Past research demonstrates that the relationship between distinct subgroups within teams can be improved using interventions that emphasize commonalities, such as a superordinate team identity. By comparing the creative outcomes of 51 racio-ethnically diverse teams, comprised of both majority and minority racio-ethnic subgroups, this study shows when a common ingroup identity will lead to higher creativity. We hypothesize that there is a combined effect of racio-ethnic identity and superordinate team identity salience on the usefulness as well as the novelty of team’s ideas. Accordingly, we found that superordinate team identity salience had a positive effect on novelty, but only when differences between subgroups were also made salient. There was no joint influence on the usefulness of ideas. Furthermore, our results showed that the relationship between the simultaneous salience of the superordinate team and racio-ethnic identities on the novelty of ideas generated was mediated by team member’s perception of the team as unified and inclusive. Collectively, racio-ethnic subgroup and superordinate identity salience foster a feeling of a common “we,” which in turn support the generation of novel ideas. Limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.

中文翻译：

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多样性和团队创造力：探索潜在机制。

过去的研究表明，可以使用强调共同点的干预措施来改善团队内不同子群体之间的关系，例如上级团队身份。通过比较由多数族裔和少数族裔组成的 51 个种族多元化团队的创造性成果，本研究显示了共同的内群体身份何时会导致更高的创造力。我们假设种族身份和上级团队身份显着性对团队想法的有用性和新颖性有共同的影响。因此，我们发现上级团队身份显着性对新颖性有积极影响，但只有当亚组之间的差异也显着时。对想法的有用性没有共同影响。此外，我们的研究结果表明，上级团队的同时显着性和种族身份之间的关系在产生的想法的新颖性方面受到团队成员对团队统一和包容的看法的调节。总的来说，种族-民族亚群和上级身份显着性培养了一种共同的“我们”的感觉，这反过来又支持了新思想的产生。讨论了未来研究的局限性和建议。