Abstract
Recent studies have emphasized group creativity within a socio-cultural context rather than at an individual level, but not many researchers reported strategies for developing group creativity. This paper aims to explore strategies to enhance group creativity based on the theoretical basis of thinking styles by Sternberg. The hypothesis was that groups with members of diverse thinking styles would show greater gains in creative performance. In this study, the participants (n=72) were divided into 24 three-person groups. Each group was given the task to create a game using Scratch programming language. Among the 24 groups, eleven groups (n=33) consisted of heterogeneous thinking styles, and the other thirteen groups (n=39) consisted solely of homogeneous thinking styles. All divided groups performed same creative task. The empirical results supported the hypothesis that group formation of diverse thinking style shows better group creativity.
Highlights
Creativity within groups plays an important role in modern society
The results indicate that diverse thinking style group members complement their shortcomings each other so that it helps finishing the task
We intended to investigate the prediction that diversity in thinking styles of group members is a prerequisite to obtaining benefits from different thinking styles when the group engages in a creative activity
Summary
Creativity within groups plays an important role in modern society. Paulus (2000) suggested that interaction in groups can be an important source of creative ideas and innovations. The products of creativity are main factors in the survival of an organization. In this highly specialized age, the collaboration of each group members is becoming important components of work. Creativity is the ability to produce work that is both novel (i.e., original, unexpected) and appropriate (i.e., useful, adaptive when it comes to task constraints) (Sternberg & Lubart, 1999). Creative innovations occur within a socio-cultural context rather than at an individual level. Watson and Crick’s discovery of the double helix can be a representative historical example. When meeting Crick, Watson (1968, p.31) notes that “Finding someone... When meeting Crick, Watson (1968, p.31) notes that “Finding someone... who knew that DNA was more important than proteins was real luck.” we need to empirically evaluate the creative potential (Paulus, 2000) of groups and identify the conditions under which high levels of creativity are realized by groups
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