How Information Diversity and Integration Relate to Team Creativity and Innovation: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Although having diverse knowledge and perspectives is considered crucial to team creativity and innovation, research examining diversity’s relationship to team creativity and innovation has been decidedly mixed. This meta-analysis examines diversity’s relationship to team creativity and innovation, and considers factors that may allow teams to more fully realize the potential benefits of diversity. Employing a knowledge integration perspective, we proposed that teams are likely to be more creative and innovative when team members offer a diverse set of informational resources and are structured in a way that motivates or enables them to integrate these resources. We tested our theoretical contentions with a random-effects meta-analysis of 156 independent samples. We found that diversity tends to have positive effects: teams with greater surface-level or deep-level diversity and those with more members tend to be more creative and innovative. We also identified important contingencies. For example, teams with greater racial/ethnic diversity or with more team members are more creative and innovative when they have experience working together (as opposed to when they are newly formed) or when they have a clear creativity goal (as opposed to when they do not). Finally, we found little difference in the relationships between various team factors such as surface-level diversity or size and team creativity or team innovation, supporting our combined use of these measures.