Advances in Developing Human Resources

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Creativity in the Context of Team Diversity: Team Leader Perspectives

Toby Marshall Egan
Advances in Developing Human Resources 2005; 7; 207
DOI: 10.1177/1523422305274526
The online version of this article can be found at:
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10.1177/1523422305274526
Advances in Developing Human Resources
Egan / CREATIVITY IN THE CONTEXT OF TEAM DIVERSITY

May 2005

Creativity in the Context

of Team Diversity: Team
Leader Perspectives
Toby Marshall Egan
The problem and the solution. In spite of demands for teaming and creative outputs in organizations and for increasing
workforce diversity overall, to date researchers have only
scratched the surface regarding team creativity and appear to
have ignored the role of diversity altogether. Fortune 500 team
leaders identified as both successful in leading creative teams
and who identify team diversity as important to their successes
were interviewed for this study. In addition to several other key
elements, team leaders credited a mix of employees with different characteristics as a key reason for team development of creative outputs directly impacting organizational success. Study
findings are discussed and compared to related research. Recommendations for further study are provided.
Keywords:

creativity; team creativity; teaming; leadership; diversity

The dynamic, global environment is increasingly part of daily interactions

and decision making regardless of the type of work we do. Within this relatively new environment come demands for performance improvement and
the need for creativity and innovation that utilize available workplace diversity as an important resource for success. As organizational stakeholders
and customers become increasingly diverse, they also develop more specific
demands. To ensure ongoing success, product development, service, and
marketing strategy refinement, sales plans must be engaged and, when possible, rethought and redesigned for increased impact and efficiency. Failure
to improve workplace creativity that fosters innovative solutions will result
in organizational dissolution.
It is the position of many in public and private sector organizations that
diversity contributes to an increased reservoir of experience, expertise,
knowledge, perspectives, and skills that, when tapped, can contribute to
organizational excellence (Wentling & Palma-Rivas, 2000). A challenge for
Advances in Developing Human Resources Vol. 7, No. 2 May 2005 207-225
DOI: 10.1177/1523422305274526
Copyright 2005 Sage Publications

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every organization is how to harness the human capital represented in its

current workforce. One of the main challenges is how to motivate organizational team members to work together to tap their individual ideas and
diverse perspectives toward collective creative results.
It has been argued for several years that creative ideas cannot be generated without the benefit of contextual influences, including team member
interactions (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988; Harrington, 1990). Despite these
claims, none of the existing [research] perspectives considers the potential
changes in the generation of creative ideas that can occur when the inputs
and interactions of other people are introduced (Kurtzberg & Amabile,
2001, p. 285). Even with the emphasis, and relative agreement, that team
and systems considerations are essential to human resource development
(HRD; Stewart, McGoldrick, & Watson, 2002), creativity researchers have
largely failed to extend exploration to teams and organizations. Instead, the
majority of creativity researchers have investigated individual characteristics (e.g., behavior, personality, self-perception, and cognition) and the
impact of environmental factors on individual creativity (e.g., creativity
goal setting; teamwork; impact of feedback; and evaluation, role models,
leadership, and supervision; Egan, 2005 [this issue]).
Kurtzberg and Amabile (2001) have stressed that creativity as a result of
teamwork be recognized as essential, and have also pointed to team diversity as a crucial focal point for creativity researchers. The importance of creativity research that focuses on the impact of team diversity in relation to
creative idea generation is logical. Given the demand for creative outputs as
contributions to organizational competitiveness, exploring diversity and
team creativity is a highly relevant matter for HRD. Rapid demographic
changes in the United States and many other countries and the broadening
awareness of the variety of individual characteristics, in addition to race and
gender, that comprise team diversity have made diversity an important consideration for HRD (Wentling & Palma-Rivas, 2000). Team diversity may
create opportunities for creative team outcomes that are not possible by
more homogeneous teams (Amabile, 1996; Hambrick, Cho, & Chen, 1996).
By developing a deeper appreciation of the interactions between individuals motivated toward creative team processes and creative outcomes, we
can better understand teaming, the role of diversity in teamwork, and creativity in general. Such understanding could be of particular benefit to HRD
practitioners interested in supporting creative processes and outcomes of
diverse work teams. In this article, the role of team diversity in creative idea
generation and creative outcomes is explored beyond the scope of available
literature. Perceptions and experiences of leaders of diverse teams recognized as creative and whose teams have made important contributions to the
success of their organizations will be explored. The approach to this qualitative, exploratory study and the emergent themes will be highlighted and fol-

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lowed by a comparison of findings from this study to results from available

related studies.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this exploratory study is to provide elaboration regarding
the role of team member diversity in creative team processes. This elaboration is based on the perspectives of 13 key informants. Study informants
were high-performing leaders in Fortune 500 organizational settings (a)
recognized as leading creative teams, (b) whose teams produced outputs
acknowledged by their executives as creative contributions to organizational success, and (c) who identified team diversity as a key element in the
success of these teams. The exploratory nature of this study is important
given the apparent absence of related literature and responds to calls for a
start to the exploration of creativity in the context of team diversity
(Kurtzberg & Amabile, 2001).

Research Questions and Methodology

Because no previous study engaging human subjects and focusing specifically on team diversity and creativity was located, the aim of this study was
exploratory and the following questions were asked of team leaders
interviewed:
(a) How do you define team diversity?
(b) Why do you think diversity is important for team creativity?
(c) When you have the option to assemble your own teams aimed toward
creative outcomes, what are your diversity-related considerations?
(d) What diversity-related strategies or approaches do you use to facilitate
team creativity?
(e) What are barriers to team creativity in diverse groups?
(f) What do members of diverse teams do to support team creativity?
This study was conducted using a qualitative, key informant approach (Borg &
Gall, 1989) utilizing in-depth, open-ended telephone interviews with 13 team
leaders recognized by their large for-profit organizations as having facilitated
important, creative team outcomes. Key informants selected were acknowledged as experienced and well informed about the topic under investigation.
Study participants also were willing to communicate about their knowledge and
experiences associated with team diversity and creativity. Although commonly
nongeneralizable, interviews provide a type and quality of information inaccessible through survey research and other forms of investigation (Borg & Gall,
1989). In addition, the use of key informants can assist researchers in the development of an understanding of the phenomenon under study that is relevant for
application (Borg & Gall, 1989). The interview process, and subsequent analy-

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sis, led to a deeper understanding and description regarding the perceived role of
team diversity in the development of creative team outcomes.
Instrumentation
The interview guide that was developed was divided into six sections: (a)
definitions of team diversity, (b) team leader reasons for supporting team
diversity, (c) selecting team members, (d) strategies for creative outcomes,
(e) barriers to diverse team creativity, and (f) team member support. Two
experienced social science researchers reviewed the schedule of questions
and provided feedback. Both validated the interview protocol content,
determining it to be in alignment with the purpose of the study. Before the
study participants were interviewed, the research questions were piloted
with the assistance of two experienced team leaders. The experienced
researchers and pilot interviewees determined that the questions were
appropriate for meeting the goals of the study.
Sample and Data Collection
One of the dilemmas in focusing on creativity is differentiation of one
idea or output from another. The most common solution is to utilize
responses from judges qualified to identify novel ideas or outputs (Egan,
2005 [this issue]). This study utilized corporate executives as judges of team
creativity. Executives judgments, along with evidence that creative outputs
had organizational impact, which was viewed to be both creative and useful
by other people, were the basis for the selection of prospective participants.
Contacts were made to a convenience sample of corporate executives from
10 large (more than 10,000 employees) Fortune 500 organizations in the
United States (from Eastern, Central, and Western locations). A list of 24
prospective participants was developed by asking three executives from
each of the 10 organizations to identify high-performing managers/team
leaders who were recognized as leading teams considered to be unusually
creative and that yielded creative or innovative results. Executives were
asked to name the reasons for identifying the managers they did and to provide any additional evidence to support their conclusions. Examples ranged
from creative teams involved in the development of innovative products
contributing to the organizational bottom line to the development of artistic
creations.
Each of the 24 managers invited to participate in the study was convincingly identified by the three executives in his or her organization as a team

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leader of a group that generated important creative ideas or outputs. Three

of the team leaders invited to participate declined immediately. To screen
managers for study participation, the remaining 21 managers were asked if,
and confirmed that, teamwork was important to the creative processes and
elaborated regarding the creative team outputs identified by executives from
their organizations. These team leaders also were asked to identify the key
elements that contributed to their team(s) being recognized as unusually
creative. Of the 21 managers, 15 identified team diversity as an essential
ingredient for their success. From these 15 managers, 13 from the 10 Fortune 500 organizations were invited and agreed to participate in a 1- to
2-hour phone interview. The interview guide was utilized during the interviews and probing questions also were asked to clarify each interviewees
initial responses. The interviews were tape recorded, with permission from
interviewees, and extensive notes were taken. In some cases, follow-up
inquiries were made by e-mail but no additional telephone interviews were
conducted beyond the first contact (a limitation of this exploratory study).
All interviewees did respond to an e-mail member check confirming (and in
two cases asking for minor changes) the accuracy of the interview
transcript.
Data Analysis
The tapes from the interviews were transcribed verbatim and content
analyzed. A systematic research technique, content analysis is used for the
exploration of communication-related text as in the form of the interview
transcripts developed for this study. Following a general qualitative
approach to data analysis (Egan, 2001; Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Merriam,
1997), interviewee responses were initially divided into groups associated
with each question asked from the interview protocol. This clustering was
done by cutting and pasting from the original transcripts. Emergent themes
were identified and then ranked by their frequency and grouped into categories. Given the summative, descriptive aims of this study, a quantitative
method in the form of counting frequencies and percentages was used to
support the qualitative data (Bogdan & Biklen, 1992). The qualitative
approach described above was deemed appropriate for diversity-related
studies because of the ability of the researcher to explore the whole of an
HRD-related practice through insight and discovery (Wentling &
Palma-Rivas, 1998, p. 238).

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Study Participants
Demographic information was collected verbally during the final part of
the telephone interviews of managers or team leaders (the terms managers,
interviewees, participants, and team leaders are used interchangeably
throughout this article). Current position, gender, educational background,
and race or ethnicity were reported by participants. The interviewees were
all in management positions: three executive (23%), six upper-level (46%),
and four midlevel (31%). Seven interviewees were men (54%); 6 were
women (46%). All participants had undergraduate degrees and 7 (54%) had
masters degrees. Two managers were Hispanic/Latin American (15%), 2
were African American (15%), 2 were Asian American (15%), and 7 were
European American (55%). All interviewees were older than 35 years of
age. These team leaders worked in such areas as engineering, health care
product development, advertising, research and development, customer service, and product sales. Examples of creative outputs produced by team
leader interviewees and their teams included unique processes in the engineering of customized machinery and health care products; award winning,
novel approaches to advertising; the development of new products contributing significantly to their organizations bottom lines; and new approaches
to corporate reorganization leading to more efficient product sales.

Results
Study results are summarized and reported in six sections that are aligned
with the research questions: definitions of team diversity, leader support for
team diversity and creativity, selecting team members, strategies for creative outcomes, barriers to diverse team creativity, and team member support. Key themes associated with each section (identified as responses to
questions that were similar by at least two thirds of interviewees) are
identified and discussed.
Definitions of Team Diversity
The team leaders were asked to define team diversity. Interviewees
defined team diversity broadly to include a large variety of individuals similarities and differences. Exploring patterns across interviewee responses, a
diverse team was generally described as a collection of individuals whose
unique characteristics provide a variety of perspectives aimed at the problem or task that the team is undertaking. It is important to note that interviewees described diversity in terms of its value and benefit to teaming, creative outcomes, and general organizational success. The characteristics
interviewees used to describe team diversity were much broader than race,

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gender, ethnicity, age, and disability and included functional concerns such
as education, expertise, department or location where employed, and rank in
the organization, as well as personality and abilities. One interviewee
stated, It is important that we have creative individuals who have different
backgrounds, represent different parts of the organization, and have track
records, if possible, for being able to think outside of the box. In defining
team diversity toward the formation of creative teams, all of the interviewees mentioned the importance of having people who were intelligent and
creative problem solvers.
The discussion regarding the definition of team diversity included comments by several individuals regarding the relevance of diversity and importance of inclusive workplaces for organizational success. As one interviewee stated, our workplace, customer base, and communities make the
diversity of people and their potential a way of life, so we cant not think
about diversity, it is important. Several team leaders also emphasized that
their organizations had to be thoughtful about the importance of diversity to
their future success and organizational survival.
Leader Support for Team Diversity and Creativity
As previously identified, study participants were selected based on their
indication that team diversity was important for the creative team outcomes
for which they have been recognized in their organizations. Following their
discussion regarding their definitions of diversity, managers were asked
why they thought team diversity made the teams that they led more creative.
The four most common responses were that homogeneous teams are less
likely to develop creative ideas (100%); representatives from multiple parts
of the organization bring different perspectives (92%); a variety of knowledge and skills is often needed to make a team effective (85%); and experienced people with different backgrounds (e.g., education, race, gender, and
values) make for better creative team idea generation and outcomes (77%).
All of the managers emphasized that the mix of the team or team
dynamics were important and that they worked hard to create and monitor
individual team members and the group overall to ensure that the team
worked well and positively toward their shared goals. This mix also
included an emphasis on diversity of gender, racial, ethnic, or other cultural
backgrounds. One team leader statement expressed an often-repeated sentiment, Im not interested in choosing unqualified or unmotivated individuals. Im interested in finding good performers with different backgrounds of
all kinds who know how to work with others because it stimulates thinking
and team accomplishments.
Most managers believed that some combination of personalities was
important and emphasized that they preferred to not have several individu-

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als with similar personality traits (e.g., too many extroverts or too many
introverts). The notion of positive attitudefor example, friendly, spoke
positively about other teammates, avoided complaining or cynicismalso
was mentioned by a number of team leaders. One manager said, It takes
only one or two people who have negative attitudes or who talk negatively
about team members or the project away from the team. This takes the creativity and productivity out of the team, sometimes altogether.
Selecting Team Members
Next, managers were asked to identify the key elements they look for in
selecting a diversity of team members for team projects. All of the managers
responded that they did not focus on an exclusive set of individual characteristics in assembling diverse teams. They discussed the concept of mix
again, along with some of the previously mentioned points associated with
their definition of team diversity and the characteristics that make up diversity. In discussing team mix, managers identified a number of factors for
consideration (see Table 1).
The preference of team leaders for uniquely creative individuals was
discussed in a number of ways, but in general, it was described as individuals who were able to engage in perspective taking, explore the assumptions
of the group and problem, and engage group members in considering issues
more broadly than they might otherwise. As one interviewee stated, having
some creative individuals on the team who ask compelling questions about
the problem to be solved or the teams assumptions in solving it are important. Others emphasized that individual creativity also should be judged
based on the novelty of the outputs they produce independently and in
cooperation with others.
Individuals representing key constituencies or parts (departments, etc.)
of the organization were emphasized because of the desire of team leaders to
both ascertain perspectives from the variety of views making up the organization as well as setting the stage for creating buy-in for the creative ideas or
outputs developed by the team. Similarly, team leaders emphasized the
importance of persons bringing a diversity of skill sets who had different
backgrounds and educational experiences to creative team formation and
success.
Personality and attitudes were also key characteristics identified by a
majority of interviewees. Although some team leaders had only general
descriptions of personality characteristics they were looking for (e.g., outgoing, open to new ideas, reflective, etc.), others utilized personality inventories used widely by their organizations (e.g., the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the DISC instrument) to describe the similarities and differences
between team members. Despite the identification of many considerations

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TABLE 1:

Team Formation Considerations Made by Organizational Leadership Aiming Toward Creative Team Outcomes

Consideration

No.

Availability of prospective team members

Perceived individual creativity
Time commitment needed from team
Deadlines for team production
Total number of team members needed
General work performance
Individual track record regarding creative outcomes
Department
Functional expertise needed
Contribution to overall team dynamic
Track record as team member
Track record as member of creative team
Organizational rank/experience
Meeting locations
Prospective committee member location
Gender balance
Familiarity with new team focus
Personality type balance
Ethnicity balance
Need for approval for participation by prospective
committee members managers
Anticipated team outputs
Racial balance
Team member prework
Use of technology
Information needed for committee tasks
Anticipated workload for team members
Prospective committee member years of organizational
service
Experience with organizational policy interpretation
Conflict management skills

13
13
13
13
13
12
12
12
12
12
11
11
11
10
10
10
9
9
9

100
100
100
100
100
92
92
92
92
92
85
85
85
77
77
77
69
69
69

8
8
8
8
8
7
7

62
62
62
62
62
54
54

7
6
6

54
46
46

for team formation, managers did not present a selection process that could
be described as systematic with regard to team leader priorities for team
member selection.
Strategies for Creative Outcomes
The team leaders were asked to identify key strategies or approaches they
used to support team creativity. The four most frequently identified strate-

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gies or approaches were use of brainstorming (85%), encouraging social

connections between team members (85%), creating subcommittees and
individual tasks for team members to do work (77%), and encouraging productive conflict between team members (77%).
Brainstorming was identified as an open-ended discussion focusing on idea
generation associated with a well-defined problem whereby, in the first step of
the process, judgment of team members ideas was withheld. Other brainstorming guidelines mentioned were that maximization of ideas was important, specific concepts were preferred, total group participation was required, and odd or
way out ideas were encouraged. Several team leaders emphasized that specific instructions and facilitation were important to brainstorming success. In
addition, some degree of social connection was emphasized primarily for the
purposes of supporting risk taking. Social connection was identified as the ability of the group to connect and get to know one another as part of the team process. As one leader stated,
They dont have to spend time away from work or be best friends, it just works better if they at
least know each other beyond just who they are at work. People seem to be more interested in taking risks with people they know and trust.

Breaking work projects up into subgroups or committees was also an important approach identified by several leaders. Divisions were made based on a
number of criteria, including location, convenience, shared expertise, task-specific knowledge, and ability to do more with fewer people. Several members
viewed team conflict as important or even central to team success. One leader
said, If we cant disagree openly, we cant come to the best solution, so we have
to be able to disagree, resolve, or deal with the disagreement and move on. If we
cant do this, we wont be creative or successful.
Barriers to Diverse Team Creativity
The following were identified by interviewees as common barriers to
stimulating creativity in teams: time or expectation pressures (85%), lack of
resources (77%), negative attitudes (69%), and unproductive team conflict
(69%). Although 3 interviewees acknowledged that time pressure was, at
times, a catalyst for the development of creative outcomes, the tension
between time needed for a creative process to unfold and external expectations for problem solving were generally viewed as barriers to team creativity. Because of the variety of situations described, it was difficult to ascertain how leaders estimated time needed for team creativity and outputs. One
team leader stated, Its just so hard at the beginning of some projects to figure out how long itll take. So, I do my best to create enough time and, sometimes, to build in time artificial time pressures to keep the group going.

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Regarding resources, several team leaders indicated that lack of

resources was a potentially huge problem. Similar to time, resource needs
(e.g., money, materials, staffing support, travel costs, etc.) were sometimes
difficult to assess in the early stages of projects and, in several cases, became
more difficult once the team was formed or had been working for a while.
Particularly with long-term efforts, shortages not only inhibited teams from
their accomplishments but became distracting and demanding of existing
team resources, because finding resources can be a time-consuming distraction away from the creative team process.
Team Member Support
The four most common recommendations managers had for members of
diverse teams supporting the team effort toward creative outcomes were (a)
make relationship as well as task connections (85%), (b) get to know about the
diversity of team members (77%), (c) reinforce successes (69%), and (d) avoid
blaming for shortcomings or failures (62%). As stated above, relationship-task
balance appears to be important in the form of some social connection between
team members. However, several of the leaders went a step further, emphasizing
that individuals should get to know about their team members from the perspective of diversity. One team leader stated,
Its not just that you get to know team members on a diverse team, but it helps team relations if
you get to know about the differences that people bring to the team . . . even peoples stories help
to support understanding between team members.

In addition, team leaders emphasized the importance of acknowledging successes and minimizing blame. We have to emphasize our successes when they
come, even the little ones, and be sure that negative complaining doesnt become
part of the way the team operates. Too much of that [complaining] and we will
not be very creative, stated one team leader. Many team leaders stressed the
importance of role modeling and that they tried very hard to be positive and constructive, even in difficult circumstances.

Discussion
As previously described, despite the relevance of workplace creativity
(Amabile, Conti, Coon, Lazenby, & Herron, 1996), an ongoing emphasis on
workplace teaming (Stewart et al., 2002), and the increasing diversity of the
workforce in the United States and around the world (Wentling &
Palma-Rivas, 2000), the HRD-related literature on team diversity and creativity is very limited. Responses, both from the executives asked to identify
team leaders and team leaders themselves, indicated the tremendous benefits that creative teams (and those who assemble and lead them) present to

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their organizations. One of the core findings of this study of team leaders
who identified diversity as important to the creative successes of the teams
they lead is their sensitivity to the importance of a mixture of individual
team characteristics. Interviewee responses outlined above provide many
insights into existing assumptions and approaches used by leaders of
diverse teams recognized as creative. Although all of the themes identified
above may provide important insights regarding diversity and team creativity, only a few have been identified to be overlapping in HRD-related literature. Those areas identified by interviewees that were found in available
research are highlighted below, including individual team member characteristics, team conflict, team brainstorming and individual work, and the
work environment. The following section will connect those themes
identified above that are reflected in identified HRD-related literature.
Individual Team Member Characteristics
One of the clear messages from team leaders was their belief that individual characteristics of team members will affect the ways in which interaction will occur and, ultimately, the creativity of results generated. This
notion was expressed by several participants as the mix of team member
skills, characteristics, personalities, backgrounds, and so forth. In addition,
several interviewees indicated that they were looking for individuals who
were willing to facilitate understanding between team members.
The limited research available supports themes from the interviews
reported in this study. Group performance and process have been found to
be influenced by multiple team member characteristics, including age, cognitive style, cultural values, educational background, ethnicity, functional
background, industry experience, organizational membership, personality,
and tenure (Kirton, 1989; Milliken & Martins, 1996). Although multiple
perspectives can contribute to the creative process (Amabile, 1996), it also
can block group progress because of lack of common connection or low levels of cooperation. In addition to findings that cooperative behaviors, in
general, have been found to positively affect overall team performance
(Mudrack & Farrell, 1995), Brandstaetter and Farthofer (1997) indicated
that the right combination (what interviewees called mix) of team members could influence the effectiveness of problem solving. Kirton (1989)
supported the idea that when team members have a diversity of creative
problem-solving approaches, the ability of some team members to be a
bridger or translator between those who may misunderstand is helpful to
stimulating creative team outputs. These outputs are generated through clarification of individual and overall team ideas and perspectives toward an
improved collective result. This approach may counter the groupthink

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tendencies of some groups described as groups that do not vocalize

disagreement or challenge ideas (Janis, 1972).
Limited results and discussion in the literature have, to date, concluded
that the characteristics of team members clearly will affect the ways in
which people interact, both cognitively and interpersonally (Kurtzberg &
Amabile, 2001, p. 286). It is clear that the observations of managers
reported above overlap with the findings of related articles identified; however, beyond generalities regarding mix in team composition, there appears
to be no clarity regarding how team leaders or teams make choices about
what comprises appropriate team composition or what patterns, if any, exist
in the vetting process. Although a diversity of team member characteristics
may emerge as beneficial to creative outcomes, conflict is a likely result.
The next section explores connections between themes from interviewee
responses and available published research focusing on team conflict.
Team Conflict
Responses from team leaders included direct and related perspectives
regarding team conflict. More than three fourths of team leaders identified
the encouragement of productive conflict between team members as an
important strategy to foster team creativity and success. In addition, it could
be argued that one of the valuable aspects of team diversity or mix are the
conflicts that emerge from different perspectives that, when handled effectively, lead to new ideas. Team leaders also indicated that they prefer to
avoid homogeneous teams or teams made up exclusively of individuals with
similar characteristics and overlapping perspectives. Conflict may emerge
along the way to establishing organizational buy-in by including representatives from different departments or parts of the organization as well as
between individuals having the variety of different characteristics identified
by leaders in Table 1 and by Milliken and Martins (1996).
In addition to managing, and in some cases desiring and facilitating, conflict for the purposes of creative idea generation and the production of creative outputs, several leaders mentioned the importance of social connections between team members. Stimulating social connections that
emphasize the value of team diversity were important approaches taken by
several team leaders. One way to interpret the desire for social connection
along with the desire for productive conflict between team members is the
belief by team leaders that influencing social connection between teammates may lead to an avoidance of defensiveness or negative feelings by
team members about one another when disagreeing about ways to address
team-related tasks.
Depending on the situation, conflict can present volatility to group relations, creativity, and outcomes. Although some team conflict can be benefi-

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cial, too much disagreement, or the wrong kind of conflict, can be detrimental to team success (James, 1995). Jehn (1997) divided types of team
conflict into task, process, and relationship-based conflict. Research has
found that only some (but not too much) task conflictconflict focused on
the work at handcan be beneficial to teamwork (Jehn, 1995). Process conflict, which refers to roles, expectations, strategies, and tactics, and relationship conflict, which refers to the interpersonal interaction between group
members, are each damaging to overall team performance and outcomes
(Amason, Thompson, Hochwarter, & Harrison, 1995; Jehn, 1997). Even
when individuals have good intentions or contribute a potentially constructive commentary to group members, it can be interpreted as destructive or
ill-intended (Jones & Remland, 1993).
Some scholars studying conflict have suggested a link between creativity
and conflict. These researchers forwarded the notion that an absence of
team conflict may be restrictive to team growth, performance, and productivity (Nemeth, 1995) and might lead to detrimental team outcomes (Janis,
1972). In addition, it has been found that groups patient enough to wade
through multiple opinions will emerge with outputs that are more original,
divergent, complex, and more creative than those of groups whose members
reach agreement without first engaging in conflict (Kurtzberg & Amabile,
2001). Of course, the danger presented is that conflict goes too far or is
focused on relational or process issues that lead to negative feelings, which
are commonly a barrier to creative outcomes. It appears important that conflict remain generally task focused and that an overall positive affect is
maintained within a group (Isen, Daubman, & Nowicki, 1987). The findings
from the aforementioned studies on productive versus unproductive conflict
may provide parallel perspectives in relation to team leader desires for some
level of social connection between team members. Perhaps team leaders
desire to minimize the likelihood of personal or process conflicts during
task decision making by supporting interpersonal connections between
team members. The encouragement of connections between team members
is believed by team leaders to reduce the likelihood of unproductive conflict. As one team leader indicated, Its helpful if the group can get to know
one another before a lot of disagreement occurs . . . otherwise we may not get
very far. Perhaps the strategy of social connection or the development of
interpersonal relationships is the first step toward both productive conflict
and creative team outcomes.
Group Brainstorming and Individual Work
Brainstorming was the strategy most frequently mentioned by team leaders and the most researched topic associated with team creativity. As indicated earlier, group brainstorming is intended to maximize the number and

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quality of ideas and ultimately improve the creative output of a group. Team
leaders utilized the technique in an effort to access multiple perspectives
and emphasized the use of facilitation as important to brainstorming success. In addition to group decision-making approaches, several team leaders
emphasized subgroup or individual work. These managerial practices have
been explored in the literature.
The majority of team creativity research has focused on brainstorming in
groups, and most researchers have not found brainstorming to yield favorable results. In fact, because of losses in quantity and quality of ideas due to
group processes, available research supports individual idea generation
over that of groups (Mullen, Johnson, & Salas, 1991). The reasons for the
identified inefficiencies have included anxiety regarding the evaluation of
individuals based on the ideas they generate, social loafing or free-rider
effects, and the loss of an individual idea due to team inefficiencies in handling communication and overload during the brainstorming process (Diehl
& Stroebe, 1987; Latane, Williams, & Harkins, 1979).
Although the negative outcomes associated with creativity and brainstorming have been emphasized in the literature, there have been several
techniques utilized to reverse these problems, including increasing facilitator skill level (Offner, Kramer, & Winter, 1996). There also has been support
for the notion that brainstorming may benefit from individuals generating
ideas independently prior to group brainstorm discussions (Paulus, Larey,
& Ortega, 1995). Group size also may influence team outputs. Given their
responses, perhaps team leaders interviewed in this study understood the
possible limitations of brainstorming or the contributions that individual or
subgroup idea generation and work could make to overall team creativity.
Several interviewees supported the use of individual and subgroup brainstorming and work and discussed the importance of quality facilitation for
brainstorming to be effective.
Despite multiple studies demonstrating the significant problems with
brainstorming and the lower numbers of ideas and creative outputs generated, participants in brainstorming exercises believe it to be very effective
(Paulus et al., 1995). It is important to note that there are weaknesses to
brainstorming studies overall, the most significant of which is that a majority were done with zero history groups in laboratory settings. There is much
more research needed to better understand the relationship between brainstorming and maximization of creative outputs.
Work Environment
The team leaders interviewed identified time expectations, organizational pressures, lack of resources, and unproductive team conflict as barriers to creativity and team success. This was in contrast to team leader

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emphasis on the development of positive relationships and avoidance of

placing blame on individual team members for negative outcomes.
Although there was no consensus regarding what elements were most essential, each interviewee emphasized the importance of the team and work environment for diverse team creativity and creative outcomes.
Perhaps not surprisingly, available research suggests that lower levels of
creativity are present for teams and individuals in controlling or constraining work environments (Amabile, 1996; Amabile et al., 1996). Provisions
for autonomy, openness to new ideas, shared goals, constructive challenges,
and encouraging of creativity appear to foster generation of creative ideas
and outcomes in groups with diverse members. If present, these work environment features can lead to strong levels of motivation by team members
toward creative approaches to accomplishing shared team goals.

Conclusion
The vast majority of scholarly research into creativity in the workplace
has focused on individual creativity associated with personality and the
impact of the work environment on individuals. The interviews reported in
this study point to an oversight regarding how creative ideas are generated in
organizations. As stated by Kurtzberg and Amabile (2001), Situations
where individuals must work together, share ideas, and be creative in team
contexts are increasingly important in the modern workplace and are worthy
of more investigation by creativity researchers (p. 292).
As previously indicated, the work to explore team creativity is just beginning. To improve our understanding, researchers and practitioners must
work together to explore and recognize both the elements of creativity as
they occur among team members and the role the diversity of these individuals may play in the development of creative team outputs. To further investigate and understand team diversity and creativity, researchers must go far
beyond the exploratory study presented here. Researchers should explore
four key areas: (a) the manner in which creative thoughts by individuals are
influenced by the presence of others, (b) the role personality and other individual characteristics may play in the individual interpretation and subsequent actions in creative team processes, (c) the manner in which ideas
evolve as they are exchanged from one person to the next, and (d) the ways in
which the work environment affects team culture and team creativity (Egan,
2005 [this issue]; Kurtzberg & Amabile, 2001).
When exploring todays dynamic work environment and the demands for
interdependence and creative outcomes, it is clear that team diversity and
creativity are important for organizational success. It is also clear that, provided the further development of additional research, HRD scholars and
professionals can develop insights beneficial to creative idea generation,

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creative team outputs, and organizational productivity. It is important that

researchers and practitioners continue to engage in explorations that deepen
our understanding of creativity at the individual, team, and organizational
level and the role of team diversity in the development of meaningful
outcomes.

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Toby Marshall Egan is an assistant professor in the Human Resource Development
(HRD) program at Texas A & M University and received his Ph.D. in HRD from the
University of Minnesota. Dr. Egan is an experienced HRD teacher and researcher

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with more than 15 years of HRD practice and consulting experience. He has consulted with Fortune 500, public sector, and governmental organizations and has published articles in several HRD-related journals.

Egan, T. M. (2005). Creativity in the context of team diversity: Team leader perspectives.
Advances in Developing Human Resources, 7(2), 207-225.

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