Informational Faultlines, Integrative Capability, and Team Creativity

Abstract

How informational faultlines influence team creativity is an important yet unresolved theoretical question. Based on the team faultlines theory and the input-mediator-output (IMO) team effectiveness framework, this article examines the role of team prosocial motivation—the shared belief of team members to benefit others through concerted efforts—as a moderator in the relationships among informational faultlines, external knowledge acquisition, internal knowledge integration and team creativity. Using a sample of 66 research and development (R&D) teams from China, we obtained the following results: (a) Team prosocial motivation positively moderated the relationship between informational faultlines and external knowledge acquisition, and the relationship between informational faultlines and internal knowledge integration. (b) External knowledge acquisition and internal knowledge integration, which constitute team integrative capability, were positively related to team creativity. The direct effect of external knowledge acquisition on team creativity can be mediated by internal knowledge integration. (c) External knowledge acquisition and internal knowledge integration both mediated the interactive effect of informational faultlines and team prosocial motivation on team creativity.