A Multilevel Model of Team Goal Orientation, Information Exchange, and Creativity

TLDR

The study examined how team goal orientation relates to team and individual creativity, and explored the bottom‑up link between individual and team creativity. Multisource data were collected from 485 members and their leaders within 100 R&D teams. Results showed that team learning and performance‑approach goals positively predicted team and individual creativity through information exchange, while performance‑avoidance goals had a negative effect; trust with the leader strengthened the positive link for learning goals but weakened it for performance‑approach goals, and higher average individual creativity boosted team creativity beyond information exchange via a supportive climate.

Abstract

Adopting a multilevel approach, we examined how team goal orientation may relate to team creativity and individual creativity. We also theorized and examined the bottom-up process linking individual creativity and team creativity. Multisource data were collected from 485 members and their leaders within 100 R&D teams. The results indicated that a team learning goal and team performance approach goal were positively related—whereas a team performance avoidance goal was negatively related—to both team creativity and individual creativity through team information exchange. Furthermore, a trust relationship with a team leader played a moderating role: when the trust was stronger, the indirect positive relationship with team creativity and individual creativity was stronger for the team learning goal but weaker for the team performance approach goal. We also found that average individual creativity within a team was positively related to team creativity (going above and beyond the effect of team information exchange) through a supportive climate for creativity.