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The Effect of Functional Diversity on Team Creativity: Behavioral and fNIRS Evidence
Abstract
Variation in functional expertise is an important decision that managers face when designing teams tasked with being creative. We develop theory that predicts that functional diversity has countervailing effects on team creativity through its positive (negative) effect on the uniqueness (usefulness) of the proposals generated. We conduct an experiment where functionally homogeneous or heterogeneous two-person teams are tasked with proposing a creative use for an unused university space. We measure the uniqueness, usefulness, and overall creativity of team proposals. We also use functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) neuroimaging technology to investigate the underlying team cognitive processes. Measured outcomes and fNIRS data support our predictions. Combining conventional experiment and advanced neuroimaging techniques, our study informs theory and practice by providing evidence of how functional diversity affects team creativity.
This paper was accepted by Suraj Srinivasan, accounting.
Funding: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NA) [Grant 72172132] and CPA Ontario’s Centre for Sustainability Reporting and Performance Management (NA).
Supplemental Material: The online supplemental appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.02157 .
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Scientific interest in the relationship between analytic processing and creativity has increased in recent years. However, there is conflicting evidence on whether analytic processing reduces or enhances creativity. We hypothesize that differences in creativity measurement paradigms (divergent or convergent thinking tasks) and the research orientation of analytic processing (dispositional or situational) may explain the conflicting findings. The present study aims to investigate how priming analytic processing affects individuals’ performance on divergent and convergent thinking tasks and the moderating role of thinking styles. In Study 1 (N = 155), participants were assigned to either an analytic processing group or a control group and performed convergent thinking (Remote Associates Task) and divergent thinking (Alternative Uses Test) tasks after priming. In Study 2 (N = 119), we conducted a priming paradigm of analytic processing that differed from Study 1, and a personal experiential-rational thinking style was introduced as a moderator. Results showed that priming analytic processing promoted convergent thinking performance but decreased fluency and flexibility scores on the divergent thinking task (Study 1). Notably, the effect of priming analytic processing on divergent thinking performance was significant only for participants with higher levels of rational thinking style (Study 2). These results suggest that thinking styles and dimensions of creativity should be considered in the relationship between analytic processing and creativity.
Educational diversity is defined as the diversity of educational backgrounds measured by multiple subjects. This study aimed to unveil the interpersonal neural correlates that underlie the effect of group educational diversity on group creativity. One hundred and sixteen college students were assigned to high educational diversity (HD; the members respectively majored in science or social science) or low educational diversity (LD; the members both majored in either science or social science) groups based on their academic majors. They were required to solve two problems that either demanded creativity (alternative uses task, AUT) or not (object characteristics task). We used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-based hyperscanning to simultaneously record the neural responses of pairs of interacting participants in each group. The LD group showed more AUT fluency and perspective-taking behaviours than the HD group, whereas no group difference was observed for AUT uniqueness. Additionally, collective flexibility was higher in the HD group than in the LD group. The fNIRS results showed that the interpersonal brain synchronisation (IBS) increments at the right angular gyrus and right primary somatosensory cortex were greater in the LD group than in the HD group. These findings indicate that although high educational diversity benefits cognitive flexibility, it does not necessarily lead to a better idea quality or greater idea quantity. The greater IBS increments and perspective-taking behaviours that we observed in the LD group may account for this.
Significance: Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has been widely used to probe human brain function during task state and resting state. However, the existing analysis toolboxes mainly focus on task activation analysis, few software packages can assist resting-state fNIRS studies.
Aim: We aimed to provide a versatile and easy-to-use toolbox to perform analysis for both resting state and task fNIRS.
Approach: We developed a MATLAB toolbox called NIRS-KIT that works for both resting-state analysis and task activation detection.
Results: NIRS-KIT implements common and necessary processing steps for performing fNIRS data analysis, including data preparation, quality control, preprocessing, individual-level analysis, group-level statistics with several popular statistical models, and multiple comparison correction methods, and finally results visualization. For resting-state fNIRS analysis, functional connectivity analysis, graph theory-based network analysis, and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations analysis are provided. Additionally, NIRS-KIT also supports activation analysis for task fNIRS.
Conclusions: NIRS-KIT offers an open source tool for researchers to analyze resting-state and/or task fNIRS data in one suite. It contains several key features: (1) good compatibility, supporting multiple fNIRS recording systems, data formats of NIRS-SPM and Homer2, and the shared near-infrared spectroscopy format data format recommended by the fNIRS society; (2) flexibility, supporting customized preprocessing scripts; (3) ease-to-use, allowing processing fNIRS signals in batch manner with user-friendly graphical user interfaces; and (4) feature-packed data viewing and result visualization. We anticipate that this NIRS-KIT will facilitate the development of the fNIRS field.
Creative cognition is recognized to involve the integration of multiple spontaneous cognitive processes and is manifested as complex networks within and between the distributed brain regions. We propose that the processing of creative cognition involves the static and dynamic re-configuration of brain networks associated with complex cognitive processes. We applied the sliding-window approach followed by a community detection algorithm and novel measures of network flexibility on the blood-oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal of 8 major functional brain networks to reveal static and dynamic alterations in the network reconfiguration during creative cognition using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Our results demonstrate the temporal connectivity of the dynamic large-scale creative networks between default mode network (DMN), salience network, and cerebellar network during creative cognition, and advance our understanding of the network neuroscience of creative cognition.
Insights and technologies from neuroscience research can help accounting scholars more deeply understand how decision-makers physically and cognitively process and react to accounting information and controls. We conduct a systematic review of accounting literature to evaluate whether and how accounting scholars are incorporating neuroscience research into their work and building a field of ‘neuroaccounting.’ To do so, we identify literature that relates accounting research questions to neuroscience research, addresses accounting questions or tasks but has implications for neuroscience or neuroaccounting research, or investigates accounting questions using neuroscience technologies. We then classify that literature into two broad topic areas analogous to the decision-facilitating (how individuals process information) and decision-influencing (how individuals respond to controls) roles of accounting, and map relationships within each topic over time. We observe that literature in accounting is coalescing into a new field, neuroaccounting, in ways that mirror the pattern of development of a similar field, neuroeconomics – indicating that neuroaccounting is indeed taking a place on the stage of behav-ioral accounting research. Our review provides a framework for future research at the nexus of neuroscience and accounting that provides unique insights into the ‘black box’ of cognitive processing in accounting contexts.
Keywords: Neuroscience, neuroaccounting, neuroeconomics, literature review, reporting, control
Despite decades of research in economics and psychology attempting to identify ingredients that make up successful teams, neuroscientists have only just begun to study how multiple brains interact. Recent research has shown that people's brain activity becomes synchronized with others' (inter-brain synchrony) during social engagement. However, little is known as to whether inter-brain synchrony relates to collective behavior within teams. Here, we merge the nascent field of group neuroscience with the extant literature of team dynamics and collective performance. We recruited 174 participants in groups of 4 and randomly assigned them to complete a series of problem-solving tasks either independently or as a team, while simultaneously recording each person's brain activity using an EEG hyperscanning setup. This design allowed us to examine the relationship between group identification and inter-brain synchrony in explaining collective performance. As expected, teammates identified more strongly with one another, cooperated more on an economic game, and outperformed the average individual on most problem-solving tasks. Crucially, inter-brain synchrony, but not self-reported group identification, predicted collective performance among teams. These results suggest that inter-brain synchrony can be informative in understanding collective performance among teams where self-report measures may fail to capture behavior.
This study aimed to examine how communication modes affect creative idea generation in groups. Three communication mode conditions were created: natural (N), turn-taking (T), and electronic brainstorming (E). Participants were randomly recruited and grouped in dyads to solve one alternative uses task (AUT) in each condition, during which functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-based hyperscanning was used to record interpersonal neural responses. No difference was observed in AUT fluency across the three conditions, but AUT uniqueness was higher in the T condition than in the E condition. In addition, AUT uniqueness, AUT fluency, and perspective-taking behaviours increased faster in the T condition than in the other conditions. The T condition also showed higher perspective-taking behaviours than did the other conditions. Moreover, fNIRS data showed higher interpersonal brain synchronisation (IBS) increments at the right angular gyrus in the T condition than in the other conditions, which positively predicted perspective-taking behaviours between individuals during group creativity tasks. These findings indicate that when group members create together while taking turns, both creative performance and interpersonal interaction processes can be stimulated.
Social interactions are a crucial part of human life. Understanding the neural underpinnings of social interactions is a challenging task that the hyperscanning method has been trying to tackle over the last two decades. Here, we review the existing literature and evaluate the current state of the hyperscanning method. We review the type of methods (fMRI, M/EEG, and fNIRS) that are used to measure brain activity from more than one participant simultaneously and weigh their pros and cons for hyperscanning. Further, we discuss different types of analyses that are used to estimate brain networks and synchronization. Lastly, we present results of hyperscanning studies in the context of different cognitive functions and their relations to social interactions. All in all, we aim to comprehensively present methods, analyses, and results from the last 20 years of hyperscanning research.
Social interaction plays an essential role in acquiring knowledge and developing our own personalities in our daily life. Meanwhile, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)-, electroencephalograph (EEG)-, and functional near inferred spectroscopy (fNIRS)-hyperscanning, enables us to concurrently map brain activation from two or more participants who are engaged in social interaction simultaneously. In this review, we first highlight the recent technologies advances and the most significant findings towards social interaction by using the hyperscanning method. In addition, we also illustrate several well-designed hyperscanning tasks that have been extensively adopted for the study of social interaction.
Basically, hyperscanning contains six categories of experimental paradigms that can track the interactive neural process of interest. Furthermore, it contains two main elucidated neural systems which are involved in social interaction, including the mirror neuron system (MNS) and mentalizing system (MS). Finally, future research directions and clinical implications that are associated with hyperscanning are also highlighted and discussed.
The neural mechanism for selectively tuning in to a target speaker while tuning out the others in a multi-speaker situation (i.e., the cocktail-party effect) remains elusive. Here we addressed this issue by measuring brain activity simultaneously from a listener and from multiple speakers while they were involved in naturalistic conversations. Results consistently show selectively enhanced interpersonal neural synchronization (INS) between the listener and the attended speaker at left temporal-parietal junction, compared with that between the listener and the unattended speaker across different multi-speaker situations. Moreover, INS increases significantly prior to the occurrence of verbal responses, and even when the listener's brain activity precedes that of the speaker. The INS increase is independent of brain-to-speech synchronization in both the anatomical location and frequency range. These findings suggest that INS underlies the selective process in a multi-speaker situation through neural predictions at the content level but not the sensory level of speech.
Although blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a widely available, non-invasive technique that offers excellent spatial resolution, it remains limited by practical constraints imposed by the scanner environment. More recently, functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has emerged as an alternative hemodynamic-based approach that possesses a number of strengths where fMRI is limited, most notably in portability and higher tolerance for motion. To date, fNIRS has shown promise in its ability to shed light on the functioning of the human brain in populations and contexts previously inaccessible to fMRI. Notable contributions include infant neuroimaging studies and studies examining full-body behaviors, such as exercise. However, much like fMRI, fNIRS has technical constraints that have limited its application to clinical settings, including a lower spatial resolution and limited depth of recording. Thus, by combining fMRI and fNIRS in such a way that the two methods complement each other, a multimodal imaging approach may allow for more complex research paradigms than is feasible with either technique alone. In light of these issues, the purpose of the current review is to: (1) provide an overview of fMRI and fNIRS and their associated strengths and limitations; (2) review existing combined fMRI-fNIRS recording studies; and (3) discuss how their combined use in future research practices may aid in advancing modern investigations of human brain function.
Cross-boundary teaming, within and across organizations, is an increasingly popular strategy for innovation. Knowledge diversity is seen to expand the range of views and ideas that teams can draw upon to innovate. Yet, case studies reveal that teaming across knowledge boundaries can be difficult in practice, and innovation is not always realized. Two streams of research are particularly relevant for understanding the challenges inherent in cross-boundary teaming: research on team effectiveness and research on knowledge in organizations. They offer complementary insights: the former stream focuses on group dynamics and measures team inputs, processes, emergent states, and outcomes, while the latter closely investigates dialog and objects in recurrent social practices. Drawing from both streams, this paper seeks to shed light on the complexity of cross-boundary teaming, while highlighting factors that may enhance its effectiveness. We develop an integrative model to provide greater explanatory power than previous approaches to assess cross-boundary teaming efforts and their innovation performance.
Brain-based insight is a key research approach to uncovering the nature of creative insight. Recent studies have revealed that the temporal lobe, a cortical region thought to be in charge of episodic and semantic memory, is involved in insight. In contrast to most previous studies on insight, which have mainly focused on the frontal or prefrontal function for mental set and executive control, the present work summarizes and emphasizes the temporal function for novel association and mental representation, which could be equally if not more important for insight research. This work examines the contributions of discrete temporal regions, including the medial temporal lobe, consisting of the hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus (MTG), fusiform gyrus, and superior temporal gyrus (STG), to creative insight. Activity in the medial temporal regions is indicative of novelty recognition and detection, which are necessary for the formation of novel associations and the “Aha!” experience. The fusiform gyrus mainly affects the formation of gestalt-like representation and perspective taking. The anterior and posterior parts of the MTG are individually associated with extensive semantic processing and inhibiting salient or routine word associations, which are necessary to form non-salient, novel and remote associations. The anterior and posterior parts of the STG are individually responsible for integrating/binding and accessing various types of available conceptual representations. Based on current knowledge on insight, an integrated model of the temporal lobe’s role in insight and some constructive directions for future research are proposed.
Research of interpersonal neural synchronization (INS) using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning is an expanding nascent field. This field still requires the accumulation of findings and establishment of analytic standards. In this study, we therefore intend to extend fNIRS-based INS research in three directions: (1) verifying the enhancement of frontopolar INS by natural and unstructured verbal communication involving more than two individuals; (2) examining timescale dependence of the INS modulation; and (3) evaluating the effects of artifact reduction methods in capturing INS. We conducted an fNIRS hyperscanning study while 12 groups of four subjects were engaged in cooperative verbal communication. Corresponding to the three objectives, our analyses of the data (1) confirmed communication-enhanced frontopolar INS, as expected from the region's roles in social communication; (2) revealed the timescale dependency in the INS modulation, suggesting the merit of evaluating INS in fine timescale bins; and (3) determined that removal of the skin blood flow component engenders substantial improvement in sensitivity to communication-enhanced INS and segregation from artifactual synchronization, and that caution for artifact reduction preprocessing is needed to avoid excessive removal of the neural fluctuation component. Accordingly, this study provides a prospective technical basis for future hyperscanning studies during daily communicative activities.
This chapter develops a dynamic model of how a work group's actual creativity may be affected by its composition and by how its early interactions unfold as members develop ways of working together in order to perform their assigned tasks. The chapter is organized into five sections. The first section presents a perspective on creativity in work groups. It then discusses different forms of diversity relevant to creativity. The third section develops a conceptual model of how diversity might affect a work group's early functioning; it focuses on how diversity may influence members' affective reactions to one another as well as the cognitive processes they use. The fourth section shows how these early interactions combine with variables - such as performance feedback and a group's self-monitoring activities - to affect a work group's subsequent interactions and its creative performance. The discussion targets work groups in organizational settings that have fairly stable membership, or at least have a core set of members who remain with a group for multiple phases of its work life. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of the dynamic process model for future research on work group creativity.
Creativity and Innovation in Organizational Teams stemmed from a conference held at the Kellogg School of Management in June 2003 covering creativity and innovation in groups and organizations. Each chapter of the book is written by an expert and covers original theory about creative processes in organizations. The organization of the text reflects a longstanding notion that creativity in the world of work is a joint outcome of three interdependent forces--individual thinking, group processes, and organizational environment.
Part I explores basic cognitive mechanisms that underlie creative thinking, and includes chapters that discuss cognitive foundations of creativity, a cognitive network model of creativity that explains how and why creative solutions form in the human mind, and imports a ground-breaking concept of "creativity templates" to the study of creative idea generation in negotiation context. The second part is devoted to understanding how groups and teams in organizational settings produce creative ideas and implement innovations. Finally, Part III contains three chapters that discuss the role of social, organizational context in which creative endeavors take place.
The book has a strong international mix of scholarship and includes clear business implications based on scientific research. It weds the disciplines of psychology, cognition, and business theory into one text.
It is a central assumption in creativity theory that the creativity of an idea is defined by its novelty and usefulness. The present study examined this notion by investigating how the perceived novelty and usefulness actually contribute to the overall evaluation of creativity. We collected responses to a verbal and a figural divergent thinking task in a sample of 1,500 participants. All ideas were evaluated for novelty, usefulness, or creativity by a total of 18 independent judges. Results generally indicate a greater importance of novelty than usefulness in the prediction of creativity scores. Novelty and usefulness interacted significantly in the prediction of creativity both as a linear and as a nonlinear term. An examination of the interaction between novelty and usefulness suggests that usefulness is predictive of creativity only within highly novel ideas. In conclusion, novelty can be regarded as a first-order criterion and usefulness as a second-order criterion of creativity: If an idea is not novel its usefulness does not matter much, but if an idea is novel its usefulness will additionally determine its actual creativity.
The present study focused on innovation of teams, examining the contributions of team interaction processes (exchanging information, learning, motivating, and negotiating) and structures (functional heterogeneity and frequency of meetings) to innovation. Specifically, it was hypothesized that (a) team structures will be positively related to team innovation, (b) team heterogeneity will be positively related to team interaction processes, (c) team interaction processes will be positively related to team innovation, and (d) team interaction processes will mediate the relationship between team heterogeneity and team innovation. Results from a sample of 48 intact teams in elementary and secondary schools supported the main hypotheses. These results imply that the development of mutual interaction processes is a crucial mechanism for translating team heterogeneity into innovation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The present study addressed the issue of teams in schools and the ways in which they contribute to school effectiveness. Specifically, the present research suggested an input (frequency of meetings and functional heterogeneity)-process (interaction processes of exchanging information, learning, motivating, and negotiating)-outcome (team performance and innovation) model for predicting school effectiveness. Two hundred twenty-four school teams (including team coordinators, team members, and school principals) were surveyed. The results indicated that, regarding team innovation, frequency of meetings and functional heterogeneity were positively associated with the 4 interaction processes, which in turn fostered team innovation. However, regarding team performance, the results indicated that only frequency of meetings was positively associated with the interaction process of exchanging information, which in turn enhanced team performance. The findings serve to draw important theoretical and practical conclusions as to the best ways to structure schools and to improve their interaction processes for the enhancement of team performance and team innovation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a research framework that identifies crucial leadership capabilities pertaining to the different lifecycle stages of a virtual team (VT). More specifically, the framework seeks to identify and explain the role of social, cognitive, and behavioral capabilities as important determinants of effective VT leadership and success.
Design/methodology/approach
This article provides an overview of literature on VT leadership, categorizes leadership capabilities, and relates the capabilities to various stages of VT life‐cycle. A research analysis is undertaken to depict the proposed relationships.
Findings
The propositions demonstrate that for effective VT leadership to happen it is important to understand the specific set of capabilities that contributes to successful management of a particular VT stage.
Social implications
VT leaders' application of appropriate capabilities may result in the development of greater levels of tolerance toward cultural, temporal and geographic diversity that exists among VT members and leaders. Such tolerance may actually help improve worker satisfaction, cohesiveness among team members, and promote better work‐life balance – outcomes that are beneficial to society. In addition, more effective and successful VT leadership will lead to better VT performance and organizational success – suggesting positive social impact.
Originality/value
Research relating to VT leadership has been limited. With the usage of VTs predicted to gain more importance in the future there is a greater need to understand how specific leadership capabilities contribute to the successful management and development of VTs. This study fills the void in the extant literature by exploring the specific leadership capabilities and by analyzing their relative influence and relationships with VT lifecycle stages.
The present research used a qualitative methodology to examine the criteria that judges employed in assessing creative products elicited by two science tasks. Forty-eight responses were produced by sixth grade students and were then assessed by three groups of judges with different levels of expertise. Verbal protocol and interviews were conducted to collect data and framing analysis was used to analyze data. Overall, judges employed appropriateness, novelty, thoughtfulness, interestingness, and cleverness as their assessment criteria. Each criterion included several interpretations and the criteria were related to each other. Moreover, three judge groups differed in their use of criteria and the criteria also varied by task.
A central feature of most organizations is the use of measures to represent key elements of performance across multiple strategic objectives. Prior research demonstrates a tendency for individuals to treat these measures as though they are the higher order strategic objectives the measures were intended to represent as opposed to imperfect representations of those strategic objectives—a phenomenon labeled “surrogation.” We employ an experiment to further understand this phenomenon. In this study, we capture neural activation when processing measures and when processing strategic objectives. We find that, in regions of the brain with greater (less) activation for concrete versus abstract words, brain activation is greater (less) when processing measure phrases versus when processing strategy phrases. We further find evidence that greater brain activity and longer response times are associated with less surrogation. This affirms the notion that increased cognitive involvement can reduce surrogation.
This paper was accepted by Ranjani Krishnan, accounting.
Funding: This work was supported by Auburn University, Brigham Young University, Utah Valley University, and an IMA Research Foundation grant from the Institute of Management Accountants.
Supplemental Material: The data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.01405 .
Toward the goal of reconciling conflicting arguments on whether performance-based incentives facilitate or impede divergent thinking, we identify a feature common to prior demonstrations of negative incentive effects: they generally involve tasks with only one correct solution. Our first experiment replicates a negative incentive effect when insight problems require “bottom-up” divergent thinking from an unexpected resource to the problem it is uniquely equipped to solve, whereas our second experiment finds a positive incentive effect in the more general case of problems that enable “top-down” divergent thinking from a problem to multiple potential solutions. We also observe a positive incentive effect in a third experiment that measures the time needed to generate a solution to problems that have multiple potential solutions and in a fourth experiment in which participants design insight problems. Overall, our findings suggest that any harmful effects of performance-based incentives are likely restricted to highly constrained settings.
Data Availability: Data are available from the authors upon request.
JEL Classifications: J33; M14; M41; M52.
We use plain English, figures, and simple math to explain how to use path analysis to test for mediation and moderation. Many theories in accounting research can be conceptualized as mediated, moderated, or moderated mediation models to investigate both simple and complex hypothesized relationships. Analyses using these models capture the dependent nature of an entire set of relationships rather than attempting to make piecemeal inferences from a series of individual regressions that may not be as revealing and may even yield misleading inferences. We introduce tools that help build theory, reduce the number of inferential tests that are relied on, and use bootstrapping for inferential tests of moderated mediation that do not rely on distributional assumptions. We provide two examples from published research to illustrate and apply these concepts. Tools for analysis include PROCESS (Hayes 2020) and structural equation modeling (SEM).
JEL Classifications: C12; C18; C87; C90; M41; M42; M49.
In today's complex business world, the diversities within organizations, within teams, and of individual employees have emerged as a source of competitive advantage that can enhance creativity at multiple levels of analysis. However, the relationship between diversity and creativity at and across the individual, team, and organizational levels remains a topic of debate, despite ongoing scholarly interest. In this article, we address this debate by conducting a comprehensive multilevel review of 119 empirical studies that explores the effects of diversity on creativity. To structure this body of literature, we review studies based on their levels of analysis as well as the degrees of job‐relatedness and the observability of diversity attributes they investigate. This approach helps to enable the discussion of the differential effects that numerous diversity attributes can have on creativity at the individual, team, and organizational levels, thus uncovering promising avenues for future research. Our multilevel perspective particularly points toward the heightened need for more cross‐level and dynamic research designs and for extending conceptual ideas well known at one level of analysis to phenomena less understood at other levels of analysis. These approaches should improve the understanding of the complex, and therefore still puzzling, role of diversity for creativity.
Creative Cognition combines original experiments with existing work in cognitive psychology to provide the first explicit account of the cognitive processes and structures that contribute to creative thinking and discovery.
Creative Cognition combines original experiments with existing work in cognitive psychology to provide the first explicit account of the cognitive processes and structures that contribute to creative thinking and discovery.
In separate chapters, the authors take up visualization, concept formation, categorization, memory retrieval, and problem solving. They describe novel experimental methods for studying creative cognitive processes under controlled laboratory conditions, along with techniques that can be used to generate many different types of inventions and concepts. Unlike traditional approaches, Creative Cognition considers creativity as a product of numerous cognitive processes, each of which helps to set the stage for insight and discovery. It identifies many of these processes as well as general principles of creative cognition that can be applied across a variety of different domains, with examples in artificial intelligence, engineering design, product development, architecture, education, and the visual arts.
Following a summary of previous approaches to creativity, the authors present a theoretical model of the creative process. They review research involving an innovative imagery recombination technique, developed by Finke, that clearly demonstrates that creative inventions can be induced in the laboratory. They then describe experiments in category learning that support the provocative claim that the factors constraining category formation similarly constrain imagination and illustrate the role of various memory processes and other strategies in creative problem solving.
Bradford Books imprint
This study investigates whether the benefit firms can extract from team member communication to the team manager—who may use such information for rewarding individual team members—is affected by differences in the type of mutual monitoring information available to team members. We predict and find that team performance is higher when team members can observe only each other's effort than when they can observe both each other's effort and output levels; conversely, team performance is lower when team members can observe only each other's output than when they can observe both each other's effort and output levels. The intuition behind these results is that the type of observable mutual monitoring information creates different degrees of ambiguity regarding what should be considered a fair reward allocation for team members' contributions. Such ambiguity reduces the usefulness of team member communication to the manager for allocating rewards, resulting in lower team performance.
Data Availability: Data are available from the authors upon request.
It is often assumed that groups of individuals can work together to achieve innovation and solve complex problems they are unable to solve on their own. One of the underlying assumptions is that a group can be more creative and innovative than single individuals. Previous research has begun to examine the process by which problem solving occurs in teams looking to achieve innovation. Despite this progress, a clear, brain-based model that informs how team interactivity contributes and impacts the outcome of an innovation event is lacking. Here we present a naturalistic study designed to examine creative problem solving involving team cooperation. We used functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure inter-brain synchrony (IBS) between interacting partners engaged in a creative design task. Results implicate the involvement of cognitive control coupled with the mentalizing and mirror neuron networks in IBS. Post hoc behavioral and temporal analyses revealed an increase in cooperation over time in association with reduction in IBS. Our results demonstrate the importance of a naturalistic design for investigating the neural underpinnings of team interactions as well as suggest a possible mechanism for team creativity.
The neuroscientific study of creativity is stuck and lost. Having perseverated on a paradigm — divergent thinking — that is theoretically incoherent, the field has neither produced intelligible data on the brain mechanisms of creativity nor developed alternative approaches to study the topic. This paper brings into sharp focus the three confounds — validity, false category formation, compound construct — that cripple this paradigm and shows how the use of in-vogue neuroscientific concepts — right brains, prefrontal cortex, default mode network, connectivity — might have contributed to the illusion of progress in the field. The paper concludes by putting forth five concrete steps towards a theoretical and conceptual restart: evolutionary algorithms, prediction system, dual-system view, Vaudeville conception, and valid subtypes of creativity.
Assumptions about focus group interviewing were tested. Individual interviews generated more ideas than focus groups, eight-member groups generated significantly more ideas than four-member groups, no differences were found between focus groups and unmoderated discussion groups, and the effect of acquaintanceship was not clearly determined.
In spite of the recognized importance of team creativity for organizational success, the factors that influence it are not well understood. In this paper, we address an important gap in the literature on the impact of team diversity on team creativity. We show how team cognitive diversity both enhances and inhibits team cognition, or the manner in which information is organized and distributed within the team. We further demonstrate that team cognition is a key mechanism through which cognitive diversity influences team creativity. The paper introduces a new theoretical lens, the signal-detection perspective, which argues that cognitive diversity amplifies the signals to the location of critical cognitive resources within the team and aids in their detection, consequently enhancing the form of team cognition that is central to team creativity. We test the predictions in a longitudinal study with 112 MBA student project teams. This research advances our understanding of what makes teams creative by synthesizing and testing existing theory as well as providing a new perspective that highlights an alternative way in which a team’s cognitive inputs impact team creativity.
This paper was accepted by Sendil Ethiraj, organizations.
Many service organizations rely on information sharing systems to boost employee creativity to meet customer needs. We conducted a field experiment in a retail chain, based on a registered report accepted by JAR, to test whether an information sharing system recording employees’ creative work affected the quality of creative work, job engagement, and financial performance. We found that, on average, this system did not have a significant effect on any outcomes. However, it significantly improved the quality of creative work in stores that had accessed the system more frequently and in stores with fewer same-company nearby stores. It also improved creative work and job engagement in stores in divergent markets, where customers needed more customization. We found weak evidence of better financial results where salespeople had lower creative talent before the system was introduced. Our findings shed light on those conditions in which information sharing systems affect employees’ creative work. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
This study investigates whether subjective communication from team members to a manager responsible for allocating performance-based bonuses increases team performance and whether the efficacy of such communication is reduced in heterogeneous teams. We draw on both economic and behavioral theories to predict that communication content, even though subjective, provides information that enables the manager to allocate bonuses so as to enhance the relation between individuals' contributions and rewards, thereby increasing individuals' effort and team performance. However, we also predict that the positive effect of team member subjective communication is more muted when team members' abilities are heterogeneous compared to homogeneous. We test these predictions via an experiment. Consistent with our predictions, team member subjective communication has a positive effect on team performance, and the positive effect is more muted for heterogeneous teams. Results of our study contribute to both theory and practice by enhancing our understanding of the role of subjective communication from team members to team managers in motivating effort in teams and, particularly, how its efficacy is affected by team composition.
Data Availability: Data are available from the authors upon request.
Creativity and innovation have become critical organizational capabilities in today’s global environment, and leveraging creative potential of employees across various cultural contexts has become increasingly important. Although recognized among researchers, cross-cultural differences in creativity are not yet well understood. We contribute to this line of research by constructing a theoretical model that focuses on cultural differences in cognition (i.e., holistic vs. analytic thinking) that affect the evaluation of creative ideas. The cultural cognition perspective allows us to theorize about the interrelationship between an idea’s novelty and its usefulness. We propose that to the extent there is a trade-off between an idea’s novelty and usefulness, cultural differences in cognition will systematically influence the trade-off relationship such that Easterners will perceive a stronger trade-off between novelty and usefulness as compared with their Western counterparts. Such effects of cultural cognition, however, can be reduced by contextual factors of multicultural exposure, cognitive team diversity, and organizational climate for innovation. Our cultural cognition perspective complements the extant cultural value and social norms perspectives on cross-cultural differences in creativity and innovation.
In this paper, we examine the role of budgets as a central instrument within the management control system (MCS) in a creative context. In particular we investigate whether creative firms characterized by different kinds of creativity use their budgets in a similar way. We hereby distinguish between expected creativity (for open, self-discovered problems) and responsive creativity (for closed, presented problems) (Unsworth 2001) and investigate the interactive versus diagnostic use of budgets (Simons 1990, 1991, 1995). Based on a comparative study involving four creative firms, we find that creative firms being mainly characterized by expected creativity use their budgets in a more interactive way. In creative firms in which responsive creativity is most important, the budgets are used in a rather diagnostic way. This study contributes to the management control literature by acknowledging that a diagnostic use of budgets does not per se stifle creativity. Instead, it is important to understand that the specific creative context might have implications for the way in which MCS instruments are used to sustain the creative process.
We review research in team diversity to take stock of the current state of the science, the trajectory that led to this state, and a potential way forward that would lead to more integrative theory in diversity research. We outline how diversity research has developed into the current state of the science with growing consensus on key mediating processes in the diversity-performance relationship and growing consensus that this relationship is contingent on moderating influences. We see important challenges in moving the field forward in two key areas: first, in integrating diversity research with its emphasis on diversity in relatively stable attributes – trait diversity – with research in more state-like composition variables – state diversity; second, in integrating research in compositional diversity with research on emergent diversity – diversity in team interaction processes and team emergent states. We propose that meeting these challenges will result in more broad-ranging theory that has for instance the potential to bridge research in team diversity and individual-team dissimilarity (relational demography).
Findings from prior research on the relationship between functional diversity and team innovation have been inconclusive. This study aims to reconcile the mixed findings in the literature by investigating how functional diversity may influence team innovation and when such influence may or may not occur. The view of teams as information processors suggests that functionally diverse teams may capitalize on their knowledge benefits to produce innovations through knowledge sharing. However, knowledge sharing and subsequent team innovation do not necessarily occur in functionally diverse teams. Drawing on the motivated information processing in groups theory, we propose that affect-based trust in a team moderates the effects of functional diversity on team innovation (via knowledge sharing). The results based on a sample of 96 research and development teams indicate that functional diversity had a negative indirect relationship with team innovation via knowledge sharing when affect-based trust in a team was low, and this relationship became less negative as the level of affect-based trust in a team increased. The relationship was not significant when affect-based trust in a team was high.
The role of cross-functional teams has been a topic of discussion for years. This study develops a theoretical model that extends prior research by exploring how functional diversity influences team performance through team cohesion and team learning. In addition, the model examines the conditions (team behavioral integration) under which the expected negative nonlinear relationship between functional diversity and team cohesion is mitigated. Hypotheses were tested using longitudinal data from 45 teams working on a semester-long simulation. The findings not only supported the moderating role of team behavioral integration in the relationship between functional diversity and team cohesion, but also revealed support for the mediating hypothesis of team learning on the team cohesion–team performance relationship. Overall, this study addresses a prior research gap by clarifying why (the underlying processes) and when (context) functional diversity leads to higher team performance.
Organizations that rely heavily on employee creativity face a dilemma: the particular nature of creative production calls for a substantial use of formal control, yet such control can undermine employee creativity. We examine this dilemma by analyzing how an organization's reliance on creativity influences its choice of control practices. More specifically, we argue that an organization's high reliance on employee creativity generates two types of cost, which will be reflected in the control choices made by its top management. First, a high reliance on employee creativity brings with it particular risks of dysfunctional employee behavior such as an overly narrow focus on the individual task or the opportunistic use of task-specific expertise. Second, it generates costs when it induces organizations to abstain from the use of (otherwise effective) controls because such controls increase the risk of undermining employee creativity. We identify two characteristics of the work setting – the importance of employees' intrinsic task motivation and the lack of task-specific cause–effect knowledge on part of managers – which help us to better understand the sources of the cost of creativity. Using survey data from 457 companies, we provide evidence that the importance managers attach to their employees' intrinsic task motivation is associated with a higher emphasis on assessments of non-task related performance, while a perceived lack of task-specific cause–effect knowledge on the managers' side is associated with more use of predefined targets for performance evaluation. Both work characteristics contribute to explaining higher emphasis on employee selection processes and increased delegation in work settings that heavily rely on employee creativity.
This paper compares the effectiveness of Project Discovery (PD) with the traditional accounting undergraduate program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). PD is a comprehensive program of instruction designed to implement an "educating for expertise" approach to accounting education. More specifically, PD emphasizes acquiring intellectual skills and improving attitudes without losing traditional accounting declarative knowledge. We compare the instructional processes used with, and learning outcomes of, the first class of PD graduates with samples of same-semester traditional program graduates. Our data include measures of course syllabi and students' demographic characteristics, declarative knowledge, intellectual skills, and attitudes. We analyze data on instructional processes using ANCOVAs and x2 anal
With the introduction of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) into the experimental setting, developmental scientists have, for the first time, the capacity to investigate the functional activation of the infant brain in awake, engaged participants. The advantages of fNIRS clearly outweigh the limitations, and a description of how this technology is implemented in infant populations is provided. Most fNIRS research falls into one of three content domains: object processing, processing of biologically and socially relevant information, and language development. Within these domains, there are ongoing debates about the origins and development of human knowledge, making early neuroimaging particularly advantageous. The use of fNIRS has allowed investigators to begin to identify the localization of early object, social, and linguistic knowledge in the immature brain and the ways in which this changes with time and experience. In addition, there is a small but growing body of research that provides insight into the neural mechanisms that support and facilitate learning during the first year of life. At the same time, as with any emerging field, there are limitations to the conclusions that can be drawn on the basis of current findings. We offer suggestions as to how to optimize the use of this technology to answer questions of theoretical and practical importance to developmental scientists. WIREs Cogn Sci 2015, 6:263-283. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1343 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.
The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article.
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This study examines turnover from 1976 to 1980 for 599 top-management group members in a sample of 31 Fortune 500 companies. A measure of demographic distance was defined on the basis of both age and date-of-entry similarity. The proportion of the top-management group turning over was inversely related to the firm's financial performance and positively related to the coefficient of variation of the distance among managers. At the individual level of analysis, managers who were older, were in firms that performed worse, and were more dissimilar in terms of age were more likely to turn over. The results suggest that it may be possible both to predict and manage turnover by considering the compositional characteristics of groups.
Functional diversity in teams has been conceptualized in a variety of ways without careful attention to how different conceptualizations might lead to different results. We examined the process and performance effects of dominant function diversity (the diversity of functional experts on a team) and intrapersonal functional diversity (the aggregate functional breadth of team members). In a sample of business unit management teams, dominant function diversity had a negative, and intrapersonal functional diversity, a positive effect on information sharing and unit performance. These findings suggest that different forms of functional diversity can have very different implications for team process and performance and that intrapersonal functional diversity matters for team effectiveness.
We used self-categorization theory--which proposes that people may use social characteristics such as age, race, or organizational membership to define psychological groups and to promote a positive self-identity--to develop and test hypotheses about the effects of demographic diversity in organizations on an individual's psychological and behavioral attachment to the organization. Individual-level commitment, attendance behavior, and tenure intentions were examined as a function of the individual's degree of difference from others on such social categories as age, tenure, education, sex, and race. We expected that the effect of being different would have different effects for minorities (i.e., women and nonwhites) than for members of the majority (i.e., men and whites). Analyses of a sample of 151 groups comprising 1,705 respondents showed that increasing work-unit diversity was associated with lower levels of psychological attachment among group members. Nonsymmetrical effects were found for sex and race, with whites and men showing larger negative effects for increased unit heterogeneity than nonwhites and women. The results of the study call into question the fundamental assumption that underlies much of race and gender research in organizations--that the effect of heterogeneity is always felt by the minority.
Papers from four different groups were published in 1993 demonstrating the ability of functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to non-invasively measure hemoglobin concentration responses to brain function in humans. This special issue commemorates the first 20years of fNIRS research. The 9 reviews and 49 contributed papers provide a comprehensive survey of the exciting advances driving the field forward and of the myriad of applications that will benefit from fNIRS.
Creativity often leads to the development of original ideas that are useful or influential, and maintaining creativity is crucial for the continued development of organizations in particular, and society in general. Most research and writing has focused on individual creativity, yet in recent years, there has been an increasing acknowledgment of the importance of the social and contextual factors in creativity. Even with the information explosion and the growing necessity for specialization, the development of innovations still requires group interaction at various stages in the creative process. Most organizations increasingly rely on the work of creative teams where each individual is an expert in a particular area. This book summarizes the exciting new research developments on the processes involved in group creativity and innovation, and explores the relationship between group processes, group context and creativity. It draws from a broad range of research perspectives, including those investigating cognition, groups, creativity, information systems and organizational psychology. The first section in this book focuses on how group decision making is affected by factors such as cognitive fixation and flexibility, group diversity, minority dissent, group decision-making, brainstorming and group support systems. Special attention is devoted to the various processes and conditions which can inhibit or facilitate group creativity. The second section explores how various contextual and environmental factors affect the creative processes of groups. The chapters explore issues of group autonomy, group socialization, mentoring, team innovation, knowledge transfer and creativity, at the level of cultures, and societies.
An increasing number of organizations are turning to teams for innovation and creativity. The present study investigated the effects of team knowledge management (TKM) on the creativity and financial performance of organizational teams. Our analysis of data collected from 65 sales teams, across 35 branches of a Korean insurance company, showed that team knowledge utilization (but not team knowledge stock) was positively related to team creativity, which in turn predicted team financial performance over the 6-month period. The positive effects of knowledge utilization were stronger when team leaders had a systematic cognitive style and when teams were exposed to high environmental uncertainty. Furthermore, the systematic cognitive style of leaders had a positive main effect on team creativity and positively moderated the relationship between team knowledge stock and team creativity. The implications of these findings were considered, and some possible directions for future research were suggested.
Using 20 actual work units with 79 respondents, this study explores the relationships among group demography, social integration of the group, and individual turnover. Results suggest that heterogeneity in group tenure is associated with lower levels of group social integration which, in turn, is negatively associated with individual turnover. Models of these effects using individual-level integration measures are not significant. Further, the results suggest that it is the more distant group members who are more likely to leave. Both individual-level and group-level age demography directly affect turnover and are not moderated by social integration. The findings suggest a process by which group demography affects outcomes and support the usefulness of organizational demography for understanding group and individual functioning.