Abstract
This meta‐analysis investigates the direction and strength of the relationship between diversity in culturally diverse teams and team creativity/innovation. We distinguish the effects of two diversity levels (i.e., surface‐ versus deep‐level) in culturally diverse teams and examine the moderators suggested by the socio‐technical systems framework (i.e., team virtuality and task characteristics in terms of task interdependence, complexity, and intellectiveness). Surface‐level diversity in culturally diverse teams is not related to team creativity/innovation, while deep‐level diversity in culturally diverse teams is positively related to team creativity/innovation. Moreover, surface‐level diversity in culturally diverse teams and team creativity/innovation are negatively related for simple tasks, but unrelated for complex tasks. Deep‐level diversity in culturally diverse teams and team creativity/innovation are positively related for collocated teams and interdependent tasks, but unrelated for non‐collocated teams and independent tasks. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 693-708 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Journal of Organizational Behavior |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Early online date | 27 Feb 2019 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jul 2019 |
Funding
Prof. Kwok Leung passed away when we conducted preliminary analyses and drafted this manuscript. We remember him as a great mentor and good friend. This research has benefited from financial support of the Outstanding Researcher Support System, Nottingham University Business School China, awarded to Jie Wang
Keywords
- cultural diversity
- meta-analysis
- surface level versus deep level
- team creativity
- team innovation