From Individual Creativity to Team Creativity: A Meta-Analytic Test of Task Moderators

A fundamental issue in understanding team creativity is the relationship between member creativity and team creativity. Research has advanced two perspectives on this issue: the additive model (teams are more creative when average member creativity is higher) and the disjunctive model (teams are more creative when their most creative member is more creative). Inconsistent empirical support for these two models raises the question of what moderates each model. We address this question by developing an analysis of task characteristics – task interdependence, creativity requirements, and idea implementation – as moderators. In a meta-analytic review of team creativity and team innovation research, we found support for the hypotheses that the additive model is more predictive in team tasks with high interdependence, with low creativity
requirements, and with ideation-only tasks, whereas the disjunctive model is more predictive for less interdependent tasks. The predictive power of the disjunctive model, however, did not differ as a function of creativity requirements or of idea implementation. In addition, we tested the moderating roles of team size and team longevity and found both the additive and disjunctive models are more effective in teams with higher longevity.