Size, Functional Heterogeneity, and Teamwork Quality Predict Team Creativity and Innovation (original) (raw)

Size, Functional Heterogeneity, and Teamwork Quality Predict Team Creativity and Innovation

Team size, heterogeneity, and an aggregate measure of teamwork quality predicted the effectiveness of organizational problem solving teams in generating ideas and obtaining the acceptance of management for these ideas. The results of regression analyses revealed that large teams generated more total and implemented ideas than smaller teams. In addition to more total and implemented ideas, teams with higher functional heterogeneity and teamwork quality generated more total and implemented ideas per member. Team size also moderated the effects of self-reported teamwork quality such that larger teams showed a stronger positive relation of teamwork quality with total and implemented ideas than smaller teams. Management evaluations of the teams were unrelated to size, functional heterogeneity, and teamwork quality. The findings support the treatment of team size as an important predictor of effectiveness rather than relegating it to the status of a mere control variable. Also, the results support previous observations that subjective judgments of team effectiveness are not equivalent to objective measures and that researchers should use multiple criteria of team success. Finally, rather than relying on concurrent, cross-sectional designs, research is needed that uses predictive models to assess how well team characteristics forecast effectiveness.