Cognitive Team Diversity and Individual Team Member Creativity: A Cross-Level Interaction

Abstract

We theorized and tested the conditions under which cognitive team diversity is positively related to individual team member creativity. Hierarchical linear modeling results using 316 employees on 68 teams from Chinese companies indicated that a team member's creative self-efficacy moderated the relationship between cognitive team diversity and individual creativity: this relationship was positive only when creative self-efficacy was high. Further, “transformational leadership” moderated the relationship in such a way that cognitive team diversity was positively related to individual creativity only when transformational leadership was high.