Abstract
Previous research has revealed the significant impact of shared leadership on team creativity, yet the mechanism underlying this relationship has rarely been investigated. The current research examined how shared leadership influenced team creativity (novelty and usefulness) across 3 studies using both long-term project teams and temporal task teams in the laboratory. The results showed that shared leadership enhanced the novelty dimension of team creativity by improving constructive controversy. Furthermore, team goal orientation moderated this effect. The indirect effect of constructive controversy holds for teams with learning goal orientation but not for those with performance goal orientation. Such patterns were not found in the usefulness dimension of team creativity.
Highlights
In the process of globalization, work teams have come to be widely used in organizations to adapt to rapid market changes and foster innovation (Park et al, 2012)
The present study examined the mediating role of constructive controversy and the moderating role of team goal orientation on the relationship between shared leadership and team creativity
We proposed that shared leadership would influence team creativity through constructive controversy
Summary
In the process of globalization, work teams have come to be widely used in organizations to adapt to rapid market changes and foster innovation (Park et al, 2012). We explore the effects of shared leadership, team goal orientation, and constructive controversy on team creativity. Previous research showed that leadership is essential to team effectiveness and creativity (Cohen and Bailey, 1997). Recent years have witnessed the emergence of a broader view that sees leadership as an influencing process in organizations. According this view, there are two potential sources of leadership in an innovative team. Apart from the leadership functions performed by the formal leader in organizations, an increasing amount of attention is devoted to examining how informal leadership functions of average team members contribute to team effectiveness (Friedrich et al, 2009)
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