Managing the Trade-Off between Delegation and Task Interdependence in Creative Teams: The Role of Personnel and Cultural Controls

Abstract

In this study we analyze the interactive effects of delegation of decision rights (task autonomy) and team task interdependence on creative team performance. Creative teams are characterized by a high requirement for both autonomy and task interdependence, suggesting that ideally creative teamwork should be designed in a way that both are maximized. However, we expect that giving team members higher autonomy will in fact undermine the positive effect of more task interdependence on team creativity and vice versa. Most importantly, while the trade-off between autonomy and team task interdependence is inherent in the nature of creative work, we argue that some creative teams are better able to deal with this trade-off than others, depending on the presence of selection, training and cultural control as mechanisms for supporting successful team self-control. Such clan control enables teams to efficiently self-manage and self-regulate team activities in order to reconcile high task interdependence and high task autonomy (team self-control). We test our hypotheses using survey data collected from 101 teams and 372 individuals in 53 marketing agencies, and find evidence that is consistent with our predictions.