these skills and inform instructional practices in the field.

Composition considerations for fluid teams: a review

The need exists to better understand how to comprise fluid teams-teams that are assembled on short notice, from members with little to no familiarity, who come together to carry out a time-limited task, and then disband. Due to the ever-increasing complexity of the modern workplace, the demand for these types of fluid teams is growing in task domains such as the military, aviation, healthcare, and industry. The aim of this paper is to review the team composition literature to shed light on composition considerations for forming fluid teams.

Supporting fluid teams: a research agenda

Fluid teams are teams that are rapidly assembled from across disciplines or areas of expertise to address a near-term problem. They are typically composed of individuals who have no prior familiarity with one another, who as a team must begin work immediately, and who disband at the completion of the task. Prior research has noted the challenges posed by this unique type of team context. To date, fluid teams have been understudied, yet their relevance and application in the modern workplace is expanding. This Perspective article presents a concise overview of critical research gaps and opportunities to support selection, training, and workplace design for fluid teams.

The Dynamics of Team Learning: Harmony and Rhythm in Teamwork Arrangements for Innovation

Innovation teams must navigate inherent tensions between different learning activities to produce high levels of performance. Yet, we know little about how teams combine these activities-notably reflexive, experimental, vicarious, and contextual learning-most effectively over time. In this article, we integrate research on teamwork episodes with insights from music theory to develop a new theoretical perspective on team dynamics, which explains how team activities can produce harmony, dissonance, or rhythm in teamwork arrangements that lead to either positive or negative effects on overall performance. We first tested our theory in a field study using longitudinal data from 102 innovation teams at a Fortune Global 500 company; then, we replicated and elaborated our theory in a study of 61 MBA project teams at an elite North American university. Results show that some learning activities can occur within the same teamwork episode to have harmonious positive effects on team performance, while other activities combine to have dissonant negative effects when occurring in the same episode. We argue that dissonant activities must be spread across teamwork episodes to help teams achieve a positive rhythm of team learning over time. Our findings contribute to theory on team dynamics, team learning, and ambidexterity.

A Multilevel Review of Curvilinear Effects on the Creative Work of Teams

Their positive potential often diminishes or even turns negative when antecedents of creativity are taken too far. Despite empirical evidence supporting such curvilinear effects on important outcomes of creative work at the individual and team levels, their theorizing remains rather incomplete, with more attention being paid to explaining the curves’ upward rather than downward slopes. By developing a multilevel antecedent-benefit-cost (ABC) framework that synthesizes 120 quantitative-empirical studies on curvilinear effects, this review guides creativity and innovation literature toward conceptual clarity and methodological precision across levels. This is important because the cost-related mechanisms of certain antecedents are still not well understood.