Culture and creativity in multicultural teams

The Complementary Model of Culture and Creativity (CMCC) puts into perspective how a culturally diverse team can become more creative than a monocultural team. The CMCC characterizes three bidimensional psychological processes that explain the effects of culture on creativity: (a) stereotyping versu...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: LEUNG, Angela K. Y., KOH, Brandon, LEE, Sean T. H.
Format: text
Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3347
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.568
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Singapore Management University
Language: English
id sg-smu-ink.soss_research-4604
record_format dspace
spelling sg-smu-ink.soss_research-46042021-08-30T03:02:50Z Culture and creativity in multicultural teams LEUNG, Angela K. Y. KOH, Brandon LEE, Sean T. H. The Complementary Model of Culture and Creativity (CMCC) puts into perspective how a culturally diverse team can become more creative than a monocultural team. The CMCC characterizes three bidimensional psychological processes that explain the effects of culture on creativity: (a) stereotyping versus destabilizing cultural norms, (b) fixating on one cultural mindset versus alternating between cultural frames, and (c) distancing from versus integrating cultures. Extant research suggested that teams with similar goals and values draw performance benefits from their ability to cooperate. However, research has also revealed that working with culturally dissimilar team members could lower tendency toward groupthink and diversify knowledge, skill sets, and social networks, which can facilitate the team’s creativity. Therefore, a question of growing importance to both researchers and practitioners alike is how to harness cultural diversity within creative teams to promote their creative performance while minimizing conflict. We examine this important question with the perspective offered by the CMCC. The processes delineated in the CMCC explain that multicultural teams offer the opportunities to broaden and diversify team members’ cultural experiences by destabilizing cultural stereotypes, switching between cultural frames, and integrating differing cultural perspectives, thereby generating discernible creative gains. It is challenging to effectively manage and maintain workforce diversity, but it is highly rewarding if these challenges are turned into opportunities to build an inclusive and equitable multicultural labor force. The CMCC illuminates the key mechanisms through which multicultural teams can trigger the knowledge creation and diffusion processes to instigate higher creativity among team members coming from diverse cultural backgrounds. 2020-06-01T07:00:00Z text https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3347 info:doi/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.568 https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.568 Research Collection School of Social Sciences eng Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University Culture work teams models creativity Industrial and Organizational Psychology Multicultural Psychology
institution Singapore Management University
building SMU Libraries
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider SMU Libraries
collection InK@SMU
language English
topic Culture
work teams
models
creativity
Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Multicultural Psychology
spellingShingle Culture
work teams
models
creativity
Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Multicultural Psychology
LEUNG, Angela K. Y.
KOH, Brandon
LEE, Sean T. H.
Culture and creativity in multicultural teams
description The Complementary Model of Culture and Creativity (CMCC) puts into perspective how a culturally diverse team can become more creative than a monocultural team. The CMCC characterizes three bidimensional psychological processes that explain the effects of culture on creativity: (a) stereotyping versus destabilizing cultural norms, (b) fixating on one cultural mindset versus alternating between cultural frames, and (c) distancing from versus integrating cultures. Extant research suggested that teams with similar goals and values draw performance benefits from their ability to cooperate. However, research has also revealed that working with culturally dissimilar team members could lower tendency toward groupthink and diversify knowledge, skill sets, and social networks, which can facilitate the team’s creativity. Therefore, a question of growing importance to both researchers and practitioners alike is how to harness cultural diversity within creative teams to promote their creative performance while minimizing conflict. We examine this important question with the perspective offered by the CMCC. The processes delineated in the CMCC explain that multicultural teams offer the opportunities to broaden and diversify team members’ cultural experiences by destabilizing cultural stereotypes, switching between cultural frames, and integrating differing cultural perspectives, thereby generating discernible creative gains. It is challenging to effectively manage and maintain workforce diversity, but it is highly rewarding if these challenges are turned into opportunities to build an inclusive and equitable multicultural labor force. The CMCC illuminates the key mechanisms through which multicultural teams can trigger the knowledge creation and diffusion processes to instigate higher creativity among team members coming from diverse cultural backgrounds.
format text
author LEUNG, Angela K. Y.
KOH, Brandon
LEE, Sean T. H.
author_facet LEUNG, Angela K. Y.
KOH, Brandon
LEE, Sean T. H.
author_sort LEUNG, Angela K. Y.
title Culture and creativity in multicultural teams
title_short Culture and creativity in multicultural teams
title_full Culture and creativity in multicultural teams
title_fullStr Culture and creativity in multicultural teams
title_full_unstemmed Culture and creativity in multicultural teams
title_sort culture and creativity in multicultural teams
publisher Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University
publishDate 2020
url https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3347
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.568
_version_ 1770575790687125504