More from these Authors

• Article | Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology | April 2012

  Beyond Individual Creativity: The Superadditive Benefits of Multicultural Experience for Collective Creativity in Culturally Diverse Teams

  Carmit Tadmor, Patricia Satterstrom, Sujin Jang and Jeffrey Polzer

  Although recent research has consistently demonstrated the benefits of multicultural experience for individual-level creativity, its potential advantages for collective creativity in culturally diverse teams have yet to be explored. We predicted that multicultural experience among members of a collective would enhance joint creativity in a superadditive fashion. Using a two-step methodology that included both individual and dyadic brainstorming sessions, we found that even after controlling for individual creativity, multicultural experience had a superadditive effect on dyadic creativity. Specifically, dyads performed best on a creative task in terms of fluency, flexibility, and novelty—three classic dimensions of creativity—when both dyad partners had high levels of multicultural experience. These results show that when it comes to multicultural experience, the creative whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Implications for diversity research are discussed.

  Keywords: Creativity; Groups and Teams;

  Citation:

  Tadmor, Carmit, Patricia Satterstrom, Sujin Jang, and Jeffrey Polzer. "Beyond Individual Creativity: The Superadditive Benefits of Multicultural Experience for Collective Creativity in Culturally Diverse Teams." Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 43, no. 3 (April 2012): 384–392.

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• Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2012

  Expertise Dissensus: A Multi-level Model of Teams' Differing Perceptions about Member Expertise

  Heidi K. Gardner and Lisa Kwan

  Why are some teams more effective than others at using their members' expertise to achieve short-term performance and longer term developmental benefits? We propose that a critical factor is expertise dissensus-members' differing perceptions of each other's level of expertise. We argue that performance hinges on how team members perceive all others' expertise-not just how they view the most expert team member-and that even latent disagreement about how much each person can contribute will undermine individuals' development and teams' capacity building. We develop and test a multi-level model of expertise dissensus, finding that it hampers team coordination, increases task and relationship conflict, and lowers all dimensions of team effectiveness: team performance, team viability, and individual member development.

  Keywords: Groups and Teams; Failure; Experience and Expertise; Research; Performance Effectiveness; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Perception; Personal Development and Career;

  Citation:

  Gardner, Heidi K., and Lisa Kwan. "Expertise Dissensus: A Multi-level Model of Teams' Differing Perceptions about Member Expertise." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 12–070, February 2012. (Revised March 2012.)

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• Conference Presentation | Jun 2011 - 2011

  Perceiving Collaborative Potential

  Patricia Satterstrom, Lisa Kwan, Wannawiruch Wiruchnipawan and Jeff Polzer

  Citation:

  Satterstrom, Patricia, Lisa Kwan, Wannawiruch Wiruchnipawan, and Jeff Polzer. "Perceiving Collaborative Potential." Paper presented at the International Association for Conflict Management Annual Conference, Istanbul, Turkey, June 2011.

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